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toxic is required, and dust is required
Cox issues proclamation cutting off some water diversions to help the Great Salt Lake
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and climate change. Its decline presents an ecological and economic crisis for the state with diminished snowpack, toxic dust and impacts to public health and wildlife. State leaders have rushed to try to reverse the declines, spending millions on water...
November 18, 2022
New initiative aims to get people to 'fall in love' with the Great Salt Lake again
across the U.S. and Western Hemisphere. While state leaders work to find solutions to growing concerns regarding toxic dust and other issues with the lake, he is worried about what it means for the key habitat the lake provides for some 10 million birds...
November 18, 2022
Competing news outlets are working together to save the Great Salt Lake. Is it working?
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and hosted community conversations. You know all about the problems Utah faces as the Great Salt Lake flounders, leaving toxic dust under a thin layer of dried lakebed as the water retreats. Dangerous air quality. Collapse of industry. Suffering...
November 18, 2022
Students get expansive Great Salt Lake experience
about the Great Salt Lake and its impact on them and their communities. Junior Nayeli Lazareno said learning about the toxic dust from the drying lakebed was concerning. "It's scary, super scary. It's going to make our air pollution very bad," she said....
November 17, 2022
What role can history play in saving the Great Salt Lake, solving Utah's water woes?
and an extensive monitoring system," the Deseret News reported, as communities by the lake were exposed to similar toxic dust that the drying Great Salt Lake lakebed holds. The biggest difference is the number of people by the lakes — about 40,000 near...
November 16, 2022
Environmental group says changing Utah’s tax laws could put 20% more water in Great Salt Lake
impacts from climate change. It presents a significant public health, ecological and economic threat to the state with toxic dust, a reduced snowpack and impacts to wildlife and industries that rely on the lake. State leaders have rallied to try to...
November 16, 2022
Lots of options on the table for saving Great Salt Lake; but especially the simplest — use less water.
of no return to a healthy ecosystem. Utahns are becoming familiar with the long list of repercussions of a dying lake: toxic dust storms, imperiled bird populations, more than $1 billion in economic losses, a shrinking snowpack due to less “lake effect”...
November 8, 2022
Utahns will have to brace for 'painful steps' as Great Salt Lake shrinks
in its recorded history, having dropped this month to 4,188.9 feet. The impact of its decline includes reduced snowpack, toxic dust storms, harm to wildlife and human health and $1.3 billion in lost economic activity. "We are already seeing ecosystem...
November 6, 2022
Property tax bill could end a free ride for many water users in Utah's drought
SALT LAKE CITY — A major bill unveiled on Utah's Capitol Hill could dramatically change how water is paid for in the state. The bill was formally presented on Wednesday by Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, who co-chairs the Utah State Legislature's Interim...
October 22, 2022
Namesake
collapse before our eyes—as microbialites are beached, brine flies and shrimp die off, and birds migrate elsewhere. Toxic dust released from the dry lakebed endangers people, too. Meanwhile Bonnie studies the lake and tracks its decline.
October 17, 2022
‘Just add water and stir’ — Owens Lake shows Utahns that even when salty lakes hit their lowest point, they can recover
in it.” The utility has since been charged with rehabilitating the 110-square-mile dry lake to prevent it from generating toxic dust storms. Crews have largely relied on water to do it, in the form of shallow flooding in bermed ponds. Once they turned...
October 12, 2022
To balance its competing needs, is it time to follow Mono Lake's lead and mandate an elevation for the Great Salt Lake?
a need to send more water to the Great Salt Lake. Otherwise the millions of people living nearby face a future with more toxic dust pollution, dead birds, and, potentially, endangered species listings. And, in recent years, lawmakers have scrambled to...
October 12, 2022
The people living near Owens Lake endured decades of toxic dust. Here’s why they stayed.
Lone Pine, Calif. • The area around Owens Lake holds a certain kind of magnetism. There’s the spectacular Sierra Nevada to the west, crowned by Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the continental United States. There’s the charming town of Lone Pine,...
October 10, 2022
The saline lakes of the Great Basin and why they are in trouble
half its volume, and more than 800 square miles of lakebed are now exposed, vulnerable to wind-whipped storms that spread toxic dust along the Wasatch Front. “These lakes are relics of the past, and they hold a lot of answers to the way Mother Earth...
October 9, 2022
Dust hot spots: Where is Great Salt Lake's toxic dust most likely to originate?
food chain are other alarms on the horizon, says Perry, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Utah. Toxic dust from the drying lakebed ultimately became one of the first alarms that captivated researchers, though. The Great Salt Lake...
September 20, 2022
All of northern Utah at risk for toxic dust from shrinking Great Salt Lake, scientist tells lawmakers
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SALT LAKE CITY — All of northern Utah faces risk from dust storms laced with arsenic and other chemicals from a shrinking Great Salt Lake, a scientist warned a panel of lawmakers on Tuesday night. "The dust is dangerous regardless of what it’s made out...
September 20, 2022
Great Salt Lake a sovereign entity 'worthy of legal rights,' group says
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political leaders acknowledge the shrinking lake presents an environmental crisis for Utah with a dry lake bed creating toxic dust storms that can harm people's health, a reduced snowpack thatimpacts our water supply and significant impacts to wildlife....
September 13, 2022
New threat to Great Salt Lake? Mineral company wants to extend its canals.
have some experiences no one wants to have.” Dropping the elevation that low would expose more lakebed and kick up more toxic dust. Receding water also concentrates the lake’s salinity. Higher levels of salt threaten the life cycles of the brine shrimp,...
September 7, 2022
Utah youth hold “die-in” to mourn the decline of Great Salt Lake
the lake, “we see less water in the mountains, less water in our water system, less water for us to drink.” “And with toxic dust bowls that are starting to roll through and will continue to get worse and worse, we will see increased air pollution, we’ll...
September 4, 2022
New Jordan River 'blueprint' may have benefits for the Great Salt Lake
mining and smelting industries. These discharges also helped lead to the current programs with the Great Salt Lake's "toxic dust." Cline says increased "community value" in the river since the 1980s has made the river much more desirable. Still, the...
September 1, 2022
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