Great Salt Lake Collaborative

Search

Here are a few examples of how you can use the search feature:

Entering this and that into the search form will return results containing both "this" and "that".

Entering this not that into the search form will return results containing "this" and not "that".

Entering this or that into the search form will return results containing either "this" or "that".

Search results can also be filtered using a variety of criteria. Select one or more filters below to get started.

toxic is required, and dust is required

House Speaker Brad Wilson: ‘We are just getting started’ saving the Great Salt Lake

Record low water levels are seen in the Great Salt Lake by the Antelope Island marina on Friday, July 22, 2022. State leaders are working on solutions to help restore the lake. Photo: Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
has exposed a thousand square miles of lake bed as it’s dwindling, dropping to its historic low in July. That leads to toxic dust whipped up by winds, exposing Wasatch Front residents to harmful pollution. Its indelible connection to mountain snowpack...
August 2, 2022

Saving the Great Salt Lake could cost billions, House Speaker says

got thousands of square miles of exposed lake bed that are creating real risk for the residents of Utah in terms of toxic dust. The size of the lake is shortening our ski season and making our mountains have less snow. It’s a big concern. We’ve been in...
August 2, 2022

Lawn gone: ‘Localscaping’ may save water, but can it rescue the Great Salt Lake?

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Tootie Neumann, left, and her daughter-in-law Kathy Neumann examine water-wise plants at the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy Garden Park while gathering ideas about how to flip the strip at Tootie's house, Thursday, July 14, 2022.
the ticking time bomb that is the Great Salt Lake. If it continues to shrivel, the drying lakebed will likely turn into a toxic dust bowl. And if that happens, will people keep building houses here? “I totally agree; maybe I’ll move,” Forsyth said. But...
July 26, 2022

GSL Collaborative puts Gov. Spencer Cox on the record: Utah got 'lacksidasical' about water, but he's still optimistic

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Gov. Spencer Cox sits down for an interview at the governor’s mansion to talk about the ongoing drought and the Great Salt Lake on Tuesday, July 19, 2022.
growing population, the current “megadrought” gripping the West, and the Great Salt Lake on the verge of turning into a toxic dust bowl, the governor said it’s time for a “paradigm shift” in mindset for both residents and lawmakers. “Getting 3 million...
July 25, 2022

Utah's governor says more must be done to save the Great Salt Lake

crisis with diminished snowpack (which feeds the water supply), impacts to wildlife and increased potential for toxic dust storms to hit heavily populated areas. The lake is shrinking because of many factors including the ongoing drought and climate...
July 20, 2022

See an up-close view of Great Salt Lake’s shrinking shoreline — from Spiral Jetty to the state park marina

(Rachel Rydalch | The Salt Lake Tribune) Brian Footen kayaks along the shoreline of the Great Salt Lake while digital mapping on Friday, March 25, 2022. He is planning to paddle the entire lake in June.
Kayakers capture water levels so low in early June that two bays were impossible to navigate as the lake continues to shrivel. People from around the world can now get an up-close view of the Great Salt Lake’s eastern edge. Brian Footen and Rob...
July 19, 2022

'Art is a good teacher': New public exhibit draws attention to the drying Great Salt Lake

A painting from the Celebration of the Hand: Save Our Great Salt Lake on 300 South in Salt Lake City Tuesday afternoon. It is one of over a dozen that highlight the issues with the drying Great Salt Lake, which reached a record low this week. (Photo: Carter Williams, KSL.com)
as well as projects that have diverted water from its tributaries. Its decline is alarming because more and more toxic dust — containing arsenic, cadmium, copper, mercury and selenium — normally contained underneath the lake is becoming exposed every...
July 6, 2022

Spiral Jetty: A barometer for the Great Salt Lake, or a work of art unto itself?

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) People explore the Spiral Jetty, just south of the Rozel Point peninsula on the northeastern shore, March 25, 2022.
about — the possibility that a dried lake bed would expose chemicals that could hasten snowmelt and be kicked up into toxic dust that would poison the air — was recently given national exposure by an article in The New York Times. As a symbol of the...
June 26, 2022

University of Utah atmospheric scientist Dr. Kevin Perry on Great Salt Lake Dust risks

A dust storm envelops Salt Lake City on Nov. 28, 2021 (Roger McDonough | KCPW)
possible, something Perry says state lawmakers are now taking seriously. But, even as the potential health impacts from toxic dust raise alarms, another urgent tipping point is approaching for the Great Salt Lake, and fast. “As the lake dries up, the...
June 22, 2022

Toxic dust warnings might be our future as the Great Salt Lake shrivels up

Low water levels are visible from the air as Utah Lawmakers take an aerial tour of the Great Salt Lake by Blackhawk helicopters from the Utah National Guard. They left from the Capitol in Salt Lake City Utah on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. Scott G Winterton / Deseret News, Pool
Quality said in a statement they analyze their existing air monitor filters to determine if they are picking up any toxic dust. In a statement to KUER, McPherson said they haven’t yet seen this in Utah. “If we did find toxic dust, we would work with our...
June 20, 2022

When Will We Know if it's the Toxic Dust?

