The South Arm of the Great Salt Lake has become a welcome sight this spring, with delighted California gulls enjoying an easy lunch with their mouths open running through clouds of swarming brine flies. While this small moment of ecological normalcy was encouraging to see, the Great Salt Lake is still struggling to survive. With spring runoff in the Great Salt Lake Basin concluding, less water reached the Lake than many predicted and both arms of the Great Salt Lake remain below the minimum healthy elevation of 4,198 feet. Lake levels will now decline as hot summer days evaporate water, eroding much of the gains made by this past winter’s slightly above average snowpack.
Many news stories reported water levels for the South Arm of the Lake and failed to note the water levels of the lower, North Arm. The South Arm is – quite literally – just a bit more than half the story. The other half of the Great Salt Lake – the North Arm – remains at a dangerously low level. The North Arm makes up between ~35-40% of the total surface area of the Lake, depending on the water level. Ignoring the plight of the North Arm is a possible signal of intent to let it dry up, given that Utah lacks a plan to deliver the 800,000 acre-feet of additional water (in addition to annual runoff) the Lake needs each year to restore its water levels to a healthy range. It is disappointing to see so many media outlets not fact-checking or contemplating the fate of the entire Great Salt Lake.
The Great Salt Lake is bifurcated by a 13-mile causeway that splits the Lake into two artificially-segregated halves. There is only one breach in the causeway where water can flow into the North Arm, and it is carefully controlled by the state, meaning that Utah politicians decide the elevation of the North Arm. Headlines about South Arm elevation increases which fail to consider the rest of the Lake obfuscate the state’s failure to take directed action to get meaningful amounts of water into the Lake. This lessens public scrutiny on state policies that keep North Arm elevations at dangerously unhealthy water levels.
The vast majority of media stories about spring runoff and Great Salt Lake water levels focused on the South Arm elevation while using phrasing that implies the story is discussing the entire Great Salt Lake, including the North Arm. Since spring runoff enters the South Arm and it takes a long time for water to make its way into the North Arm, these stories missed the point. As of June 2024, the South Arm of the Great Salt Lake peaked at ~4,195 feet, and the North Arm at ~4,192 feet. If we were to let the runoff equalize across the two arms of the Lake, it would have peaked at ~4,194 feet above sea level – four feet below the healthy minimum water level of 4,198 feet. Artificially raising the elevation of the South Arm by keeping runoff from entering the North Arm does not equal a healthy Great Salt Lake.
While the South Arm hosts much of the facilities that attract people to the Great Salt Lake and has the higher visitation rate of the two arms, the North Arm is a crucial part of this precious wetland ecosystem. North America’s second largest bird, the American white pelican, is heavily-dependent on the Great Salt Lake, with the lake supporting 10-15% of the continent’s population. The largest pelican rookery in the U.S. is located on an island in the shrinking North Arm of the Great Salt Lake. This area has historically provided predator-free habitat for the American white pelican to raise their young, but dropping lake levels mean predators can make their way across the dry lakebed and prey on juvenile pelicans and their nests. Refilling the North Arm is also critical to air quality and public health as many of the areas of exposed lakebed responsible for toxic dust storms are located on the shores of the North Arm.
Saving the entire Great Salt Lake – including the North Arm – should be the goal of the State of Utah. Recent legislative actions demonstrate that Utah is unwilling to tackle the real problem behind Lake declines: wasteful upstream water use. Over the past few legislative sessions, two bills demonstrate the end game for the Great Salt Lake: both HB 453 and HB 513 pave the way for the state to shrink the Great Salt Lake with the construction of new dikes.
These bills demonstrate Utah’s willingness to shrink down the Great Salt Lake by allowing unlimited diking to shroud the Lake’s future by pushing an ever-shrinking water volume into a smaller and smaller water column. HB 453 embarks upon a study of future diking construction at the Lake, of critical concern given Utah’s ongoing failure to devise and implement a real plan to raise Great Salt Lake levels. The 2023 Legislative Session granted the Division of Forestry, Fire, & State Lands the power to dike the Great Salt Lake when it falls to lower water levels due to Utah’s chronic failure to regulate upstream water use. HB 453 expands these powers and initiates a study of new dike construction at the Great Salt Lake, which means an even-smaller Lake for Utah’s future. The bill sets the Great Salt Lake on the same path of destruction that has befallen other saline lakes around the world by allowing Utah to build dikes to shrink the Lake, in the face of a failed state water policy.
The fight to protect the Great Salt Lake is more dire than ever. Despite two fantastic winters and what state officials and recent headlines would have you believe, the Great Salt Lake is still in crisis. The root cause of Great Salt Lake decline – unsustainable upstream water use – remains largely unchecked, meaning it is only a matter of time before the Great Salt Lake sets a new record water low. The Great Salt Lake needs tangible solutions now, to ensure accountability and delivery of life sustaining water to the lake.
While this crisis is dire, the answers are simple. The Utah Rivers Council’s 4,200 Project proposes 12 policy solutions to get water to the Great Salt Lake to raise it back to the healthy elevation of 4,200 feet above sea level. These policy solutions are simple, effective, affordable, and will help ensure the Great Salt Lake and the wildlife, recreation, industry, and economy it supports will thrive for generations to come.
