Utah, for more than 20 years we have sucked the life from the Great Salt Lake ecosystem. We have vandalized what makes us unique. We have spit on, defecated in, pushed, shoved, prostituted and poisoned our greatest natural resources. We have actively and knowingly formed a circle of bullies, and we have tortured the Great Salt Lake, the wetlands and all the unborn potential it carries.
None of us can say it was an accident because we are complicit. We had 20 years of drought to respond to the lake as it slowly and silently disappeared, but only now, when the press of the world is here to stand by the bedside of this dying resource, are we begging the world to hear our defense. In history, Utah will be known as the state that murdered a national treasure.
So, the question becomes, if Utah has known for 20 years that we were using finite resources, why didn’t we do anything to preserve them? Whose fault is all this, anyway?
A quote from the forgettable 2006 Disney film, “A Cinderella Story,” summarizes many Utah residents’ beliefs about our manifest destiny and our water rights.
Fiona: The lawn’s looking a little brown.
Sam: You know we’re supposed to be conserving water! We’re in the middle of a drought!
Fiona: Droughts are for poor people. You think J-Lo has a brown lawn? People who use extra water have extra class.
Many Utahns assume that since “God gave us this land,” we can do whatever we want with the water, too. It isn’t just our ridiculously plush Kentucky bluegrass which convicts us of killing the Great Salt Lake’s ecosystem. It is our expanding population, the housing boom, recreation and agriculture. All of these entities are part of the elephant in the room if we talk about water scarcity in Utah.
Unfortunately, we have yet to hear any real long-term solutions, but are still riddled by misconceptions about this treasured space we share. Any Utah resident has heard one of these false statements.
“What good is the Great Salt Lake? You can’t swim in it. You can’t fish in it. You can’t ski on it.”
“How can you say we’re killing it? It’s already dead.”
“It’s nothing but a breeding ground for bugs.”
“It doesn’t do anything for Utah besides stink.”
What have we learned from 20 drought years? The cumulative lesson has painted us a bleak portrait of Utah without the water from the Great Salt Lake’s ecosystem of lakes, rivers, springs and wetlands. However, in the short term, we have had no consensus about the warning shots fired in our direction.
This massive neglect has and will continue to produce deadly routes for all migrating animals who must traverse Utah. Without the Great Salt Lake wetlands, millions of animals will be at risk of death from stress, from exhaustion and from starvation.
No cement barriers, no orange cones and no big flashing LED signs saying “No Stopping or Standing,” can warn the thousands of living things migrating through our state that Utah is closed.
Soon the lake will have to be renamed. Our biggest body of what was formerly water will be known as Arsenic and Old Lakes. Possibly, Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County will be forced to just be called Sandy. (Yes, Draper, that should give you pause.) Our “lake effect” weather will produce a toxic chemical Haboob, and our “Welcome to Utah” signs will sport the new Utah slogan, “Utah Blows.”
Suzanne McDougal
Suzanne McDougal is a retired Jordan High School writing teacher turned amateur wildlife photographer. The Great Salt Lake is her passion.
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