Needs more Orcagraphic Lift
May 5, 2022 2:30 PM Subscribe
The Great Salt Lake is drastically receding, and is is expected to reach a new historic low this year.
A visualization of the decline of the Great Salt Lake since 1985 shows the extent of the problem. It is predicted that the lake will drop an additional two feet below its historic low this year. The previous record low was set in 2021. Is it too late to save the lake?
As part of the Western Megadrought, the decline of the lake, and exposure of the previous lake bed, is releasing significant additional dust, including toxic particles. It may also have a significant impact on migratory birds.
In other Megadrought news:
The situation at Lake Powell continues to worsen.
The US fire season is predicated to above average, and intense in the west.
Southern California has new water restrictions
(post title from the new Whale art installation at ninth and ninth in Salt Lake City, and which since it was installed seems to be providing us more snow to refresh the Great Salt Lake. All hail the whale, we must honor her!)
A visualization of the decline of the Great Salt Lake since 1985 shows the extent of the problem. It is predicted that the lake will drop an additional two feet below its historic low this year. The previous record low was set in 2021. Is it too late to save the lake?
As part of the Western Megadrought, the decline of the lake, and exposure of the previous lake bed, is releasing significant additional dust, including toxic particles. It may also have a significant impact on migratory birds.
In other Megadrought news:
The situation at Lake Powell continues to worsen.
The US fire season is predicated to above average, and intense in the west.
Southern California has new water restrictions
(post title from the new Whale art installation at ninth and ninth in Salt Lake City, and which since it was installed seems to be providing us more snow to refresh the Great Salt Lake. All hail the whale, we must honor her!)
Time to start building nuclear powered desalinization plants and flood the Salton Sea, Death Valley, Lake Bonneville and the Great Salt Lake. Build a dam in Montana and then recreate Glacial Lake Missoula.
posted by interogative mood at 2:51 PM on May 5, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by interogative mood at 2:51 PM on May 5, 2022 [3 favorites]
Eh, the GOP tells me it's all just a Chinese/Jewish-space-laser plot, and Utah is a proper god-fearing GOP state, so I'm sure there's nothing to worry about. Airborne dirt ain't nothing to worry about either, why back in my OldPa's day you had to wade through choking clouds of dust just to go to the outhouse, and he lived to be 62 before dying of a horrible lung illness so I don't see what all the fuss is about, don't you go trampling on my Rights with your Deep State goons!
posted by aramaic at 2:54 PM on May 5, 2022 [9 favorites]
posted by aramaic at 2:54 PM on May 5, 2022 [9 favorites]
I'm actually reading the links in reverse order and love the whale tangent and how it actually gives the post its title. Well played, inflatablekiwi!
posted by martin q blank at 2:58 PM on May 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by martin q blank at 2:58 PM on May 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
Lake Mead is at historic low water level, as well. I'm sure it's fine.
posted by theora55 at 3:04 PM on May 5, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by theora55 at 3:04 PM on May 5, 2022 [5 favorites]
flood the Salton Sea, Death Valley, Lake Bonneville and the Great Salt Lake.
if we completely flooded the Great Basin
I do appreciate the commitment y’all have to more lake effect snow for the Wasatch range.
GOP tells me it's all just a Chinese/Jewish-space-laser plot, and Utah is a proper god-fearing GOP state, so I'm sure there's nothing to worry about.
To be fair the State of Utah legislature are concerned about it and know it’s a major issue and has a massive impact to Utah’s economy. The Governor’s fix though….
posted by inflatablekiwi at 3:05 PM on May 5, 2022 [3 favorites]
if we completely flooded the Great Basin
I do appreciate the commitment y’all have to more lake effect snow for the Wasatch range.
GOP tells me it's all just a Chinese/Jewish-space-laser plot, and Utah is a proper god-fearing GOP state, so I'm sure there's nothing to worry about.
To be fair the State of Utah legislature are concerned about it and know it’s a major issue and has a massive impact to Utah’s economy. The Governor’s fix though….
posted by inflatablekiwi at 3:05 PM on May 5, 2022 [3 favorites]
"Build a dam in Montana and then recreate Glacial Lake Missoula."
