PBS NewsHour on Great Salt Lake shrinking during the current drought

I showed the video I embedded in Vox asks and answers 'Who's really using up the water in the American West?' to my class yesterday, which may have been enough for YouTube to recommend PBS NewsHour's Utah's Great Salt Lake shrinks to unsustainable levels amid a decades-long megadrought. I watched and decided to share it here. Behold the power of the YouTube algorithm!

The Great Salt Lake in Utah is the largest body of water in the western hemisphere without an outlet to the sea. Its levels fluctuate naturally, but scientists say the record-low water levels the lake has seen in recent years are worrying. A megadrought means less precipitation, and a growing population is taking more water before the lake can refill. Stephanie Sy reports.

I find this personally worrying as well as a general risk because I have family connections to Utah and particularly the Salt Lake City area as My father went to Judge Memorial High School in Salt Lake City, which was the only Catholic High School in Utah at the time. That led my parents and middle sister to buy houses in and around Park City for investments and retirement. My middle sister and my nephew moved to Park City permanently and my mother summers there. They're very concerned about this and I'm concerned for them.

By the way, this story touches on one of my favorite sayings: "no one, or in this case, no place, is completely useless; it can always be used as a bad example," as well as a story I tell my students about Owens Dry Lake. Here's what Owens Lake looked like before and after its water was diverted.


Striking and an image I should probably add to my lectures. Speaking of which, I show a grayscale version of the following painting, which depicts a steamboat that plied the waters of Owens Lake when it was full of water.


I might replace the grayscale print of this image with this one, although the one I have looks like a photograph, while this is obviously a painting. I'll think about it.

By the way, this is what Owens Lake looks like today.


Yikes! I can see why the residents of greater Salt Lake City don't want this to happen to their lake.

ETA: The YouTube algorithm suggested KSL News' Lessons learned in California could help save the Great Salt Lake and I decided to add it to this post and possibly to my lectures after I watched it.

As Utahns look for ways to save the shrinking Great Salt Lake, there are two other salt lakes to our west that we can look to as examples of what to do and what not to do.

I'm glad to see this crisis is prompting more sustainable use of water in Utah.

I have a more positive story about dealing with the drought to share with my readers tomorrow. Stay tuned.