Meanwhile, anxieties about dust storms are growing as the region’s climate gets hotter and drier. And a massive source of potential dust pollution looms at the desiccated Great Salt Lake.
Recent rains have tamped down the exposed lakebed, but drier, warmer weather is going to change that.
Because it’s a terminal lake with no outlet except evaporation, the Great Salt Lake’s elevation rises and falls. On average, its water covers 1,700 square miles. But prolonged drought and human water consumption on its tributary rivers have shriveled the lake to 950 square miles, Vernon said, meaning nearly half its lakebed is exposed.
“My observation so far this year is that not much has come off the Great Salt Lake yet,” Perry said. “Most of it has been coming from the West Desert, and some from Sevier Lake down south.” “There are enough dust hot spots that, regardless of wind direction, everyone on the Wasatch Front is going to be hit by these things at some point,” Perry said, as will the Tooele Valley. “Everybody gets a taste of the lake, so to speak.”
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