Utah's Great Salt Lake Is Officially at Its Lowest Point in Recorded History

Docks at the state park on Great Salt Lake’s Antelope Island, seen here exposed far above the waterline in May 2021.



Water levels in Utah’s Great Salt Lake have officially dwindled to their lowest ever recorded. It’s an effect of the megadrought that has impacted water supplies across the West.

The Great Salt Lake is the largest natural lake west of the Mississippi River, and the largest salt lake in the western hemisphere. Its health is critical not only for the environment, but local tourism and $1.3 billion in industry such as brine shrimp and cyst harvesting and mineral extraction. While the lake’s levels regularly fluctuate dramatically, the U.S. Geological Survey now says the ongoing megadrought plaguing the region has lowered average daily water levels to about an inch below the previous record low of 4,194 feet (1,278 meters), which was set in 1963. (Utah Rivers Council, a nonprofit, declared an unofficial record low earlier this month.) According to the Associated Press, while the lake typically gains up to two feet (0.6 meters) of depth from spring runoff, this year runoff amounted to about six inches (15.2 centimeters).

More alarmingly, Candice Hasenyager, the deputy director of Utah’s Division of Water Resources, told the AP that this record was set months before water levels in the Great Salt Lake typically reach the yearly minimum. That indicates the lake could continue drying up as the summer progresses and heat continues to take its toll.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/utah-s-great-salt-lake-is-officially-at-its-lowest-point-in-recorded-history/ar-AAMCVZZ