A worrying study PUBLISHED last month in Environmental Challenges states that nearly two-thirds of the Great Salt Lake’s decline is due to human use of river water that would otherwise fill the lake.

The Great Salt Lake in Utah is a relic of a large lake that occupied the same area during the Ice Age. The lake level has fluctuated since then dimensions of this began in 1847, but it is about 75 miles (120 kilometers) long and 35 miles (56 kilometers) wide with a maximum depth of 33 feet (10 meters). The water level of the Great Salt Lake hit a low record in 2021, that is captured the following year.

According to a recent newspaper, about 62% of the river water that would otherwise fill the lake is already used for “anthropogenic consumption.” The research team found that agricultural use cases were responsible for 71% of those human-driven depletions; In addition, about 80% of agricultural water is used for crops to feed less than a million cows.

“The research highlights the surprising role of water consumption for livestock feeding in driving the rapid depletion of the lake,” said William Ripple, an ecologist at Oregon State University and co-author of the paper, in a university. release.

The lake is no stranger to change; A Utah State University report shows that the water level of the lake has decreased since the middle of the 19th century. As the United States Geological Survey Utah Water Science Center reported, the division of the lake by a railroad in 1959 greatly changed the salinity level of the newly created parts of the lake, and since the water body has no rivers or water flow, the level its water changes due to evaporation or heavy rain.

“Abnormally large snowfalls during the 1980s and 1990s served to temporarily mask the long-term decline in lake levels, and the lake reached its highest level in more than a century in 1987,” said Ripple. “But it has fallen by about 4 inches per year on average since then.”

The researchers proposed a goal of reducing anthropogenic river water consumption in the area by 35% to begin filling the lake, as well as a detailed breakdown of specific reductions in livestock feed production. .

“We found that the most robust solutions would involve a 61% reduction in alfalfa production along with a 26-55% reduction in weed production,” the team wrote, “resulting in a reduction in agricultural income of US $ 97 million annually, or 0.04% of the state’s GDP. The team added that Utah residents could be compensated for their loss of income. This is an easier plan to propose than to sell people as a fact, but it is a road to recovery for the Great Salt Lake.

As the team added, the lake directly supports 9,000 jobs and $2.5 billion in economic productivity, primarily from mining, recreation, and brine shrimp fishing. Exposed saline lakebeds (such as the Great Salt Lake receding with the reduction of its water level) are also associated with dust that poses a health risk due to its effects on the human respiratory system.

Currently, the average level and volume of the Great Salt Lake continues to decline. But the team’s research revealed a specific pain point and suggested ways to reduce the strain on the large-but-shrinking body of water.