Can Great Salt Lake be saved?

An American Avocet at Great Salt Lake asks, why not?

Just today I was asked again if Great Salt Lake can be saved. The answer is yes. YES!! It can still be done.

The real question is whether we will choose to do it.

People love to talk about how complicated this problem is - I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the phrase “there’s no silver bullet to save Great Salt Lake!”

It’s a weak excuse. There is a silver bullet. It’s water. Put more water in the lake - right now - and it will be saved. Leaders must make real decisions about who can use water, how much, for what, at what cost. And because we have chosen to ignore it for so long, we must act fast, like it’s an emergency, which it is.

And let’s be clear, we’re not talking about asking people to suffer actual hardship to save Great Salt Lake. We are talking about retooling our water use habits in this desert we live in, and we are talking about money. Lots and lots of money to buy out existing water rights holders.

Let’s be double clear that the amount of money and action that is needed to save the lake is only a tiny fraction of what the disaster that is barreling down on us will cost, as the lake turns into a dustbowl and decades of toxic waste accumulated there goes airborne. Actual hardship will ensue. Industries will collapse. Soil, water, and human health in the region will decline. Property values will plummet. Ten million birds will be wiped from their place on this planet. Dust mitigation alone will cost billions of dollars. This scenario is not theoretical - it has played out and is playing out at other terminal basin lakes around the world. We can still choose to prevent it here.

Preventing these types of catastrophes is exactly why we have government. In this case, a single state government is in charge of the entire watershed. There are no international treaties, no downstream claims on the water. It is entirely reasonable to expect and demand the state of Utah to solve it. No excuses.
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