As someone who lives directly in the path of the Missoula Floods: This can not possibly end poorly.
posted by kikaider01 at 3:22 PM on May 5, 2022 [3 favorites]
As someone who lives directly in the path of the Missoula Floods: This can not possibly end poorly.
posted by kikaider01 at 3:22 PM on May 5, 2022 [3 favorites]
This will make extraction of lithium from the lake easier. Silver linings!
posted by thatwhichfalls at 3:26 PM on May 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by thatwhichfalls at 3:26 PM on May 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, a regional water wholesaler, sells water to 26 member agencies which then serve some 19 million people in six counties.One day a week? Is this really the first time southern California has had outdoor watering restrictions?
In light of the foreseen shortage, Metropolitan, for the first time in its nearly 100-year history, is mandating that restrictions be put in place for parts of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Ventura counties that receive water through the State Water Project, which pipes water down from the Northern Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. They have two options: they can either implement volumetric limitations, or demand customers reduce their outdoor watering to one day a week by June 1.
We've had water restrictions here in Eastern Massachusetts every summer for as long as I've been alive. Sometimes you can only water with a handheld hose. Sometimes it's one day a week every other week determined by even-odd numbered street addresses. Sometimes you can't even water period for months on end and everyone's lawn dies and we live with it and side-eye all the neighbors who post a hand-painted "private well water" sign.
And I think one of the unsung examples of great public policy here is that despite the tremendous amount of development that's happened around Boston in the past forty years, the daily draw from the Quabbin Resevoir is still a whopping 40% lower than it was in 1980 because of conservation efforts and an emphasis on improving efficiency.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 3:30 PM on May 5, 2022 [14 favorites]
Not the first time there have been water restrictions, but the first time it has been to 1 day a week. The hard thing is many Southern Californians have been conserving a long time and don’t feel like there is much more than can do. Utahans maybe have more lawns they can rip out. As well as better visibility to the effects of water use on the lake.
posted by CostcoCultist at 3:48 PM on May 5, 2022
posted by CostcoCultist at 3:48 PM on May 5, 2022
The hard thing is many Southern Californians have been conserving a long time and don’t feel like there is much more than can do.
Almonds. Almonds and pistachios use about 30% the water of all the urban areas in the state.
I don't mind watering 1 day a week, and I'm happy to have cities mandate xeriscaping of homes and change all our yards to climate-appropriate plants.
But let's not fool ourselves into thinking decreasing home water use is the real way to address the issue. Like the BP-invented "carbon footprint" the problem in Utah -- and California -- is inefficiency and waste by industry and farms.
posted by tclark at 5:38 PM on May 5, 2022 [16 favorites]
Almonds. Almonds and pistachios use about 30% the water of all the urban areas in the state.
I don't mind watering 1 day a week, and I'm happy to have cities mandate xeriscaping of homes and change all our yards to climate-appropriate plants.
But let's not fool ourselves into thinking decreasing home water use is the real way to address the issue. Like the BP-invented "carbon footprint" the problem in Utah -- and California -- is inefficiency and waste by industry and farms.
posted by tclark at 5:38 PM on May 5, 2022 [16 favorites]
We don't have the political will to implement a grift free version of the marshall plan for water intensive agriculture in the west of this country. Something that gets them out of that doomed business and into something else.
So, best of luck I guess!
posted by Slackermagee at 5:51 PM on May 5, 2022
So, best of luck I guess!
posted by Slackermagee at 5:51 PM on May 5, 2022
I used to donate a lot of Lake images to Friends Of Great Salt Lake. Most of the lake, and land around the lake is privately owned. Gary Herbert, Utah's last governor, sold the top foot of the lake's water to a hedge fund guy, and allowed a mineral company to take down Clyman Bay. This endangered the island where the white pelicans breed. I have images in a film called Evaporating Shorelines.
Utah, when it wants to do the dirty to the environment, will tap a PHD out of Utah State, to say dumb stuff like, the lake is just going away, anyway. Then the local population says stuff like Salt Lake, and Utah Valleys are gonna be The Mormon Los Angeles. They are out of water, and often breathable air.
They finally noticed the Lithium from springs in Honeyville, that just flow over to the lake. There is a large area of hot spring material, on the northern Wasatch. No one can save the lake. People have made money making save the lake noise, for years, not gonna happen. They can breathe the Mercury dust, depleted Uranium dust, when those winds whip up from the west. Even though the lake is the most Mercury polluted water in the US, there is even a big business making "organic fertilizer," from the minerals extracted from the water. Up north across the Idaho line, water has been diverted over to alfalfa fields west of the Hansel Valley. They even dried up The Curlew National Grasslands, run those springs through The Stone Reservoir, and to alfalfa, instead of the lake. Oh yeah they test rockets at Corinne, so all that fuel residue is on the land just north of the lake. The lake doesn't exactly have water rights, though there have been attempts to establish an acceptible, minimum lake level.
