SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — A local nonprofit organization hosted a community forum Thursday evening to address the public’s concerns about the Great Salt Lake, as Utah is facing intensifying drought conditions and the lowest levels of the lake in the past two years.
Grow the Flow is a local nonprofit organization focused on restoring the Great Salt Lake. They hosted the community forum, featuring ecologist Dr. Ben Abbott, who is a professor at BYU and also the executive director of Grow the Flow, and Dr. Kevin Perry, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Utah and an expert on Great Salt Lake Dust.
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The lower water levels will only make the drought worse, as it reduces precipitation and pollutes the air. The lakebed has high levels of toxic pollutants like arsenic and heavy metals, and as more of it is exposed, the risk of toxic dust storms increases.
“There are around 120 of these large saline lakes around the world,” Abbott said in an interview with ABC4.com. “Almost all of them are in decline, and there’s not a single example of a lake once it’s slipped into decline being restored, and we want our community to be the first, and one of the real assets that we have is Utahns care about Great Salt Lake.”…