The Great Salt Lake is one of the largest terminal lakes in the world. Water flows in but has no way of flowing out. Terminal lakes tend to be salty because water can leave only through evaporation. Warmed by the sun’s heat, water in the lake changes from a liquid to a gas, leaving behind any salts that had been dissolved in it. With no flowing water to carry the salts away, these minerals build up over time.
Over the past half century, the Great Salt Lake has gone through big changes. Jaimi Butler is a biologist who grew up near the lake and has studied its ecology. “I’ve seen the lake go from its highest-ever recorded water levels in 1986 to its lowest in 2022,” says Butler (see Drying Up). Multiple factors are responsible, including variations in the snowfall that supplies meltwater to the lake and warmer temperatures brought on by climate change. Also, as the region’s population grows, more water must be diverted from waterways for farms, towns, and cities to use before it can reach the lake.
When Craner’s class visited the lake in 2022, the students were shocked: With declining water levels, the lake’s shoreline had receded significantly. The water’s edge was barely visible in the distance, too far for the students to walk to from where their bus dropped them off. “The water level was really low,” says Jameson Hunt, who was a student in Craner’s class that year. “When that happens, the salinity [salt level] goes up, which makes it harder for living things to survive.”
The drying lake affects people too. As the lake shrinks, dust from the dried-up lake bed gets blown into the air, making it potentially unsafe to breathe. Additionally, the dust contains toxic elements like arsenic (As) and mercury (Hg). Some occur naturally in the soil, while others arrived through water and air pollution from nearby mining operations.
Craner’s class wanted to tell others about the shrinking lake. They wondered what they could do to raise their voices. The students asked Butler, the biologist, for advice. She had previously spoken with the class about the lake’s ecosystem. She suggested writing to representatives in the state government. So the class did. But it didn’t feel like enough.