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Editor's note: This article is published through the Great Salt Lake Collaborative, a solutions journalism initiative that partners news, education and media organizations to help inform people about the plight of the Great Salt Lake.
SALT LAKE CITY — Five conservation groups are banding together in a lawsuit against Utah's natural resource leaders, arguing that they aren't doing enough to get water to the struggling Great Salt Lake, which they say could have major environmental consequences in the near future.
The American Bird Conservancy, Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment and Utah Rivers Council filed the lawsuit against the Utah Department of Natural Resources in 3rd District Court on Wednesday, seeking for the state to find ways to get the lake back to 4,198 feet elevation — almost 6 feet higher than the lake's current levels.
Utah's Division of Water Rights and Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands, each under the department's umbrella, are also named as defendants.
"The baby steps Utah has taken at the Great Salt Lake are woefully inadequate to sustain the American West's largest wetland ecosystem and we need the state to stop ignoring the upstream water diversions that are spiraling the lake and its wildlife into oblivion," Zach Frankel, executive director of the Utah Rivers Council, said in a statement Wednesday.
The conservation groups contend in the lawsuit that Utah's agencies aren't following the state's public trust doctrine, in which the state "holds and manages" natural resources for the public good, such as the Great Salt Lake. They write the lake is rich in cultural history, and it serves as a major environmental asset and economic driver for the state, but the lake is shrinking primarily because of water diversions.
Utah officials say the lake provides more than 7,500 jobs and contributes almost $2 billion to the state's economy every year. It also boosts lake effect snow by 5% to 10%, supporting the state's massive ski industry. It also attracts more than 10 million migratory birds annually.
Lake levels reached an all-time low last year before rising several feet as a result of Utah's record snowpack and an efficient snowmelt. It topped out at about 4,194.1 feet elevation at the Great Salt Lake State Park marina in June and is now listed at 4,192.6 feet elevation, about 4 feet above last year's record low, according to U.S. Geological Survey data.
Its current levels remain below the minimum "healthy" level for the lake, which the Great Salt Lake Strike Team listed as 4,198 feet elevation. The team, which included experts from Utah's natural resources department and some of its divisions, issued a report earlier this year that determined consumptive use accounted for anywhere from 67% to 73% of the lake's decline in recent years — far more impactful than snowpack uncertainty or direct evaporation.
The conservation groups said more lakebed dust containing arsenic, mercury and other pollutants is exposed as the lake shrinks. NASA released a report earlier this year that found more than half of the lakebed became exposed, which poses a threat for more dust storms that will "particularly impact residents of Tooele County and the west side of Salt Lake City."
The groups add the lake's salinity increases to levels that threaten important brine shrimp when the lake remains below 4,198 feet elevation. In addition, they write that it makes it easier for invasive plant species to grow and predators to threaten important wildlife species, and more difficult for people to boat on the lake.
These, they say, are examples that Utah has "failed to undertake all feasible means of maintaining" the Great Salt Lake to a level that is "consistent with protecting trust uses."
"The Great Salt Lake belongs to the people of Utah and the state has a legal obligation to protect this resource. But the state has sidestepped that obligation and failed to respond to the crisis facing the lake," Stu Gillespie, senior attorney for Earthjustice's Rocky Mountain office, said in a statement. "Upstream water diversions threaten the lake's biodiversity, industries that depend on the lake and human health throughout the region."
The groups are seeking a ruling that would force the department and its other agencies to take steps to prevent further lake decline within two years of the ruling. They are also seeking that the departments "take action sufficient to restore" lake levels to at least 4,198 feet elevation and maintain levels at that minimum level, which they say is the "minimum elevation consistent with continued public trust uses."
Joel Ferry, executive director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, declined to comment on specifics outlined in the lawsuit; however, he acknowledged the state's desire to protect the Great Salt Lake moving forward in a statement to KSL.com on Wednesday afternoon.
Utah leaders have taken steps in recent years to address the declining lake, including setting up a $40 million trust that seeks to temporarily secure water rights from farmers and other rights holders to direct upstream water into the lake. State lawmakers also created a new Great Salt Lake commissioner position to oversee issues tied to the lake, while expanding its agricultural optimization program.
"There has been unprecedented interest, investment and action to preserve and protect the Great Salt Lake in recent years. The state has been actively working with many interested parties on the lake," Ferry's statement read, in part. "Working together, we have found more productive ways to effect change. ... We invite all to work with us in finding meaningful ways to benefit the lake, its ecosystem and surrounding communities."
The Utah Governor's Office declined to comment on the case, saying the state doesn't comment on ongoing litigation.
Correction: A previous version of this article stated that the lawsuit was filed against the Utah Division of Water Resources. It was filed against the Utah Division of Water Rights.
