The Great Salt Lake is disappearing.

The minimum healthy level of the Great Salt Lake is 4,198 ft.1 As of yesterday, the lake is at ... ft above sea level.2 This difference may not seem meaningful, but every foot of water matters; the Great Salt Lake is a shallow lake.

We cannot lose the lake. If we lose the lake, the Utah economy will suffer and toxic dust containing arsenic and more will go throughout the valley.3 On top of those major issues, millions of birds would also be without a place. The Great Salt Lake provides 14% of the magnesium in the entire world4; it is no exaggeration to say that the whole world would be impacted with its loss.

Source: USGS 10010000 Daily Values (Last 3 Years)

The data speaks for itself: at current rates, the Great Salt Lake will inevitably be lost, and with its loss would come major issues. Of course, the trend also shows that the Great Salt Lake wouldn't entirely disappear for a while yet. Still, it's necessary to act now, while we still can. As is, the Great Salt Lake still is not at a healthy level. Life would go on, as it always does, but there would be health impacts from the toxic dust, economic damage, etc.

So, what happened to all the water?

The primary reason that the Great Salt Lake is lacking water is that Utah is using it. There are other effects, but they are not near as sigificant as our use of the water. Cities, industry, and agriculture all contribute to this.5

How can we get more water?

It’s often suggested that we get more water, perhaps by cloud seeding, though pipelines, or even by getting groundwater. This is not enough to provide the water that we want.5

We will need to reduce the amount of water that we use. There are many ways to do this. It is well known what we can do indoors to use less water. Outdoors, we can use water more efficiently when watering lawns, or even get rid of lawns entirely. Reducing the amount of water that farms use may be possible, but without reducing the amount of farming that is done in Utah, it is not expected to go very far.

The Great Salt Lake also needs money, wherever it will come from. Currently, there are “two to five billion dollars needed over the next decade for a full lake rescue”6 The government should get involved, along with Utah organizations that can, because money must come from somewhere.

With action, Utah might become the first to restore an inland sea.

Sources

  1. Steed, Brian. “Great Salt Lake Strategic Plan.” Great Salt Lake Commissioner’s Office, 13 Jan. 2024, greatsaltlake.utah.gov/great-salt-lake-strategic-plan-2. ↩
  2. “Great Salt Lake at Saltair Boat Harbor, UT.” Usgs.gov, 6 May 2026, waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/USGS-10010000/. ↩
  3. Hall, Sarah, et al. “Shrinking Shores, Rising Risks in the Great Salt Lake | Think Global Health.” Think Global Health, Council on Foreign Relations, 10 June 2024, www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/shrinking-shores-rising-risks-great-salt-lake. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026. ↩
  4. Great Salt Lake Advisory Council. “Great Salt Lake.” Deq.utah.gov, 2021, lf-public.deq.utah.gov/WebLink/ElectronicFile.aspx?docid=11306&eqdocs=DWQ-2021-013131&dbid=0. ↩
  5. Abbott, Benjamin W., et al. “Emergency Measures Needed to Rescue Great Salt Lake from Ongoing Collapse.” Plant & Wildlife Sciences, 4 Jan. 2023, pws.byu.edu/great-salt-lake. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026. ↩
  6. Abbott, Benjamin. “Eight Feet in Eight Years– Filling the Lake Starts Today.” Grow the Flow - Utah, 26 Sept. 2025, growtheflowutah.org/2025/09/26/eight-feet-in-eight-years-filling-the-lake-starts-today/. Accessed 4 Apr. 2026. ↩