Here is your one-stop guide to “At water’s edge: Searching for solutions at the Great Salt Lake’s sister lakes across the Great Basin” — a series exploring how two California lakes offer warnings and solutions for the Great Salt Lake:
• This online presentation — complete with photos, videos and interactive maps — crystallizes the challenges at Owens and Mono lakes and how they can inform the future of the Great Salt Lake. Click here.
Day One
(Spenser Heaps | Deseret News) A California gull sweeps the surface of Mono Lake near Lee Vining, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022.
• This introductory story explains why the salty lakes of the Great Basin are threatened, mainly due to water diversions, drought and climate change. Click here.
• Like a canary in a coal mine, the Great Salt Lake’s internationally renowned bird population provides clues to the lake’s health. Click here.
Day Two
(Spenser Heaps | Deseret News) Cracked mud is seen on the dry lakebed of Owens Lake in Inyo County, Calif., on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022.
• Find out how Owens Lake became a parched disaster and why it could — but need not — happen to the Great Salt Lake. Click here.
• What is it like to live next to the nation’s largest source of dust pollution? “You taste salt in your throat, in your mouth and in your nose.” Click here.
• It will be possible to control dust from the Great Salt Lake. See the potential solutions and why they will cost lots of money. Click here.
• How are Owens Lake and the Great Salt Lake similar and different? Click here.
Day Three
(Spenser Heaps | Deseret News) One of Mono Lake’s iconic tufa formations is pictured on the south shore of the lake in Mono County, Calif., on Monday, Aug. 8, 2022.
• Now, see how Mono Lake and the Great Salt Lake compare. Click here.
• The courts played a part in Mono Lake’s recovery. Read about how they might end up being the Great Salt Lake’s savior as well. Click here.
• To rescue the Great Salt Lake, Utah must consider the whole ecosystem — form mountains to forests to desert. Click here.
Day Four
(Spenser Heaps | Deseret News) Phill Kiddoo, air pollution control officer for the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District, shows journalists a tube that collects fine particulate, one measure of how much is being blown around in the wind, at an air quality monitoring site on the north shore of Mono Lake in Mono County, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022.
• Despite its travails, Owens Lake is not dead and holds out hope for the Great Salt Lake. Turns out, a terminal lake can bounce back. The formula is easy: Just add water and stir. Click here.
• To truly know how the Great Salt Lake is doing will require stepped-up monitoring. So why isn’t it occurring? Will it? Click here.
• The problems at Owens Lake affected operations at a nearby naval air base. Could the Great Salt Lake’s woes hamper Hill Air Force Base and other military outposts in Utah? Click here.
• A target level was set for Mono Lake, but four decades later, it has yet to reach it. What should be the Great Salt Lake’s optimal elevation? Click here.
To view all of these stories and more about the Great Salt Lake, go to this Salt Lake Tribune webpage and the Great Salt Lake Collaborative website.