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A group of nearly three dozen scientists and conservationists are using a dire warning about the Great Salt Lake in Utah. The group said that unless lawmakers take "emergency measures," the lake could dry up within five years.
The scientists said the lake's water levels are 19 feet below the average natural level since 1850.
"It has lost 73% of its water and 60% of its surface area. Our unsustainable water use is desiccating habitat, exposing toxic dust, and driving salinity to levels incompatible with the lake's food webs. The lake's drop has accelerated since 2020, with an average deficit of 1.2 million acre-feet per year. If this loss rate continues, the lake as we know it is on track to disappear in five years," they wrote.
The report was released as lawmakers prepared to convene for the 2023 legislative session. The group is urging politicians to enact new rules and implement emergency water conservation measures.
"The lake's ecosystem is not only on the edge of collapse. It is collapsing," Benjamin Abbott, a professor of ecology at Brigham Young University and lead author of the report, told CNN. "It's honestly jaw-dropping and totally disarming to see how much of the lake is gone. The lake is mostly lakebed right now."
"This is a bellwether for what's going on in the larger river basins," he added. "We need to lay out some very clear language about where we're headed."