Great Salt Lake Rising

 

From the WaPo:

Just three months ago scientists issued a report with a dire warning: Utah’s Great Salt Lake, after decades of drying that had only accelerated in recent years, was on track to disappear in five years. Now a record snowpack, fueled by more than 800 inches of snow during the season in some locations, offers a glimmer of hope for the Western Hemisphere’s largest salt water lake and an important economic driver for the state.

The Great Salt Lake reached its record low in November when it dipped to 4,188.6 feet above sea level, having lost more than 70 percent of its water since 1850 according to the report published in January by researchers at Brigham Young University. As of Wednesday, however, the lake had risen three feet in a little more than five months, primarily because of snow and rain dumped directly into the lake by a season-long series of water-loaded storms. Salt Lake City has seen its seventh snowiest season on record and among the most snow of any major U.S. city, with 87.3 inches.

The rising lake level is cause for both celebration and caution.

“While we celebrate our progress, we must continue to prioritize water conservation efforts and make sustainable water management decisions for the future of this vital ecosystem and for water users throughout the basin,” said Candice Hasenyager, director of the Utah Division of Water Resources, in an email.  [snip]

Despite its recent rise, the lake is still six feet below what is considered “the minimum acceptable elevation for the lake’s ecological and economic health,” according to Abbott. The snowpack, and what happens to its runoff, holds the key to whether the lake can make relatively quick progress toward that six-foot level. With an above-average snowpack, the lake level can increase 3 to 4 feet, according to Utah’s Division of Water Resources...

The unprecedented weather this year, with record snow and rainfall in the West (and an active tornado season in the Plains and South), is a direct result of global climate change.  In the short run, the record precipitation has caused misery and death, but also carried with it new life and hope for environments like the Great Salt Lake and Colorado River which have been ravaged by years of drought.  It's not right that a price has been paid in order for these ecosystems to see a rebound.  But the circumstances have given us a window of time to make positive, long- term changes in the way water resources are managed in the West (and elsewhere for that matter) and to reduce loss of life from ever more violent weather, if we're smart enough to see and utilize it.  

(Photo:  "Snow and water pool on a stretch of exposed lakebed on the southern end of the Great Salt Lake in Magna, Utah on Thursday."/ James Roh for the Washington Post)