The Great Salt Lake remains for my brothers and I one of the vilest places we have ever visited on Earth. The smell of rotting flies we will never forget. An ecosystem of filth and putrification. If you’ve never been there, you can’t imagine what a place worse than Mordor would be like. I assume it wasn’t always like this? It would be great if they reversed the water loss, but I’m not optimistic. I assume it will eventually just be a toxic dust plain where the lake used to be, an Aral Sea for America as a reminder that we didn’t do a single fruitful thing about climate change.
Great Salt Lake Tracker
41–50 of 50 posts
Re: Great Salt Lake Tracker
#42The Great Salt Lake remains for my brothers and I one of the vilest places we have ever visited on Earth. The smell of rotting flies we will never forget. An ecosystem of filth and putrification. If you’ve never been there, you can’t imagine what a place worse than Mordor would be like. I assume it wasn’t always like this? It would be great if they reversed the water loss, but I’m not optimistic. I assume it will eve…
No, it was always like that. It's an Endorheic lake that formed 16,800 years ago and has been evaporating ever since. The water was not usable for anything when the Mormons arrived in 1847, which is why no meaningful settlements ever arose around the lake.
The loss of lake level isn't caused by climate change, though it is caused by people. The lake hit a record high as recently as 1987. But the problem is increasing diversion of the rivers that feed the lake as Utah develops. Utah's population has doubled since 1987, and it's one of the fastest growing states in the country.
Re: Great Salt Lake Tracker
#43I crave an industrial megaproject to solve this. Specifically: A pipeline from the ocean. But alas, only China has a social structure capable of getting projects of this scale done anymore. So I guess I'll keep tracking the AQI and keeping my kids indoors when it's bad.
I crave more attempts to find a way to live in harmony with the natural world in a way that still supports us all as best as possible.
If, as I've read in other comments here, the problem around Salt Lake is due to man diverting the flow of water to it for their own purposes, I only see diverting ocean water to it as more of the exact same type of hubris that got us to this point.
Re: Great Salt Lake Tracker
#44The Great Salt Lake remains for my brothers and I one of the vilest places we have ever visited on Earth. The smell of rotting flies we will never forget. An ecosystem of filth and putrification. If you’ve never been there, you can’t imagine what a place worse than Mordor would be like. I assume it wasn’t always like this? It would be great if they reversed the water loss, but I’m not optimistic. I assume it will eve…
No, it was always like that. It's an Endorheic lake that formed 16,800 years ago and has been evaporating ever since. The water was not usable for anything when the Mormons arrived in 1847, which is why no meaningful settlements ever arose around the lake. The loss of lake level isn't caused by climate change, though it is caused by people. The lake hit a record high as recently as 1987. But the problem is increasing…
Surely that can’t be true though? I see this-
> Saltair Resort: Built in 1893, Saltair was a massive, Moorish-style pavilion built directly over the water. It featured a massive dance floor, roller coasters, and thousands of tourists who came to experience "America's Dead Sea" by floating effortlessly in the water.
I cannot imagine any sane person dancing and doing roller coasters over the current shrine to decay that is the Great Salt Lake.
Re: Great Salt Lake Tracker
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, it was always like that. It's an Endorheic lake that formed 16,800 years ago and has been evaporating ever since. The water was not usable for anything when the Mormons arrived in 1847, which is why no meaningful settlements ever arose around the lake. The loss of lake level isn't caused by climate change, though it is caused by people. The lake hit a record high as recently as 1987. But the problem is increasing…
Surely that can’t be true though? I see this- > Saltair Resort: Built in 1893, Saltair was a massive, Moorish-style pavilion built directly over the water. It featured a massive dance floor, roller coasters, and thousands of tourists who came to experience "America's Dead Sea" by floating effortlessly in the water. I cannot imagine any sane person dancing and doing roller coasters over the current shrine to decay tha…
I swam in the lake with my family (including a baby) just a few years ago. Once you got used to the fly larvae (“brine shrimp”) it was fine.
People swim at coney island and smelly little southern creeks. It’s no big deal.
Re: Great Salt Lake Tracker
#46What is the call to action?
Re: Great Salt Lake Tracker
#47My grandparents lived north of Salt Lake City, close enough that I’ve been there at least half a dozen times over several decades. Last time I did,I drove across a bridge with no water under it to an island that was fully connected to the mainland by dry land. It was very melancholy to reflect on how the natural world I grew up with is disappearing.
More than likely it's Antelope Island.
Re: Great Salt Lake Tracker
#48I was looking at the lake water level tracker and reminiscing. I worked up at Heber City, Utah back around 1983-1984 doing seismic work. The snow and rainfall and snow-melt were creating floods all over the region. The lake was filling rapidly to historic levels. When we moved the crew to Oregon to do a bit of work around Roseburg we drove through SLC. The runoff from some of the creeks was so high that there were sa…
I remember those floods. We were sandbagging State Street so it was a 'controlled' river. The water did go all the way around Saltair, so it looked alone poking up out of the water. But it wasn't very deep there either. We drove by to check it out a few times just getting out of the house. But we also swam in the Great Salt Lake once in a while, there was a lot of sulfur and other crap in in it. Lots of black shit for your feet to sink in, it couldn't have been good.
That's an insane amount to pay for gas back then, Jesus, did they just roll with the oil embargo of the 70's or what?
Re: Great Salt Lake Tracker
#49I was looking at the lake water level tracker and reminiscing. I worked up at Heber City, Utah back around 1983-1984 doing seismic work. The snow and rainfall and snow-melt were creating floods all over the region. The lake was filling rapidly to historic levels. When we moved the crew to Oregon to do a bit of work around Roseburg we drove through SLC. The runoff from some of the creeks was so high that there were sa…
I remember those floods. We were sandbagging State Street so it was a 'controlled' river. The water did go all the way around Saltair, so it looked alone poking up out of the water. But it wasn't very deep there either. We drove by to check it out a few times just getting out of the house. But we also swam in the Great Salt Lake once in a while, there was a lot of sulfur and other crap in in it. Lots of black shit fo…
That gas station is way out in the boonies on a long stretch of two-lane highway (at the time) that takes you cross-country into Grants Pass. It is one of those "last gas for 150 miles" type places. I should've just rolled on past but everyone else was filling up so I followed the crowd since it was my first time on that highway. Turns out I could've made it into the next station in Oregon since I was carrying a jerry-can strapped onto the back of the Bronco.
Thanks for your recollections correlating closely to what I remembered. I never swam in the GSL. We worked 7 days a week so no opportunity. I'm kinda glad now with your description.
Re: Great Salt Lake Tracker
#50THIS IS A GRIFT. Joel Ferry, the executive director of Utah's DNR retooled state laws to allow water right leasing and promoted HB187 which allows you to hold water rights without developing them. He also happens to be a large shareholder in Bear River Canal Company and has been going around quietly buying up water rights from smaller canals and municipalities. Grow The Flow is closely aligned with Great Salt Lake Ri…
Can you spell out how the grift works? All I'm understanding from your post is that wealthy people are connected to the effort.
Put simply government officials created a scheme to buy up a bunch of unused water rights, then use state and federal dollars to pay themselves incentives to continue not using the water.