SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Driving along the I-15, Utahns will start seeing new meters highlighting the alarming health of the Great Salt Lake.
Grow the Flow, a Utah-based water policy and advocacy non-profit group, has placed billboards throughout Salt Lake County, live tracking the lake’s water levels. As of Feb. 10, the meter showed the Great Salt Lake’s water level at 38%, placing it just shy of “critical” and bordering “collapse.”
Scientists and those advocating for the preservation of the Great Salt Lake have said that 4,198 feet is the minimum healthy level for the lake though its natural volume is 4,207 feet. The 38% reflected on the billboards on Monday compares the current lake level to its natural volume.
Dr. Ben Abbott, a professor of ecology at BYU and Grow the Flow executive director, said the billboards help bring the Great Salt Lake – which is largely out of sight for most Utahns – into view.
“The first step toward solving a problem is awareness,” said Abbott. “No billboard can capture all of the details of the health of the lake, but just seeing the current lake volume gives Utahns a way to access the situation. Israel did this with the Sea of Galilee, and it really helped the whole community get on board.”
Abbott told ABC4.com that the work being done to save the Great Salt Lake is “unprecedented.” He explained that there are hundreds of saline lakes all around the world and nearly all are in decline.
“There’s not a single one that’s been restored after it slipped into decline,” Abbott said. “So, for our community to accomplish this really unprecedented pioneering act, we’re all going to know where we are. And so, we hope that these billboards are just kind of something daily that you look at, you know, the way you would look at the weather.”
Over the year, using data from the United States Geological Survey, Utahns will be able to see the small changes in the lake. Abbott said the billboards will reflect when the water levels go up during the spring runoff and when the levels decline during the hot summer months.
The Great Salt Lake reached an all-time low in 2022 and while a historic winter with record snowfall helped alleviate the lake’s declining health, Abbott said Utah can’t rely on weather to save the lake. He said it would take cities, farmers, industries, and individuals each doing their small part to rescue the lake.
But he likened the race to save the Great Salt Lake to a spring that is immediately followed by a marathon.
“We need a bunch of actions right now to get to the lake to a healthy level, and then long term, we’ve got to put in place the structural changes that we need to keep it in at a healthy range,” said Abbott. “Great Salt Lake is a fixture of our community. It’s a global landmark. Millions of birds come here, billions of dollars are produced by the lake, and, most importantly to me, it’s a sign of our values and our commitment as a community to be caretakers over creation.”
To learn more about the billboards and how they calculate the percentage shown, visit growtheflowutah.org.
Connor Comeau contributed to this report.
#Billboards #Salt #Lake #valley #show #alarming #health #Great #Salt #Lake
Leave a Reply