amna: The great Salt Lake in
Utah is the greatest body
without access to the sea.
A growing population is taking
more water before the lake can
refill.
Scientists say the resulting
record-low water levels in
recent years are worrying.
Stephanie sy explored the lake
both on and off the water to
learn more.
Stephanie: Reaching the waters
of the great Salt Lake from
almost any direction these days
is a hike, and Brian footen is
carrying a heavy load.
Founder of the earthviews
conservation society, he's
equipped a kayak with cameras
and sensors -- mobile tools to
map the receding shoreline.
Brian: This is going to log
water quality data every 10
seconds.
Things like temperature,
dissolved oxygen.
Stephanie: Satellite images
capture the extent of the lake's
shrinkage since 1985, but footen
says there is nothing like
bringing the public right to its
dwindling surface.
Through his interactive website.
Brian: It doesn't take, you
know, charts and graphs and big
scientific reports to tell the
story.
All you have to do is go out
there and look.
Stephanie: And so we did,
paddling through shallow waters
with an astonishing vacancy of
life.
This northern arm of the lake is
already forever changed by human
decisions.
The red tint is a result of
extremely high salinity.
It was choked off from the rest
of the lake years ago to build a
railroad causeway.
Brian: The great Salt Lake is
drying up.
Climate change is responsible.
You know, developers are
responsible.
And it just goes over top of
people's heads.
So what we're doing is using
this imagery as a way to kind of
go, wow, look at this.
This is really happening.
Stephanie: Footen also sends the
data he collects to biologist
Bonnie Baxter.
We meet her on the southern end
of the great Salt Lake.
It is eerily quiet and smells of
brine.
I feel like we're in the middle
of just a dead zone here.
It feels like another planet.
Bonnie: It's like a dead coral
reef.
It's like a cemetery.
And these are the tombstones.
Stephanie: It feels like that.
Bonnie: We see larvae in the
water.
Stephanie: Baxter brings
researchers from Westminster
college to gather specimens
weekly.
Bonnie: These mounds should be
covered with mats of
microorganisms that do
photosynthesis and bring the
sun's energy into the lake
system.
But you can see that they're dry
and they're not green and
they're out of the water.
Even the ones in the water are
not healthy because they're too
salty.
The ones out of the water are
too dry.
Stephanie: The mounds are called
microbialites.
Bonnie: This is the foundation
of the great Salt Lake
ecosystem.
And we're seeing it crash and
die right before our eyes.
Stephanie: The lake is at its
lowest level in history.
As a result, it's becoming too
salty even for species adapted
to high salinity.
Bonnie: We're not seeing any fly
pupae today, that's terrifying.
Stephanie: Brine flies feed the
millions of birds that flock
here, as do brine shrimp, which
are also harvested.
It is just one part of the $1.3
billion economic output of the
great Salt Lake.
To understand why the lake is
drying up, you have to zoom out
to the surrounding areas of the
lake's namesake -- Salt Lake
City.
Erin: So the state of Utah as a
whole is the fastest growing
state in the nation.
Stephanie: Erin Mendenhall is
the mayor, a Democrat.
Erin: Salt Lake City as the
capital is seeing more growth in
terms of units each year than
almost anywhere else in the
state.
Stephanie: There are more city
residents than ever, but they're
actually using less water.
Erin: We are absolutely
committed to saving this lake
with whatever we can.
Last year that was 2.6 billion
gallons of water.
That Salt Lake was conserved.
This year, it's already up to
2.9 billion gallons.
Stephanie: The city's achieved
that not by mandating water
restrictions, but by raising
water rates about 15% a year,
and implementing a tiered rate
structure.
Erin: The more you consume,
those water rates go up even
faster.
And these water rates reflect
the urgency that we feel as salt
Lakers.
Stephanie: But beyond the
capital, developments are
springing up along the wasatch
front.
Single-family homes with lawns
full of Kentucky bluegrass that
demands daily watering.
Jennifer: It is a native
species.
Stephanie: In Salt Lake City,
Jennifer and John lair are part
of a grassroots movement to swap
bluegrass lawns for native
plants that need less water.
Jennifer: Especially with the
kind of exponential growth that
the wasatch front has seen and
expects to see for the next 25,
30 years, there just isn't going
to be enough water.
John: It makes us wonder if we
need to be thinking about living
somewhere else.
I mean, it's an idea we toss
around, you know, how seriously
kind of depends on the day.
Of course, the question then
becomes, where do you go from
there?
Where is not going to be
impacted by climate change?
Stephanie: While conservation
efforts by residents of salt
Lake City will definitely help,
it may not be enough.
2/3 of the water in the great
Salt Lake watershed goes to
agriculture, including the water
from the bear river.
It irrigates the farms and
ranches whose yields Utah
families have relied on since
Mormon pioneers settled the
region in the 1800s, fulfilling,
they believed, a biblical
prophecy to make the desert
blossom.
Joel: I don't I don't know what
normal looks like anymore.
It's been a long time since
we have had good winters and
good moisture.
Stephanie: Joel ferry has a
unique perspective -- a fifth
generation Utah cattle rancher,
he's also a former Republican
state representative and now the
director of the state's
department of natural resources.
Joel: Water in the state of
Utah is a prior appropriation.
So whoever used it first has the
first right to to use it today.
And a lot of those rights belong
to farmers.
Stephanie: Is it time for that
to change?
Joel: Well, no.
I mean, we have we have laws and
we have structure.
So what is time for us to do is
to implement more conservation
measures.
Stephanie: Bipartisan support
for conserving water for the
great Salt Lake led to a dozen
laws enacted this year by the
republican-dominated state
government.
The reforms, among many
provisions, do away with use or
lose water policies.
Joel: We passed legislation that
me as a farmer, I can say, you
know what, I'm going to take my
water, I'm going to put it in
the river and I'll receive a
beneficial use, which totally
changes the mindset of that use
it or lose it.
I might say, you know, wheat is
not worth very much.
I don't want it.
I'm going to get some
compensation if I leave it in
the river.
Stephanie: One of the biggest
worries is that the great salt
Lake will go the way others have
gone before it -- not just
drying up and ceasing to be a
source of water, but becoming a
source of poison.
Biologist Bonnie Baxter says
more than 40% of the lake bed is
no longer covered by water and
could turn to dust.
Bonnie: We are likely to see an
increase in dust storms as we
expose more shorelines.
We're likely to see more dust.
Stephanie: That is toxic dust
because there is arsenic and
heavy metal on this lakebed,
right?
Bonnie: Right.
Breathing these small particles,
you know, has a huge impact on
human health, but then you talk
about the heavy metals and what
that does to our system over
time.
And that's a little scary.
Stephanie: Other dried out salt
Lakes provide a cautionary tale.
In the early 20th century, water
from the Sierra Nevada mountains
was diverted from Owens lake to
growing Los Angeles.
By the 1920s, the lake was dry.
And for decades after, toxic
dust plumes sickened area
residents.
It is only one reason why for
hours a day Brian footen paddles
along the shoreline, documenting
the lake's disappearance.
Brian: I think one of the big
stories that's been missed in
the talk about the climate and
the drought and the agriculture
and the development in Salt Lake
is that this is a unique
ecosystem on the planet.
There's nothing else like it.
Stephanie: And that in itself,
he says, is a reason for saving
it.
For the pbs newshour, I am
Stephanie sy at the great salt
Lake in Utah.