Spiraling dangers from a dried-up Great Salt Lake would gradually spread well beyond its shores, a study warns, eventually threatening Utahns’ health and economic well-being.
Not only does the prospect of a dried lake bed menace one of the West’s cornerstone ecosystems, but the effects of its collapse for the Wasatch Front also could pose rising risks to public health, quality of life and the very economic viability of the state’s most populous area, a new legal analysis finds.
Scholars with the Wallace Stegner Center at the University of Utah‘s S.J. Quinney College of Law posit what they call “the unthinkable” — a desiccated Great Salt Laketurned-Great Salt Dust Bowl, disruptive of weather patterns and capable of spewing heavy-metal-laden dust over the region.
Prior research has already predicted this dire scenario, with some labeling it “an environmental nuclear bomb” as the saline lake’s water volumes have fallen to around half their historic levels in recent years, drawing worldwide attention and mixed reactions from policymakers.
This legal study, published by the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Law Institute, examines in that bleak light a host of potential business and financial risks
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This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.
