House Speaker Brad Wilson convened a bipartisan summit of lawmakers, environmentalists, climate scientists, farmers, academics and others with interests in the Great Salt Lake to discuss ways to save it.
"The Great Salt Lake is in trouble," he told the crowd at the beginning of the summit.
The lake, one of the largest in North America, has dropped 11-feet. Scientists from the University of Utah warned the crowd of toxic dust that could threaten public health over time, declining snow pack and water from lake-effect generated storms and billions in lost economic opportunity. In addition to climate and health, the lake is a refuge for millions of migratory birds.
If the state was forced to try to reverse damage to the Great Salt Lake — it would cost as much as $2 billion a year. The legislature is poised to advance a number of bills on water conservation, agriculture optimization and ways to get more water into the Great Salt Lake. Environmentalists have been successful in securing some water rights for the lake, but want more to be done. There are also proposed policy shifts like re-thinking how water is considered"wasted" because the lake is a terminal basin.
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