Two major issues in northern Utah, the shrinking of the Great Salt Lake and air quality, are more connected than they may seem. Losing the Great Salt Lake would not only impact tourism, wildlife and the natural beauty of our state; it would also drastically worsen the already bad air pollution in the area (which, as it is, causes thousands of unnecessary deaths every year in our state).
We can look to Owens Lake near Los Angeles to see how devastating the loss of a lake can be. Water that flowed into the lake was diverted toward Los Angeles, and in the 1920s the lake completely dried up. The dry lakebed became the largest single source of air pollution in the United States at the time, once all of the dust (and pollutants dumped into the lake) were exposed to the wind. The local government has had to invest billions to bring back the lake and reduce the air pollution.
Owens Lake was a fraction of the size of the Great Salt Lake. The Great Salt Lake has lost 11 feet of water in the past 10 years. If this trend continues, our state is poised to lose billions of dollars and our air quality will only get worse. We need to put in more effort to protect our lake and consequently our air.
Steven J. Marz, Salt Lake City
from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/3jZTOVO
November 07, 2020 at 07:00AM
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