The demise of The Great Salt Lake...
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 40,769
It will take a the strong will of the people of Utah and anyone else concerned to resolve this tremendous issue- if it is even possible to resolve it at this point.
Great Salt Lake’s retreat poses a major fear: poisonous dust clouds
The largest salt lake in the western hemisphere risks ‘one of the worst environmental disasters’ as it faces the prospect of disappearing in just five years
But the mounting sense of local dread over the lake’s rapid retreat doesn’t just come from its throttled water supply and record low levels, as bad as this is. The terror comes from toxins laced in the vast exposed lake bed, such as arsenic, mercury and lead, being picked up by the wind to form poisonous clouds of dust that would swamp the lungs of people in nearby Salt Lake City, where air pollution is often already worse than that of Los Angeles, potentially provoking a myriad of respiratory and cancer-related problems.
This looming scenario, according to Ben Abbott, an ecologist at Brigham Young University, risks “one of the worst environmental disasters in modern US history”, surpassing the partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania in 1979 and acting like a sort of “perpetual Deepwater Horizon blowout”.
Salt Lakers are set to be assailed by a “thick fog of this stuff that’s blowing through, it would be gritty. It would dim the light, it would literally go from day to night and it could absolutely be regular all summer,” said Abbott, who headed a sobering recent study with several dozen other scientists on the “unprecedented danger” posed by lake’s disintegration.
“We could expect to see thousands of excess deaths annually from the increase in air pollution and the collapse of the largest wetland oasis in the intermountain west,” he added.
There is evidence that plumes of toxic dust are already stirring as the exposed salt crust on the lake, which has lost three-quarters of its water and has shriveled by nearly two-thirds in size since the Mormon wagon train first arrived here in the mid-19th century, breaks apart from erosion. Abbott now regularly fields fretful phone calls from people asking if Salt Lake City is safe to live in still, or if their offspring should steer clear of the University of Utah.
“People have seen and realized it’s not hypothetical and that there is a real threat to our entire way of life,” Abbott said. “We are seeing this freight train coming as the lake shrinks. We’re just seeing the front end of it now.” About 2.4 million people, or about 80% of Utah’s population, lives “within a stone’s throw of the lake”, Abbott said. “I mean, they are directly down wind from this. As some people have said, it’s an environmental nuclear bomb.”
More at link.
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Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
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It does not look good, that's for sure. I do find some hope in the fact that researchers like Bonnie Baxter and Ben Abbott, brave and stalwart souls they be, are working hard to raise awareness and seek solution.
Sadly, the conservative government of Utah seems unwilling to face realities, even at their own peril. It is a peculiar characteristics of many people to stand by their entrenched beliefs rather than save their own behinds.
Beside have a too-large population for the area to sustain (kind of like most of planet earth these days), a big factor is that much of the water that feeds The Great Salt Lake comes from the Bear, Jordan, and Weber rivers (fed by snow melt off and mountain watershed), and much of that water has been siphoned off to support an overly bloated human population and for growing alfalfa (which, of course, is another problem related to human's consumption of meat.)
Yes, and ultimately it's just people. The regular masses who just can't imagine terrible things happening to them. If the masses cared, then the government would act, or lose power. And I don't think Democrats are doing all that much better in this regard TBH. They talk some talk, but still don't do nearly enough, and Dem voters like convenience just as much as any GOPer out there.
Because yknow, not enough profit in a 140 car train
I am hugely saddened whenever there is a major train incident like this or others like the one in Dunsmuir California in 1991 that dumped all kind of toxic waste into the Sacramento river. These incidents can be avoided and should be because well maintained rail systems are the best way to transport people and goods. Trains are able to move the most weight for the least amount of fuel than any other mode of transportation- far more efficient than planes, ships, or trucks. If we had any sense at all, refurbishing our railroad systems would be a major priority. It vexes me to no end that it is not.
Water levels in the nation’s second-largest reservoir dropped to a record low last week, raising the alarm that major changes are on the way for the seven states — and millions of Americans — relying on that system, experts say.
Lake Powell, a man-made reservoir that sits along the Colorado River on the Arizona-Utah border, generates electricity for about 4.5 million people. It is also a key part of the Colorado River Basin system, which supplies water to more than 40 million people. As of last week, its water levels fell to 3,522 feet above sea level, which is the lowest seen since the structure was filled in the 1960s. It’s now just 22 percent full, and unprecedented cuts in states’ water usage are necessary to avoid dire consequences.
“There’s too little supply and too much demand,” said Brad Udall, a water and climate scientist at Colorado State University. “Ultimately, I think what we’re going to see here is some major rewriting of Western water law.”
“We’re seeing a collision right now between 19th century water law, 20th century infrastructure and 21st century population and climate change,” Udall added. “And how this works out is anybody’s guess.”
A historic megadrought, the chronic overuse of water resources and the worsening climate crisis have sapped the Colorado River and endangered the Lake Powell reservoir and its Glen Canyon dam. If the reservoir drops to 3,490 feet, the dam may be unable to generate hydropower.
“We're 32 feet above where problems occur. And we've had years, recently, where we've lost 50 feet or more of reservoir volume,” Udall said. “We're one bad year away from reaching the point where we can't generate hydropower. That's the first worry here.”
At 3,370 feet, the reservoir becomes a “dead pool,” meaning water may be unable to flow downstream at all, cutting states off. “Lake Powell water is about a quarter of the water in the Los Angeles Basin. It supplies water to 90 percent of people in Las Vegas. It supplies water to about half of Phoenix. It supplies water that produces most of your winter vegetables,” Udall said.
The Bureau of Reclamation, which is in charge of the nation’s dams, recently propped up Lake Powell by flowing more water into the lake from upstream reservoirs, and reducing how much it releases downstream. However, those weren’t permanent fixes.
The Interior Department last year said that the seven states relying on the Colorado River — California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — need to reduce water usage by 2 to 4 million acre-feet. Six of the states reached an agreement on how to move forward. California, the biggest water user, was the lone holdout, and instead proposed a separate plan. Neither plan is enough.
Continues
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/02/18/changes-needed-save-second-largest-us-reservoir-experts-say/
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
then they vote to give their mormon constituents $8000 per kid for private (teach what you want) schools.
that said, there’s no saving the GSL. either nature saves it or it dries up.
Vegas 93, Vegas 98, Vegas 00 (10 year show), Vegas 03, Vegas 06
VIC 07
EV LA1 08
Seattle1 09, Seattle2 09, Salt Lake 09, LA4 09
Columbus 10
EV LA 11
Vancouver 11
Missoula 12
Portland 13, Spokane 13
St. Paul 14, Denver 14
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
That is also a good point but a very difficult thing to accomplish. My understanding is that better education is the answer. Well educated people generally tend to pro-create at a much lower rate. I will be so bold as to also say I believe that is why our overall level of intelligence is decreasing.
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
Though I tend to think of overpopulation as the greater issue, I can't argue that over consumption is not a huge problem as well. I mean, look at how we define a "healthy economy". It is, in essence (though few see it as such) saying, "As long as we are consuming massive amounts of resources, the economy is healthy." I wonder how many economists of this persuasion have ever even heard of earth-overshoot day or know what that term means?
Good points all, Zod.
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
Yeah, agriculture in America is an unfolding disaster. All those toxic chemicals in the soil and most aquifers being drained. Good point, sad situation.
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
I hope something has been done about that. I kind of doubt it... but I hope so!