The Great Salt Lake Strike Team released their 2024 report this week, featuring data on Great Salt Lake just in time for the 2025 Utah legislative. The team brings together academic and state researchers to report on data from Great Salt Lake that can be utilized by the Utah state legislature in policy making.
The team’s third-annual data and insights report, released this week, highlights the need for long-term intentional management.
Managing Director of the Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water and Air, Anna McIntire shared that while the team was originally created with the intention to convene for a single year, a need for ongoing monitoring of Great Salt Lake became apparent.
“This isn't a strike team solution. It's going to be a multi decadal long term solution that's going to bring the lake back to healthy levels for in perpetuity. And I think that was one of those early findings that made us realize and kind of reframe our thinking about what type of research and support was needed,” explained McIntire. “So we are working on changing Utah lifestyle changes that are sustainable, that we can handle and that are going to be over the long term so that we are not doing a quick fix and then seeing the lake levels go back again.”
The year 2024 further emphasized the importance of long term solutions.
Management of the north and south arms of Great Salt Lake diverged in 2022 due to ecological disparities largely caused by salinity differences, with a heavy focus on protecting and increasing flow to the south arm. According to the report, over this last year, water level increases to the north arm were observed, as the barrier in the railroad causeway between the north and south arms eroded, however there were no overall increases to water elevation in the south arm.
There have, however, been changes to policy to limit water diversion for mineral extraction.
“The state has set a floor for this is the lowest The lake is ever going to get, and that's 4190 and that means that there are lots of policy triggers now that will come into effect if the lake ever gets that low again,” McIntire said.
The strike team also placed emphasis on tracking dust blowing off the dry lake beds. Three million people live around the eastern shores of Great Salt Lake, in an area of potential impact from dust.
“Almost all of the dust monitoring stations are towards the south end of the lake. But the wind patterns that he's expecting to cause dust events track north, north easterly.”
The Great Salt Lake watershed is heavily dependent on streamflow and groundwater from the mountains of northern Utah, making the watershed incredibly susceptible to yearly changes in precipitation and temperature. While mean annual precipitation has not changed, air temperature has increased by two degrees since 1983 contributing to decreases in groundwater storage.
“The cost of ignoring the problem is much bigger than the cost of addressing the problem right now and from a long term perspective,” said McIntire.
