It won’t get better because the same type of people get voted into office by the same type of voters. Pecuniary priorities trump all here in Utah.
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The issues at play are not new, and have been known for many, many years. I remember reading Cadillac Dessert in the early 90s.
It’s a good read and still valid in many of the points it brought up in 1986.
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There are a couple of gaps in the story. It talks about the potential for farms to lease excess water that isn’t needed. But it doesn’t state how much water could be leased if that option was available, particularly in drought years. Would it be a drop in the bucket?
The line about water from irrigating alfalfa will make it down to the aquifers seems like a real as stretch, about as likely as watering my lawn will help fill the aquifers. If water from irrigating makes it to the aquifers, they’re using too much water.
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If the Mike Noels of the world have any say, things won’t change.
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Mike Noel won’t support anything different until the Salt Lake Valley is a dust bowl and the National Guard has to haul water in tankers to keep the Capitol lawn as lush as any property in Florida.
Then he may give it consideration.
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In Utah they have all the power.
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Yep. Just look at the current bills in this year’s session, and the fact that Cox has already signed two very controversial bills. One was about education vouchers. I wonder why our legislators won’t listen to the people who actually educate children. Makes me wonder how many of the kids and grandkids are enrolled in private schools.
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Funding private schools = funding discrimination. Private schools get to choose their students. Public school, by law, has to accept all students.
Sounds like a 5th / 14th Amendment case opportunity.
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Our school district is a test case for a certain party’s agenda. Lots of outside money flipped the school board about 10 years ago, they tried to do vouchers and it went to the state supreme court (CO) and got ruled illegal. There’s a big private school that drove most of it (Christian McCaffrey went there and they are a sports powerhouse). Parents were ticked and we were able to flip the school back to sanity, but then mask mandates got voters to flip it back. Needless to say, we are now paying for 3 superintendents with only one actually in the role. Hope this isn’t too political, but whether it’s education or water, it’s always going to be a mess.
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The history of education in SLC is interesting.
Before statehood most schools were private, an extension of church affiliation. This led to conflicts between school age kids and the parents about religious claims taught in the schools, which led to the Utah State Constitution explicitly declaring public education as the State’s responsibility at Statehood, and the LDS church (at least) got out of the K12 education business, to support the move to public education.
I want to see a big tax credit for water not consumed, which would help address the GSL / Colorado River situation, and really handcuff the Legislature, help them with their addiction to boneheaded decisions.
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This is a scary report. Many of you are more in tune with this. Is this scare tactic or real possibility:
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As I know some of the players in this discussion personally, yes it’s real - and for some, not surprising.
The GSL has been drying up for many, many thousands of years. The desert climate and drought cycles have always had it and Utah Lake on a countdown to zero. That said, population growth, inefficient agricultural uses and industrialization have sped up the drying cycle for both bodies of water. Even with the wet year we are having, it is fair to consider the fact the GSL will be essentially dry soon. Utah Lake will likely join it within several decades. Trying to make deserts livable for large populations is killing the West and Southwest.
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Utah – reap what you sow. Good luck.
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I used to have an airplane, took this photo of Fremont Island in 2004. (This is the NW tip looking SE, with the Wasatch east of Layton in the upper left-hand corner in the distance.)
Last summer you could walk to Fremont Island. No need for the buffalo skin boat John C. Fremont & Kit Carson used to explore it, in 1843.
The GSL and Utah Lake are very shallow lakes, part of the basin-and-range topography of the Great Basin, so it doesn’t take a lot to lower or raise the lake level.
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Posting this in here as a related side topic… unfortunately I tend to agree with a quote found in the article: it’s terrifying.
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I think our chickens are coming home to roost. This was all avoidable but our arrogance as an American people to reject academics wins the day again.
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Our arrogance leads the way into others not taking action too across the globe because if we don’t change, it won’t matter much. Of course, we all have to change or we are all affected. This is what we get with scientific illiteracy amongst most of our leaders. I’ve always wondered if I went into politics to give a STEM perspective of understanding if it’d help, but I know I’d be bashing my head against a wall and also fighting the 2-year short-sighted cycle of the people’s chamber (House).
David Attenborough’s magnum opus is all about the importance of biodiversity and the benefits for the planet. Check out any of the short clips on YouTube of the latest fuller length feature. It’s really interesting.
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I find it funny how people are freaking out about China buying land in Texas but not that American Factory farms are destroying said land with untenable practices.
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