I have long maintained this. The winter storms have historically come through, drawn water from the lake and dumped it in the mountains. The snow melts and the water finds its way back to the lake. Then people come along and start drawing water from the runoff that heads back to the lake - not so much that anyone would notice, but it happens.
Then a few more people come along and the amount of runoff that gets back to the lake is reduced, meaning that the next time water is evaporated for the lake effect snow, there is that much less to be deposited in the mountains. Reduced runoff results, and more people clamoring for the reduced runoff results in less water making it back to the lake. Rinse and repeat. Throw in lower than average rainfall for a few years and suddenly we have a serious issue.
Maybe my vision of the vanishing lake is too simple. Maybe my BA should not be trying to dabble in things science, but from where I sit, when a climate driver like the Great Salt Lake starts vanishing, I get worried.
I just don’t ever see the GSL coming back, at least not while I’m still alive.
I grew up on the east bench in Bountiful. The lake affect snowfalls in the 80s & early 90s were huge. My house had a metal roof so the snow would slide off within a few days of the storm. This would create huge snowbanks which surrounded the house. For a few years there were still traces of those snowbanks around my house on the last day of school around Memorial Day.
I think Powder Mountain would get those huge snowfalls due to lake affect storms. I’m pretty sure PowMow hasn’t had any of those huge storms for a while now. Sadly those lake affect storms are a thing of the past, for the most part.
People expect the PNW to be lush and green, but we are in the rain shadow of the Olympics and get only about 22 inches of rain on average. Add to the fact that our water has to be imported from quite a distance away and no one here waters their lawn. After being conditioned to the lush oasis of SLC, it’s been quite an adjustment, but my goal has been to get rid of the weeds before the grass dies off in July. That said, I’ve mowed in November and February frequently. It’s weird.
The game changer for me with regard to flowers and other non-lawn stuff is the addition of rain barrels. And to be honest, with the possibility of thunderstorms in Utah and the mountain west, they’d probably be even more productive there than here. I’m pretty sure SLC gets more rain than we do in July and August.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the subject of water lately, and doing what I can (largely watering my yard less) to try to make a difference.
I saw the article below in the SLTRIB today, found it interesting, and then read about several “greywater recycling” products, particularly https://www.hydraloop.com/.
This is very interesting to me and I was surprised about the relatively low cost of Hydraloop, although the quoted costs is a basic system only and does not account for what would be the major expense of redoing all the home’s plumbing.
I did a major remodel of my home (1926 - 2 story home with bathrooms on all three levels) about 6 years ago, and wish I had thought about this sort of a system then. As a part of the remodel the preparation of the plumbing for a product like Hydraloop would not have been significantly more expense. But to redo it now certainly would be.
I’m curious if anyone on the board has any experience with such a system. I’m also curious if those of you that know a lot more about water than I, have any thoughts about greywater reuse in general.
A video, showing nothing but automobile traffic composed almost entirely of large SUVs and trucks. The irony, it would be delicious if it weren’t so depressing.