It isn’t just that the Great Salt Lake may dry up. It’s what it is leaving behind … toxic dust. The cost to contain that dust is staggering!

Utah’s drying Great Salt Lake is on track to collapse in five years, if the current water loss trends continue, according to a new report released this month. This could expose millions of people to toxic arsenic-laced dust from the lakebed.

The report, authored by a team of 32 ecologists and conservationists, points to excessive water use as the decline’s primary driver.

– Drying Great Salt Lake Could Expose Millions to Toxic Arsenic-Laced Dust, Smithsonian Magazine, 13 January 2023