Watershed Symposium 2024

How much water is Utah actually delivering to the imperiled Great Salt Lake? Are we heading toward a healthy Lake or costly mitigation? In this workshop, we explore a new report showcasing sobering findings exploring the consequences drying up the Great Salt Lake could have on Wasatch Front residents’ health and the state’s pocketbook.

Full Abstract:
If the Great Salt Lake is in peril, Utah is in peril. Great Salt Lake water levels are on a long-term decline – due to decades of upstream water diversions and climate change-driven aridification in the basin – exposing a vast expanse of dry lakebed that contains a number of toxic components. This creates a looming public health and economic crisis for residents of Northern Utah and the Wasatch Front. What are the financial and public health impacts to the millions of Utahns living adjacent to the Lake if we fail to deliver enough water to address current lakebed exposure issues and prevent continuing decline? In this session we will explore findings from a year of research that has culminated in a revelatory new report showcasing sobering findings concerning the consequences that drying up the Great Salt Lake could have on the health of Wasatch Front residents and the costly mitigation measures that could be required to suppress dust if Utah doesn’t succeed in raising Lake levels. We will present findings from what is, to our knowledge, the largest and most comprehensive review of the medical science of public health impacts from Great Salt Lake lakebed exposure. We will summarize what hundreds of papers show are the many and serious health implications associated with exposure to lakebed dust, discuss the possible presence of overlooked toxins in Great Salt Lake dust and their likely impact, and compare this emerging health emergency to that of other desiccated lakes around the world. In an analysis of efforts to deliver water to the Great Salt Lake, we will explore how effective Utah has been in meeting targets to deliver an additional 500,000 to 1 million acre feet of wet water each year to the Lake – the amounts needed to raise the Lake to a minimum healthy level and prevent catastrophic dust storms. Finally, we will examine whether we are headed toward a future of mitigation, like Owens Lake, and provide an updated and more detailed estimate of the costs associated with keeping dust from a desiccated Great Salt Lake on the ground.

Fish are routinely monitored for tissue contaminants that pose health risks to the public. We synthesized 25 years of fish tissue monitoring data from the Great Salt Lake Watershed to support risk assessments for public health and direct State monitoring resources toward high-risk waterbodies, contaminants, and fish species within Utah.

Full Abstract:
Fish accumulate contaminants from water, sediments, and their diet that can pose health risks to those who consume them. Recognizing this risk, the Utah Department of Natural Resources and Utah Department of Environmental Quality collaborate to routinely sample fish and analyze their tissue for a range of contaminants. We synthesized 25 years of fish tissue monitoring data from the Great Salt Lake Watershed to identify trends in contaminant concentrations over time, highlighting specific fish species, waterbodies, and regions of concern. A local case study on polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in Utah Lake is discussed to demonstrate how the State utilizes fish tissue monitoring data to communicate health risks to the public and inform response plans aimed at reducing contaminant exposure. Our findings not only support risk assessments for public health and environmental safety, but also direct State monitoring resources toward high-risk waterbodies, contaminants, and fish species within Utah.

Dust blowing from dry lakebeds annually darkens the snowpack of the Great Salt Lake Basin. The darkened snow absorbs more sunlight, resulting in earlier snowmelt. Here, we have used a combination of fieldwork, satellite observations, and modeling to quantify the impact of dust snowmelt, in hopes of improving water supply forecasts in the region.

Full Abstract:
Seasonal snow in the Great Salt Lake Basin (GSLB) provides critical water resources for human infrastructure and local ecosystems alike. The GSLB snowpack has a first order influence on water availability to 2.7 million Utahns and provides the main surface inflows to the Great Salt Lake. Snowmelt rates are primarily controlled by snow albedo, which is impacted by surface darkening from light absorbing particles (LAPs). In the Wasatch Mountains, the primary LAP constituent is dust originating from dry lakebeds across the eastern Great Basin. Dust accelerates snowmelt, adding uncertainty to streamflow forecasts. Despite this, the impact of dust on snowmelt timing is not well known in the GSLB and is not directly accounted for in operational models. Here we present three years of research targeted at quantifying the spatial and temporal distribution of dust on snow and its impacts on snowmelt rates and timing across the GSLB. Our work includes a time series of point-based field observations, analysis of 23 years of satellite remote sensing retrievals, and basin distributed process-based snowmelt modeling. Results reveal that dust impacts snowmelt annually, but with high variability year-to-year, and with no strong temporal trends in the last two decades. The annual impact of dust on snowmelt was quantified over two distinctly different water years (2022 and 2023) by running two model implementations with different albedo representations: 1) A standard time decay relationship representing clean snow albedo evolution, and 2) daily remotely sensed observed snow albedo from MODIS. Differences between model runs, evaluated by melt rates, surface water inputs, and snow depletion timing, reflect the influence of snow darkening on snowmelt across the basin. This approach has allowed us to parse out physical drivers of snowmelt and is the first study to quantify snowmelt acceleration due to dust over the GSLB.