I'll say this, when I was sixteen, I would drive out to the end of Syracuse Road, (which now continues to be The Antelope Causeway,) and then the lake was a huge double reflection of the night sky, one of the most amazing things I ever saw. That reflection has long been broken by criss crossing dikes, and the Railroad Causeway. Too bad, so sad. Utah has absolutely no plan to save the lake.
posted by Oyéah at 6:17 PM on May 5, 2022 [16 favorites]
Utah, when it wants to do the dirty to the environment, will tap a PHD out of Utah State, to say dumb stuff like, the lake is just going away, anyway. Then the local population says stuff like Salt Lake, and Utah Valleys are gonna be The Mormon Los Angeles. They are out of water, and often breathable air.
They finally noticed the Lithium from springs in Honeyville, that just flow over to the lake. There is a large area of hot spring material, on the northern Wasatch. No one can save the lake. People have made money making save the lake noise, for years, not gonna happen. They can breathe the Mercury dust, depleted Uranium dust, when those winds whip up from the west. Even though the lake is the most Mercury polluted water in the US, there is even a big business making "organic fertilizer," from the minerals extracted from the water. Up north across the Idaho line, water has been diverted over to alfalfa fields west of the Hansel Valley. They even dried up The Curlew National Grasslands, run those springs through The Stone Reservoir, and to alfalfa, instead of the lake. Oh yeah they test rockets at Corinne, so all that fuel residue is on the land just north of the lake. The lake doesn't exactly have water rights, though there have been attempts to establish an acceptible, minimum lake level.
I'll say this, when I was sixteen, I would drive out to the end of Syracuse Road, (which now continues to be The Antelope Causeway,) and then the lake was a huge double reflection of the night sky, one of the most amazing things I ever saw. That reflection has long been broken by criss crossing dikes, and the Railroad Causeway. Too bad, so sad. Utah has absolutely no plan to save the lake.
posted by Oyéah at 6:17 PM on May 5, 2022 [16 favorites]
When I lived in Utah in the late 90s/early 00s, I read about Spiral Jetty but never visited because it was underwater.
I wonder how far from shore it is now.
posted by Big Al 8000 at 10:19 PM on May 5, 2022
I wonder how far from shore it is now.
posted by Big Al 8000 at 10:19 PM on May 5, 2022
> I wonder how far from shore it is now.
Oh, a l-o-n-g ways. (And that was more than a year ago now.)
posted by flug at 11:57 PM on May 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
Oh, a l-o-n-g ways. (And that was more than a year ago now.)
posted by flug at 11:57 PM on May 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
One thing that drives me crazy about the perception of this problem:
"The Great Salt Lake is in trouble."
No. The Great Salt Lake is the terminal lake of the entire Great Basin. The Great Basin is 200 THOUSAND square miles.
And the entire GREAT BASIN is in trouble. The Great Salt Lake is just the most obvious symptom.
Similarly, constant breathless reporting, "The Colorado River is in trouble."
Yes. The Colorado River is in trouble. Deep trouble.
But not JUST the Colorado River - the entire goddamn COLORADO RIVER BASIN is in deep, deep trouble.
That is 246 THOUSAND square miles of the U.S.
Those two drainage basins together equal more than 50% OF THE ENTIRE MOUNTAIN WEST.
And of course the remaining 47% of the Mountain West isn't doing any better.
Not to even mention the Pacific West - giant swaths of which is in similar straits of trouble - and which slurps up giant gulps of water from the Colorado River basin just to get by, even in the best of times.
This is not a small area, or one lake, or one river.
It's like half the the geographical area of the United States.
posted by flug at 12:12 AM on May 6, 2022 [14 favorites]
"The Great Salt Lake is in trouble."
No. The Great Salt Lake is the terminal lake of the entire Great Basin. The Great Basin is 200 THOUSAND square miles.
And the entire GREAT BASIN is in trouble. The Great Salt Lake is just the most obvious symptom.
Similarly, constant breathless reporting, "The Colorado River is in trouble."
Yes. The Colorado River is in trouble. Deep trouble.
But not JUST the Colorado River - the entire goddamn COLORADO RIVER BASIN is in deep, deep trouble.
