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Utah legislature to re-examine mineral extraction on Great Salt Lake

water diversion, drought and a changing climate. It has alarmed state leaders and the public. A drying lake can lead to toxic dust being blown into populated areas (arsenic is among the naturallyoccurring minerals in the lake bed); reduced snowpack and...
August 23, 2023

Environmentalists say inland port site threatens Great Salt Lake

Photo by: Mike Rank, FOX 13 News
conservation bills and allocating roughly $1 billion to help. The shrinking lake presents an ecological catastrophe with toxic dust storms, reduced snowpack and impacts to public health, wildlife and the economy. At the same time, the inland port has...
August 17, 2023

New Great Salt Lake commissioner warns of 'tough choices' ahead to save the lake

in the rivers that feed into it. A shrinking Great Salt Lake presents an ecological catastrophe for northern Utah with toxic dust storms (arsenic is naturally occurring in the lake bed); reduced snowpack; and impacts to public health, wildlife and the...
August 17, 2023

Compass Minerals makes big claims about Great Salt Lake lithium but lacks state approvals

The already beleaguered lake likely can’t endure the amount of extraction the company wants, expert says, despite claims the process will be “sustainable.” Compass Minerals has made several splashy announcements in the last year about its lithium...
August 17, 2023

How can farmers help the Great Salt Lake? This one may have an answer

Brad Blanch looks over a dam on the Weber River in Weber County on Wednesday, July 26, 2023. Blanch is a West Weber resident who wants to lease several hundred acre-feet of water to benefit the Great Salt Lake. Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
Great Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement Trust helps people like this Weber County farmer help the lake President Joe Biden made an historic announcement Tuesday designating a new national monument in Arizona that in part is promoted as a way to help save...
August 10, 2023

Environmentalists seek to elevate the Great Salt Lake in local policy decisions

between encroaching development and the Great Salt Lake. Alarmed by the harms of a shrinking Great Salt Lake (including toxic dust storms, reduced snowpack, environmental impacts to public health and wildlife) the Utah State Legislature has spent...
August 10, 2023

Great Salt Lake trust offers millions for wetland protection

increased water diversions. A shrinking lake has alarmed state leaders who worry about reduced snowpack and water supply, toxic dust storms, harms to wildlife and public health and billions in negative impact to Utah's economy. To help refill the lake,...
July 21, 2023

'People's Great Salt Lake Summit' seeks to push elected leaders to do more

as a result of years of drought, water diversion and a changing climate. The threats from a shrinking lake are real with toxic dust storms, disappearing and dying wildlife and impacts to Utah's economy. The situation surrounding the lake has alarmed the...
July 19, 2023

The new Great Salt Lake Commissioner is ready to help save the lake

Brian Steed, right, speaks with FOX 13 News reporter Ben Winslow in June 2023. Steed is the Great Salt Lake Commissioner, a powerful new position in Utah government. He will come up with plans to reverse the lake's historic declines and make it thrive. The position even gives him the ability to override other state agencies' decisions if it means protecting the lake.
alarming the public and political leaders. A shrinking lake impacts public health, the economy and Utah's ecology with toxic dust that blows into northern Utah communities, reduced snowpack in the mountains and reduced wetland habitat. Lawmakers reacted...
July 5, 2023

Does Utah need (or want) a sixth national park?

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Snow coats Stansbury Island on the Great Salt Lake in February. A survey found 67% of Utahns support creating a Great Salt Lake national park, though support from lawmakers is seen as a major hurdle.
row. Its ecosystem, which supports millions of migrating birds, was nearly wiped out. Its desiccated lakebed has dried to toxic dust which threatens the health of millions of Wasatch Front residents. Although a record-breaking snowpack has raised the...
June 15, 2023

Great Salt Lake boaters return as water rises more than five feet

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Cranes lowering boats into the water at Great Salt Lake Marina State Park, on Tuesday, June 6, 2023.
the lake isn’t in the clear. It needs to rise another five feet or so to reach a sustainable elevation and stop blowing toxic dust. At least four of the boats stacked in the marina’s parking lot are too big to launch at the lake’s current elevation. And...
June 8, 2023

Boats put back in Great Salt Lake marina as water levels rise

A giant crane lifted larger boats back into their slips at the Great Salt Lake marina Tuesday, a fantastic sign that water levels continue to look promising. (Photo courtesy FOX 13 News).
of water diversion, drought and a changing climate. The harms are significant, with harms to wildlife, public health, toxic dust storms and impacts to Utah's economy. Saving the lake has become a top priority of the public and policy makers, who passed...
June 7, 2023

Utah Senate committee confirms Great Salt Lake commissioner

and water; harms to wildlife from reduced marshlands surrounding the lake; impacts to public health in the form of toxic dust storms from naturally-occurring arsenic in the now-exposed lake bed; and billions of dollars in lost economic impact generated...
June 6, 2023

Bills on landscaping, crops and dedicating water to Great Salt Lake to be resurrected

alike. With the lake's decline over the years (as a result of diversion, drought and changing climate), there have been toxic dust storms and harms to public health, wildlife and Utah's economy. The legislature has spent roughly $1 billion over the past...
June 1, 2023

Great Salt Lake commissioner explains why Utahns should avoid 'Great Salt Lake fatigue'

Executive director of the Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water and Air at Utah State University appointed Great Salt Lake commissioner.
heartened by the year we have had, we still have great cause for concern,” said Steed. Challenges include mitigating toxic dust blowing off the lake and into Utah communities and making sure that water saved through conservation from all sides,...
May 31, 2023

New Great Salt Lake commissioner says he hopes Utah avoids 'Great Salt Lake fatigue'

The sun sets on the Spiral Jetty on the Great Salt Lake on March 16. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox nominated Brian Steed to serve as Utah's first-ever Great Salt Lake commissioner last week. The sun sets on the Spiral Jetty on the Great Salt Lake on March 16. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox nominated Brian Steed to serve as Utah's first-ever Great Salt Lake commissioner last week. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)
between 67% and 73% of the lake's water is lost to "natural and human consumptive use." In addition, some of the lake's toxic dust is stillblowing into Utah communities during storm events even after all the water the lake has received this spring. "My...
May 25, 2023

SLC looks to preserve a chunk of Great Salt Lake land as development encroaches

future generations." The wetlands along the south shore are also significant, Seed said, in preventing a "hot spot" for toxic dust storms that come off the exposed lake bed. She pointed to a map that showed the area next to a dust zone that has already...
May 23, 2023

Great Salt Lake is still blowing dangerous dust

(MesoWest/University of Utah Department of Atmospheric Sciences) A webcam shows a time-lapse of a dust storm passing through the Salt Lake Valley Wednesday, May 17, 2023.
The Wasatch Front will continue to get pummeled until the lake reaches a sustainable level. After historic snowfall over the winter, Utahns are breathing a sigh of relief about the Great Salt Lake. But they’d better not breathe too deeply — it still is...
May 19, 2023

'A statewide task': Utah's water future will require collaboration, House speaker says

The water level is rising in the Great Salt Lake due to snowmelt as photographed on May 3. The lake has now risen almost 5 feet over the past several months. (Photo: Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)
that emerged as it reached record-low levels last year. This has also helped cover some of the lakebeds that had brought toxic dust into communities during strong storms last year, another major concern with the drying lake, Wilson said. But he...
May 18, 2023

Lawmakers look to import some Israeli water policies to Utah

part of Utah's ecosystem, dropped to a historic low last year and presents an existential threat to the state with toxic dust storms, reduced snowpack and harms to public health and wildlife. Not all of Israel's methods would work in Utah, the...
May 17, 2023

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