Which dust is in the air this spring? Is it the toxic dust from the Great Salt Lake yet? How will we know? Ali asks Logan Mitchell, a climate scientist who is very good at explaining things. Listen to the 14 minute episode here.
June 9, 2022

Utah lawmakers consider a pipeline from the Pacific Ocean to the Great Salt Lake

diversion, development, drought and climate change. A dried-up lake presents a massive environmental crisis for Utah with toxic dust storms (there is arsenic in the lake bed), a lack ofsnowpack and billions of dollars in lost economic impact to the...
May 17, 2022

How much air pollution is already happening?

Question by Barbara Larson, Washington, Utah Increased air pollution as the lake bed dries is a top concern among people who have responded to the Great Salt Lake Collaborative’s audience survey. And it’s a subject of ongoing study by the University of...
April 28, 2022

Utah political leaders pressured to move quickly to save Great Salt Lake

a looming environmental and economic catastrophe. There's reduced economic benefit from the lake itself, the threat of toxic dust storms in populated areas of the state, a reduced snowpack that impacts the area's climate and causes harm to the lucrative...
April 28, 2022

A century of human activity is coming back as toxic dust as the Great Salt Lake shrinks

Winds whip toxic dust from the exposed lakebed left behind by the receding Great Salt Lake. Molly Blakowski / Utah State University
as it's moving through communities. It can change composition before it's deposited in the mountains. PM: Why is more toxic dust being released now? MB: The longer that the lakebed is exposed, the more time the protective crust has to weather down and...
April 27, 2022

Can this tweak to Utah vehicle law help reduce toxic Great Salt Lake dust?

An undated photo of dust picked up by the Great Salt Lake by a vehicle illegally driving on the dried lakebed. A new bill that goes into effect May 4 clarifies that all motor vehicles are banned from dried lakebeds and navigable rivers in the state. (Courtesy of Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands)
SALT LAKE CITY — Motorized vehicles are banned from traveling on exposed lakebeds and navigable rivers in Utah, but a problem emerged in recent years with the way it's written in state law. It wasn't completely clear to anyone what types of vehicles...
April 21, 2022

How the Great Salt Lake lakebed could contribute to pollution, other issues

Low water levels are pictured in the Great Salt Lake near Tooele County on Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2022. (Kristin Murphy/Deseret News)
LOGAN, Utah — Two Ph.D. students from Utah State University are trying to measure the dust blowing off the Great Salt Lake and learn how it contributes to pollution and air quality along the Wasatch Front. Pollution in the drying Great Salt Lake...
April 18, 2022

Great Salt Lake sinking levels could impact bird migration

Birds use the Farmington Bay Area as one of several migratory areas for birds at the Great Salt Lake on Feb. 2, 2022. (Carter Williams/KSL)
Salt Lake While it all sounds like an apocalypse waiting to happen, especially when you factor in the possibility of toxic dust and worsening air quality, Luft is really encouraged by the steps lawmakers took during the legislative session aimed at...
April 13, 2022

‘Embrace the salt’ — A kayaker’s quest to share up-close views of an ‘epic’ but shriveling Great Salt Lake

Brian Footen paddles his kayak along the Great Salt Lake near the Spiral Jetty, just south of the Rozel Point peninsula on the northeastern shore, March 25, 2022. | Leah Hogsten, The Salt Lake Tribune
For Brian Footen, it will be the biggest and most challenging destination in a project to create Google Street View-style maps of drought-stricken waters and shores across the West. Spiral Jetty • Brian Footen waded out from the soupy red water of the...
April 10, 2022

Is it too late to save the diminishing Great Salt Lake?

The Great Salt Lake as seen on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. Advocates, researchers and others are concerned about the future of the lake. Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Advocates, researchers and others intimately acquainted with the Great Salt Lake have watched with dread over the last two decades as it has steadily dwindled to a trickle of its former self. Its ailing condition has been as glaring as its receding...
March 6, 2022

Results 141 - 160 of 161
 

GSLC logo white

 

Stay up to date with our newsletter

Subscribe

© 2025 Great Salt Lake Collaborative
A Solutions Journalism Project
Stories copyright their respective publishers, used by permission.

 Facebook   Instagram

 

Site by Third Sun