The Great Salt Lake Strike Team, a group including Utah’s public research universities, provides policymakers with research as they address the economic, health, and ecological challenges created by the record-low elevation of Great Salt Lake. They presented their second annual summary in early January. The group summarizes water data throughout the year, working towards both short and long term solutions for the lake.
I talked to Brian Steed, Great Salt Lake commissioner and executive director of the Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water and Air at Utah State University, and Managing Director of the Institute Anna McEntire, to reflect on the strike team’s summary thus far and goals for the coming year.
ERIN LEWIS: Especially given such high precipitation last spring, in reflecting back on the last year, what are the primary observations the strike team noted?
BRIAN STEED: When the strike team started in, really, the fall of 2022, we were seeing the lowest levels of the lake that had been recorded in history. We were all very nervous about that. We saw spiking salinity in the south arm, and the south arm is where all the biological productivity is in the lake. And so to see that salinity spike and those low levels, we were all really terrified about what the year was going to bring.
As the year progressed, we actually were so pleased with the amount of snowpack we received and the amount of water received. And so really, the take home messages, we got lots of snow, we had a brief respite of some of the problems we were seeing on the Great Salt Lake to where we had the south arm raised by five and a half feet. The north arm didn't because there was an intentional activity, blocking off water, from the south to the north to manage salinity in the south arm. So that's why you saw that big increase, and that's awesome.
We saw little less runoff than we would have anticipated given that tremendous water year. There's two reasons for that. The soil moisture as well as groundwater tables were so low, that when that snow started to melt a lot of it just got absorbed into that groundwater table really fast. And so our hope is that that's now recharged. Secondly, because it had been so dry for so long, we saw really unprecedented low reservoir levels throughout this area.
ERIN LEWIS: Why did we see such a difference in predictions from actuality?
BRIAN STEED: We still need more science, to be very honest. And it's not something that we have a complete understanding of. One of the recommendations that we have consistently as part of the strike team, is better monitoring and better science.
ANNA MCENTIRE: Measurement is really a challenge with the water that you can't see. And it's not, we have gauges in our streams. And you can see the water that's flowing through, you can measure it really straightforwardly. But underground, we don't even know exactly what the borders are of all of our groundwater reserves and aquifers. And some of them are quite large. And some of them are small and mapping those out and understanding how full they are. That takes a lot of work.
ERIN LEWIS: The strike team’s summary stresses the importance of a multi-year approach — what does that mean in regard to the high levels of precipitation Utah experienced in 2023?
BRIAN STEED: One of the big lessons of this last year is that we're really not in a sprint. This is much more of a marathon. And that means that even if we have one good year, one good year does not a trend to make. And we really need to be looking for bigger trends. Running up to 2023, we really did have huge drought years, unprecedented drought years and that created quite a large deficit in the system.
ANNA MCENTIRE: We've updated all of the graphs this year and you see the big spike of water that we have in 2023. But we still have the trend lines, and the trend lines have not really changed at all. I mean, we are still in a downward trend, and that's something that we have to manage year-round.
Steed expressed much gratitude towards all involved, and hopes to continue with this collaborative effort in the years to come, as he says it has brought a unique yet vital group of people together all with the goal of addressing Great Salt Lake’s decreasing water levels.
When asked about the strike team’s goals for 2024, Steed and McIntire emphasized the continued need for further understanding community water needs, while moving more in a direction of water solutions for Great Salt Lake.
ANNA MCENTIRE: We can't control how much water we receive in any real substantive way, the only thing that we can do is to control the way that we use the water that we get. And so it's really helpful to know exactly how much water we have, how much water we're currently using, and how much water we need for our uses as well as what it's gonna take to refill the lake.
BRIAN STEED: We really hope to provide more insights on those policy recommendations to those decision makers so that they're able to make the best informed and best decisions on behalf of their constituents. That's something I think that you'll see over the next few weeks and months, as we are heading to the legislative session.
This move toward a more policy focus has started with Steed’s report to the governor which will be presented to Utah legislators and made available to the public on Tuesday, Jan. 16, when the legislative session begins.
Find the full report linked in Utah State TODAY.
2023 Report to the Governor and Legislature on Utah’s Land, Water and Air.