That is 246 THOUSAND square miles of the U.S.
Those two drainage basins together equal more than 50% OF THE ENTIRE MOUNTAIN WEST.
And of course the remaining 47% of the Mountain West isn't doing any better.
Not to even mention the Pacific West - giant swaths of which is in similar straits of trouble - and which slurps up giant gulps of water from the Colorado River basin just to get by, even in the best of times.
This is not a small area, or one lake, or one river.
It's like half the the geographical area of the United States.
posted by flug at 12:12 AM on May 6, 2022 [14 favorites]
The book "Cadillac Desert" by Reisner is absolute must reading for getting a handle on how unsustainable the political project of invad----er um... settling and populating and farming the West is.
We should mourn the lost lakes and rivers and species and habitats and we should retreat to places where continued human existence does the least harm to the lifesupport systems that we and all other life rely on.
Dense already built cities near large deep bodies of water more than 80m above sea-level in places without large seismic and wildfire risks that arent polluted with heavy metals and radioactive waste that can feed themselves from the local region and can... oh, nevermind...
posted by anecdotal_grand_theory at 1:16 AM on May 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
We should mourn the lost lakes and rivers and species and habitats and we should retreat to places where continued human existence does the least harm to the lifesupport systems that we and all other life rely on.
Dense already built cities near large deep bodies of water more than 80m above sea-level in places without large seismic and wildfire risks that arent polluted with heavy metals and radioactive waste that can feed themselves from the local region and can... oh, nevermind...
posted by anecdotal_grand_theory at 1:16 AM on May 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
Almonds. Almonds and pistachios use about 30% the water of all the urban areas in the state.
But if you look at that chart, almonds are an export crop for California, whereas water used for lawns are not. Fine with me if you want to move agriculture out of California back east to places that make more sense, but the state and the US would be losing a lot of money.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:41 AM on May 6, 2022
But if you look at that chart, almonds are an export crop for California, whereas water used for lawns are not. Fine with me if you want to move agriculture out of California back east to places that make more sense, but the state and the US would be losing a lot of money.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:41 AM on May 6, 2022
Dense already built cities near large deep bodies of water more than 80m above sea-level in places without large seismic and wildfire risks that arent polluted with heavy metals and radioactive waste that can feed themselves from the local region and can... oh, nevermind...
as my hub & I approach "retirement age" we talk more about the possibility of leaving the Bay Area, of leaving California. for so.many.reasons.
but, like, where do we go???? we have to consider climate crisis, politics, finances, culture. it's difficult to think of a safe place to go, where we can thrive, and hopefully do the least harm :(
posted by supermedusa at 9:10 AM on May 6, 2022
as my hub & I approach "retirement age" we talk more about the possibility of leaving the Bay Area, of leaving California. for so.many.reasons.
but, like, where do we go???? we have to consider climate crisis, politics, finances, culture. it's difficult to think of a safe place to go, where we can thrive, and hopefully do the least harm :(
posted by supermedusa at 9:10 AM on May 6, 2022
This what I think about when the Great Salt Lake comes up.
We visited in 1964, when I was ten, and went swimming. One of the great family memories, floating high in that salty water; then afterwards in the station wagon, drying off in the sunlight, salt crystals appearing on our exposed skin.
Years later I saw this weird old horror film, Carnival of Souls (which is available at the Internet Archive). In fact, they put it on at a video store, and that version had an intro by director Herk Harvey where he described driving past the Great Salt Lake (I-80 skirts its southern edge) and noticing this odd, abandoned place: Saltair. It's had three incarnations, the first two burned down, and the most recent doesn't really count; but he made his film in part in the second iteration, check it out. In the old days, trains connected it to Salt Lake City, and they had a double roller coaster 150 feet high which blew down in a storm in 1957.
posted by Rash at 9:47 AM on May 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
We visited in 1964, when I was ten, and went swimming. One of the great family memories, floating high in that salty water; then afterwards in the station wagon, drying off in the sunlight, salt crystals appearing on our exposed skin.
