What's at stake with a declining Lake.

Losing the Great Salt Lake would be a permanent impact to our quality of life.

As the shoreline recedes, arsenic-laced dust threatens 2.5 million Utahns downwind. The particles are tiny and can stay in the air for days, even outside of wind storms.
Critical wetlands for migratory birds are disappearing. The Great Salt Lake is the largest remaining wetland in the American West, supporting 8–10 million birds annually.
Shrinking snowpack shortens our famous ski seasons. Without the lake, the lake-effect snow that helps Utah claim The Greatest Snow on Earth is gone.
If the lake collapses, our economy will falter, with billions in losses. Utah could lose between $1.69 billion and $2.17 billion each year, with long-term losses up to $25–$32 billion over 20 years. These impacts hit minerals, recreation, jobs (more than 6,500), and many other industries.
Property values would drop, threatening the value we rely on for homes and our long-term financial security.

Banner Photo by Mark Seawell

It's solvable but we must act NOW.

Here's what you can do, and it's easy.

In just the time it takes to grab your morning coffee, you can help save our Great Salt Lake. A quick phone call to a Utah state legislator expressing your concern can make a difference. You don’t need to be an expert or offer solutions—just say saving the lake is important to you and ask them to act. This is a solvable problem; the science and solutions are known, they just need to be implemented.

How to do it:

Find your legislator at the link here: (https://le.utah.gov/GIS/findDistrict.jsp). Put them in your contact list for easier retrieval next time. You'll want to call often.
Expect to reach an intern or voicemail; that’s normal, and you can leave a brief message.
If you do reach the legislator, all the better. Be respectful and tell him or her your concerns.
What to say (a simple script): “Good morning, my name is [Your Name], I’m a Utah voter and your constituent. I’m really concerned about the water levels of our Great Salt Lake and want to see funding to restore the level to 4200 ft."
If possible, ask them how they plan to address this during the legislative session?

Notes:

Your call will be logged as a constituent concern, even if you don’t get a direct answer. This is still good, call data is collected around issues that helps our leaders know what to focus on.
Legislators want to hear from the people they serve. I know it doesn't always feel that way.

We will post new information as the legislative session progresses like specific bills to ask them to vote for or against as they become apparent. So please check the QR code often.

Thank you for taking a moment to speak up. Every call helps.

Conservation is LESS costly than Mitigating the collapse.

Saving the Great Salt Lake is not only an environmental imperative but a fiscally smarter choice than years of reactive mitigation.

Dr. Ben Abbott, a global ecologist at Brigham Young University and executive director of Grow the Flow, brings decades of experience on water security and drying lake beds around the world. He and his team have developed robust assessment methods and conclude that the Great Salt Lake can be saved with a proactive allocation of $500 million per year for 10 years.

That upfront investment is far more cost-effective than the long, escalating costs of letting the lake collapse and then trying to mitigate the damage for decades to come.

A stark contrast emerges when we compare costs. The Division of Water Resources Municipal & Industrial Water Conservation Opportunities Report estimates that a “no action” scenario—keeping the lake at its current level—would require total project expenditures between $7.2 and $14.4 billion, with annualized dust-control costs of $290 million to $575 million over 25 years. Yet those figures assume the lake remains at diminishing levels, a trajectory that only increases mitigation costs as dust, health, and ecological effects intensify.

By restoring and conserving the lake toward a healthy 4200 feet, we avert the ongoing, unpredictable expense of endlessly deploying mitigation technologies. The Utah Rivers Council’s 20-year dust-mitigation projections for Great Salt Lake range from $1.3 to $22.8 billion, a ceiling that dwarfs the cost of proactive conservation.

We can—and should—prevent a future dominated by costly, temporary fixes. The path forward hinges on action, not abdication. Utah’s choices now determine whether we lose the lake’s ecological and cultural attributes or preserve them at a sustainable, manageable cost.

Our best first step is legislative outreach to align policy with the lake’s long-term vitality.

Find your local state legislators here and make the call TODAY:

https://le.utah.gov/GIS/findDistrict.jsp

Photo by Chris Carlson

6796cb38a07624b04272ceac_GSLStatePark_Dec31_2024-62-p-800.webp

Photo by Chris Carlson

More resources

growtheflowutah.org
utahrivers.org
savethegreatsaltlake.org
audubon.org
nature.org
greatsaltlakenews.org