Researchers, Experts to Lead Discussion on Great Salt Lake at Newsmaker Breakfast

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s Great Salt Lake Strike Team, a partnership of Utah’s research universities and Utah State agencies, will release a new data and policy report at the Gardner Policy Institute’s Newsmaker Breakfast on Jan. 10. The event, panel and report will inform discussions ahead of Utah's legislative session.

The report will be summarized by Brian Steed, executive director of USU’s Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water and Air and commissioner of the Great Salt Lake. Steed is also a co-chair of the Great Salt Lake Strike Team. He will be joined by fellow co-chair William Anderegg, director of the Wilkes Center for Climate Science and Policy at the University of Utah.

The report captures how the Great Salt Lake has changed following last winter’s record precipitation and how that affects future forecasts for the lake.

“One of the reasons we didn’t see more runoff (into the lake) is because the ground was much drier. And so, as we had that record snowfall, much of that just went into the ground,” Steed said at the November conference. “And then the stuff that did make it into runoff, a lot of that we captured into reservoir storage. That’s actually, for those of us that drink water, a good thing, but be aware that that’s also water that didn’t reach the lake.”

The new report has added elevation changes of both the north and south arms of the lake, reservoir storage in the Great Salt Lake watershed, salinity, runoff efficiency and updated calculations of water conservation needed to refill the lake.

“If we have roughly average years, we think we’re likely able to maintain those (low) lake levels, but refilling is going to take additional conservation, and it really pens out to how lucky we’re going to get between drought and average conditions,” Anderegg said, “and how quickly we as a state decide we want to try to bring water to the lake toward a more healthy level.”

The breakfast will also feature a panel, moderated by Natalie Gochnour, director of the Gardner Policy Institute and co-chair of the Great Salt Lake strike team.

“Utah State University has been central in researching the Great Salt Lake’s ecological issues,” Steed said. “The university's experts have contributed significantly to the interdisciplinary strike team formed in 2022 to study the lake's problems and seek solutions.”

USU members of the Great Salt Lake Strike Team include David Tarboton, director of the Utah Water Research Laboratory; Anna McEntire, managing director of the Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water and Air; Joanna Endter-Wada, professor of Natural Resource Policy; Bethany Neilson, professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Sarah Null, associate professor of Watershed Sciences; and Matt Yost, associate professor of Plant, Soils and Climate and agroclimate Extension specialist.

The Newsmaker Breakfast, open to the public and media, will begin at 8 a.m. at the Monson Center, 411 E. South Temple, Salt Lake City.