Years later I saw this weird old horror film, Carnival of Souls (which is available at the Internet Archive). In fact, they put it on at a video store, and that version had an intro by director Herk Harvey where he described driving past the Great Salt Lake (I-80 skirts its southern edge) and noticing this odd, abandoned place: Saltair. It's had three incarnations, the first two burned down, and the most recent doesn't really count; but he made his film in part in the second iteration, check it out. In the old days, trains connected it to Salt Lake City, and they had a double roller coaster 150 feet high which blew down in a storm in 1957.
posted by Rash at 9:47 AM on May 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
Dense already built cities near large deep bodies of water more than 80m above sea-level in places without large seismic and wildfire risks that arent polluted with heavy metals and radioactive waste that can feed themselves from the local region and can... oh, nevermind...
You mean like Chicago, Toronto, Buffalo, Cleveland, Rochester, Montreal, and Detroit?
posted by leotrotsky at 11:15 AM on May 6, 2022 [5 favorites]
You mean like Chicago, Toronto, Buffalo, Cleveland, Rochester, Montreal, and Detroit?
posted by leotrotsky at 11:15 AM on May 6, 2022 [5 favorites]
No. The Great Salt Lake is the terminal lake of the entire Great Basin. The Great Basin is 200 THOUSAND square miles.
According to Wiki here, The Great Salt Lake Basin is only 20,000 sq mi. The Great Basin consists of numerous watersheds with their own terminals, such as Pyramid Lake (terminus for Lake Tahoe/Truckee River), Death Valley, Salton Sea, Lake Abert, etc.
But yes, the Great Basin--and the desert region more generally--are badly abused.
posted by polecat at 11:44 AM on May 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
According to Wiki here, The Great Salt Lake Basin is only 20,000 sq mi. The Great Basin consists of numerous watersheds with their own terminals, such as Pyramid Lake (terminus for Lake Tahoe/Truckee River), Death Valley, Salton Sea, Lake Abert, etc.
But yes, the Great Basin--and the desert region more generally--are badly abused.
posted by polecat at 11:44 AM on May 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
The Bear River, The Malad River, The Creek from the springs of the Curlew National Grasslands, water from Locomotive Springs, drainage from The Promontory Range, The Lakeside Mountains, The Oqirrh Mountains, The Jordan River, The Deep Creek Mountains, The entire Wasatch Range, Utah Lake, and more, feed Great Salt Lake. It is greed, avarice, lack of foresight, and compassion for the birds of the flyway, that has ruined Great Salt Lake. The lack of vision is astonishing, and the lack of stewardship.
posted by Oyéah at 4:19 PM on May 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Oyéah at 4:19 PM on May 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
I wonder if we completely flooded the Great Basin from the oceans, could we offset sea levels rising?
From your lips to the Utah legislature’s ears….
“A legislative commission is floating the idea of a pipeline to bring water from the Pacific Ocean into the Great Salt Lake.
"There’s a lot of water in the ocean and we have very little in the Great Salt Lake," said Sen. David Hinkins, R-Orangeville, who co-chairs the Legislative Water Development Commission.
At a meeting Tuesday, the commission authorized a study of the idea — along with a number of other water measures — while acknowledging it does seem like an unusual idea.
When FOX 13 News asked commission co-chair Rep. Joel Ferry if they were actually serious about the idea, he replied: "Oh no, we’re dead serious about this. I mean, Ben, desperate times call for desperate measures and all options are on the table."
The study would look at the cost to actually create a pipeline from the Pacific Ocean, across California and the Sierra-Nevada mountains, across the deserts of Nevada and ultimately into the Great Salt Lake in Utah.”
posted by inflatablekiwi at 1:14 PM on May 18, 2022
From your lips to the Utah legislature’s ears….
“A legislative commission is floating the idea of a pipeline to bring water from the Pacific Ocean into the Great Salt Lake.
"There’s a lot of water in the ocean and we have very little in the Great Salt Lake," said Sen. David Hinkins, R-Orangeville, who co-chairs the Legislative Water Development Commission.
At a meeting Tuesday, the commission authorized a study of the idea — along with a number of other water measures — while acknowledging it does seem like an unusual idea.
When FOX 13 News asked commission co-chair Rep. Joel Ferry if they were actually serious about the idea, he replied: "Oh no, we’re dead serious about this. I mean, Ben, desperate times call for desperate measures and all options are on the table."
The study would look at the cost to actually create a pipeline from the Pacific Ocean, across California and the Sierra-Nevada mountains, across the deserts of Nevada and ultimately into the Great Salt Lake in Utah.”
posted by inflatablekiwi at 1:14 PM on May 18, 2022
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posted by nickggully at 2:35 PM on May 5, 2022 [1 favorite]