Scientists, advocates, and the state of Utah all agree on one thing: the Great Salt Lake is in peril. The effects of this crisis are already tangible, from bird carcasses scattering a visibly receding shoreline to residents inhaling pollution from over 15 dust events annually. The prognosis is even worse: without swift and significant action to limit upstream water diversions and conserve one million acre-feet of water per year, the Great Salt Lake will collapse and Utah will lose an iconic environmental, economic and cultural lifeforce forever.
A recent three-part series from The Salt Lake Tribune and Utah Public Radio misidentifies the cause of Great Salt Lake’s decline. The authors mockingly dismiss a 2023 report predicting the lake’s functional collapse, calling the scientific consensus “a joke” and accusing researchers of “crying wolf.” Their evidence? Two seasons of heavy snowfall and notoriously difficult-to-predict weather patterns.
But snow (or lack thereof) is not even a primary cause of the lake’s decline. Precipitation cannot solve a problem it did not cause, and asserting otherwise is both incorrect and dangerous. Sure, the extra snow offered Great Salt Lake a temporary reprieve and may have postponed its collapse by a few years, but humans continue to guzzle one million acre-feet more than our water system can sustain and lake levels have already returned to the brink of catastrophe.
While irresponsible journalism lulls us into a complacent false security, government officials quietly defend their right to “eliminate” the Great Salt Lake in court and press “pause” on new water legislation. We must not let them.
We can either continue squabbling over exactly how many years the lake has left, or we can acknowledge that we have an urgent problem on our hands and get around to fixing it.
Maria Archibald, Salt Lake City
