A Watershed Vision for Great Salt Lake

Walter L. Baker
Director, Utah Division of Water Quality

 

I am sure most of us here at DEQ know what experts are saying about the Great Salt Lake (GSL): that it is the most important inland shorebird site in North America; that it supports 75 percent of the state’s wetlands; that it is one of the most significant wildlife habitats in our hemisphere; and that it is the re-fueling stop for millions of migratory birds. Certainly, GSL is one of Utah’s crown jewels – though perhaps the least understood and most neglected one.

The Utah Division of Water Quality (DWQ) is striving to understand this mysterious water body better, at least from a water quality perspective. In cooperation with a magnificent group of scientists and stakeholders, DWQ has nearly completed a four-year study that is aimed at developing a numeric selenium standard for GSL. It is the first such numeric pollutant standard devised for GSL, although I believe more will follow. During the same period, DWQ has led a nationally-recognized study investigating whether GSL wetlands are being impaired by excessive nutrients coming from natural sources and human activities. Soon, we will begin a study investigating the methyl-mercury issue in GSL. That study will allow us to define the magnitude of the mercury problem and help lead to the sources of the mercury pollution. Over $3 million has been committed for these three studies, all aimed at increasing our understanding of conditions that affect the GSL’s water quality and helping us preserve the beneficial uses of the lake.

Each of these water quality investigations involve separate individuals and groups, but that approach is about to change. Recently, DWQ selected Jodi Gardberg of the Total Maximum Daily Load section of Water Quality to coordinate activities for a newly-designated GSL Watershed. This new approach will coordinate public and private efforts toward solving pressing water quality problems in the drainage basin of GSL – a 21,000-square-mile area that includes five major rivers and parts of three states. It is a huge area, equivalent to 25 percent of Utah’s total land mass.

The GSL Watershed Committee will provide a continuing water quality forum based on strong science. Its core principles will be stakeholder involvement and collaboration; data collection; resource assessment; clear problem prioritization; goal-setting; and effective implementation and evaluation. The new committee will carry on work begun by the Great Salt Lake Steering Committee, but in broader terms. It will not supplant the work of other formal and informal groups interested in GSL. Instead, the GSL Watershed Committee will coalesce financial and institutional resources to address GSL’s challenges, with a focus on environmental and conservation issues.

I envision the GSL Watershed Committee eventually becoming a GSL Commission established by statute, as precedent suggests that it should. Of the major sovereign water bodies in the state, which are Great Salt Lake, Utah Lake, Bear Lake, Jordan River, and portions of Green River, Colorado River and Bear River – only GSL, Jordan River and Green River do not benefit from statutory commissions. Despite the lack of an overseeing commission, Jordan River is under the stewardship of Salt Lake County which recently updated the area-wide water quality management plan which serves to protect the river. This leaves GSL as one of only two “orphaned” sovereign water bodies.

I believe the creation of a GSL commission will be invaluable in bringing increased local, state, regional, and national resources to bear on managing Great Salt Lake – thus preserving this crown jewel as a natural treasure for future generations to enjoy. This step would be in complete harmony with Utah’s Public Trust Doctrine. I ask for your support in making this vision a reality.

This article appeared in the Friends of the Great Salt Lake fall newsletter.