Relocating to SLC - is it really that bad there? (Herriman: loans, how much)

[Positiveone]

five years? Wow! That’s much sooner than I expected. I thought you would respond 15-20 years. Hopefully it can be avoided.
You would think the state would have a massive project to save the lake.

Thank you for responding




QUOTE=kletter1mann;63809764]Too many variables to predict with confidence. Some say within 5 years if current climate trends and lack of serious remediation persists.[/quote]

[Hiruko]

Utah's government and local media have a little bit of a different perspective on local efforts to address Great Salt Lake evaporation and drought. I recommend taking a look at the numerous news articles that The Salt Lake Tribune has done on the article over the widely-shared, though important, article from The New York Times.

GOVERNOR'S OFFICE: UTAH’S ONGOING RESPONSE TO DROUGHT

Governor Spencer Cox's Twitter

[kletter1mann]

Originally Posted by Hiruko

Utah's government and local media have a little bit of a different perspective on local efforts to address Great Salt Lake evaporation and drought. I recommend taking a look at the numerous news articles that The Salt Lake Tribune has done on the article over the widely-shared, though important, article from The New York Times.

GOVERNOR'S OFFICE: UTAH’S ONGOING RESPONSE TO DROUGHT

Governor Spencer Cox's Twitter

I'll believe it when I see serious demand-based water billing.

[kavm]

Originally Posted by Hiruko

Utah's government and local media have a little bit of a different perspective on local efforts to address Great Salt Lake evaporation and drought. I recommend taking a look at the numerous news articles that The Salt Lake Tribune has done on the article over the widely-shared, though important, article from The New York Times.

GOVERNOR'S OFFICE: UTAH’S ONGOING RESPONSE TO DROUGHT

Governor Spencer Cox's Twitter

I agree with kletter1mann. Governor Cox is saying the right things but he is a politician - and it is anyway the Legislative leaders that run the State. So, watch for the actions and not the words. So far, there is no evidence of meaningful reforms in water consumption (and diversion from the Great Salt Lake) on the ground.

[kletter1mann]

Originally Posted by kavm

I agree with kletter1mann. Governor Cox is saying the right things but he is a politician - and it is anyway the Legislative leaders that run the State. So, watch for the actions and not the words. So far, there is no evidence of meaningful reforms in water consumption (and diversion from the Great Salt Lake) on the ground.

Bingo. I expect that real action won't occur until out-migration ramps up enough to impact housing values and those employers competing in the national labor pool - i.e., for the young people with brains - start having hiring and retention problems. I doubt it will take more than a couple years. Probably it's already in motion, or at least putting the brakes on expansion plans. The lake is now national news, thank you NYT. And the poobahs at Adobe certainly read the NYT.

[grandisp]

If you’re coming from Idaho it might not be too much of a stretch. You’ve got your share up there. You’ll be ok.

[BOORGONG]

Originally Posted by kletter1mann

Bingo. I expect that real action won't occur until out-migration ramps up enough to impact housing values and those employers competing in the national labor pool - i.e., for the young people with brains - start having hiring and retention problems. I doubt it will take more than a couple years. Probably it's already in motion, or at least putting the brakes on expansion plans. The lake is now national news, thank you NYT. And the poobahs at Adobe certainly read the NYT.

The NYT article could have related a successful curbing of water consumption if the problem had been addressed years ago. The problem then, is that the ability to respond to this and other problems would make the city and state even more attractive to incomers, new consumers of the precious resource.

[kavm]

Originally Posted by kavm

I agree with kletter1mann. Governor Cox is saying the right things but he is a politician - and it is anyway the Legislative leaders that run the State. So, watch for the actions and not the words. So far, there is no evidence of meaningful reforms in water consumption (and diversion from the Great Salt Lake) on the ground.

The story captures the depth of commitment of Governor Cox administration as far as Great Salt Lake is concerned. His office of Public Lands Policy originally supported application to extend canals to siphon 100,000 gallons per minute from the Great Salt Lake. It did walk back its support once the project became public due to timely reporting by SL Tribune and a lot of adverse public comments followed.

https://www.sltrib.com/news/environm...e-now-opposes/

It is still huge progress that the office found its original support, once exposed to public daylight, untenable but the story demonstrates how deep the commitment of the Governor Cox or Utah politicians towards meaningfully addressing the challenges associated with the Great Salt Lake or environmental issues in general is.

[COcheesehead]

Sitting in SLC right now. The air quality is horrible. Brown cloud throughout the valley.

[kavm]

Back to the GSL problem - everyone should read the BYU study: Emergency measures needed to rescue Great Salt Lake from ongoing collapse https://pws.byu.edu/GSL%20report%202023

The situation is quite dire. At a high-level, we have:

• Annual Water Gain: (1.6 MAF - Million Acre Feet)
  • 0.6 MAF - direct precipitation
  • 1 MAF - Runoff to the lake
• Annual Water Loss: (2.8 MAF)
  • 2.6 MAF - Evaporation
  • 0.2 MAF - Mineral extraction
• Annual Net Loss: 1.2 MAF
• Total Water Consumption: 2.3 MAF
  • 74% in Agriculture
  • 8% in Reservoir loss
  • 9% cities and industry
  • 9% mineral extraction
• Conclusion: The water consumption in the State of Utah will need to drop by 52% simply to stabilize the current level in the GSL. To increase it, we'd need more than that. So, the size of the problem is very formidable and in all likelihood the leadership of this State is not up to the task.

Obviously, the farming consumption has to go down by a very large factor to get anywhere and the political will and the resources to do that in the massive way required are simply not there. So, we should all the GSL to be dry and the only remaining question is when.