The Water Conservation Toolbox was developed to provide municipalities and local governments with essential strategies to optimize water conservation. It includes customizable ordinances, rate structures, and landscape incentive programs focused on water conservation, tailored to meet the conservation goals of different community types.

Full Abstract:
The Great Salt Lake Advisory Council, in collaboration with SWCA Environmental Consultants, has developed a comprehensive Water Conservation Toolbox. This toolbox is informed by lessons learned and the specific challenges faced by Utah’s municipalities. It provides practical guidance for setting water prices, including insights into price elasticity and stakeholder engagement. Additionally, it includes model ordinances aimed at reducing outdoor water use and enhancing indoor efficiency. The toolbox also features landscape incentive programs to encourage water-conserving landscaping. Its primary goal is to equip municipalities and local governments with the necessary information and strategies to optimize their water conservation efforts.

In the Western US, irrigation companies play a key role in water conservation, navigating diverse challenges and strategies. Interviews with 18 companies in the Great Salt Lake Basin reveal varied conservation practices and highlight themes like motivations, techniques, and barriers. These insights can support effective water management policies.

Full Abstract:
In the Western US, water conservation efforts are currently top of mind and a rising priority for many individuals and entities. Irrigation companies are an example of an entity whose priorities are focusing on water conservation. Irrigation companies are on-the-ground, day-to-day water managers that are faced with decisions and challenges when it comes to water conservation. There is empirical evidence that emphasizes the importance of multi-scalar, multi-dimensional water conservation efforts. The wide array of efforts and practices related to water conservation are all important when looking at the big picture of conservation. Therefore, viewing a diverse set of conservation efforts to be available to irrigation companies can allow for individuals and entities of all sizes and capacities to participate in conservation efforts in accessible ways. Therefore, the steps and efforts that entities like irrigation companies are able to take toward conservation are critical within the larger picture of water conservation. In the Great Salt Lake Basin, 18 irrigation companies participated in semi-structured interviews where topics around water conservation efforts were discussed. Within the realm of irrigation companies, water conservation efforts look quite different even within the same basin. Examples of some of these efforts include reducing general water usage, work towards making more efficient systems, and participation in water leasing and banking. Conservation themes that arose in the qualitative analysis of the interviews include conservation motivations, conservation decisions, and specific conservation techniques and applications of these irrigation companies. Discussions of the enabling and constraining factors around conservation such as funding and collaborative relationships also arose. These enabling and constraining factors give insights into how to better support the work of these companies at larger policy levels. The themes and findings here are being shared not as a way to dictate what other irrigation companies should be doing, but rather what other irrigation companies could be doing in terms of water conservation. These insights also recognize the work and efforts that these companies are currently participating in and highlight how water conservation is an important component to these irrigation companies. In order to build off these qualitative findings, future efforts of this project will potentially include a paired survey of irrigation companies in the basin to capture more generalizable, quantifiable perspectives. Co-Author: Courtney Flint, Professor, Utah State University, https://courtneyflint.wordpress.com

Exploring challenges and gaps with implementing conservation and protection best practices for sensitive lands around Great Salt Lake and the Jordan River. A critical and often overlooked component of a healthy watershed.

Full Abstract:
While communities are putting greater focus on increasing density and redeveloping urban spaces, critical natural lands and agricultural areas at the edges of our cities continue to be a target for new development. But at what cost? Many city general plans include general guiding principles and goals oriented toward preservation of critical lands, but the tools to actualize these goals often lag far behind development pressures. Our decentralized local land use policies can be a patchwork of strengths and weaknesses, and on a regional issues like preserving sensitive lands around Great Salt Lake, how do you coordinate efforts for the best outcomes. Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County offer a useful and ongoing case study. Both have adopted plans with aspirations to “expand natural lands and watershed protection,” and specific goals to “over the next 25 years, …protect and restore critical wildlife habitat, sensitive natural lands, and open space.” There have been some important wins: setting aside a natural buffer area between the Inland Port in Salt Lake City and wetlands of Great Salt Lake, establishing the Legacy Nature Preserve along the northern extent of the Jordan River in North Salt Lake, and other significant greenways and riparian restoration projects across the Jordan River. But is the rate of suburban, light industrial development outpacing conservation of remaining critical natural areas, particularly integral upland areas that are part of the Great Salt Lake Shorelands ecosystem? Have we done enough? This presentation explores some of the gaps and challenges reconciling broad preservation and restoration goals associated with general plans, and the deficit of codified land use tools encoded in local laws and ordinances. With a very decentralized local government land use structures, lack of coordinated regional frameworks and cooperation around sensitive lands, and often conflicting development pressures, real estate development is often outpacing preservation and restoration of critical lands adjacent to our waterways and Great Salt Lake, putting the capacity for improving water quality, conserving water, sustaining habitat resources of migratory pathways to Global Important Bird Areas and other wildlife at high risk. We present the need for establishing a Shoreline Heritage Area around Great Salt Lake and coordinated efforts to protect and conserve riparian and other natural lands around the Jordan River and Great Salt Lake for both human and wildlife welfare. We’ll present brief case studies with some hits and missed opportunities, as we continue ways to increase coordination and cooperation around our shared conservation efforts.