​Could an ​Utah's Great Salt lake is gradually drying up by too much water being extracted for the cities

 Utah's Great Salt lake is gradually becoming less Great, as the lake shrinks due to over use of the water. Because of flooding many years ago around the great salt lake, the Government spent millions building a pumping station to remove water from the lake and pumping the water into an adjacent dry basin for evaporation. This started to lower the levels a bit, but then the natural runoff from the mountains reduced and people used more water, and lake levels lowered to safer levels. But, the water kept getting lower. And lower. Once the lake dries up, it’s easy for winds to pick up the dust and carry it into the cities and mountains. Fertilizers, arsenic, and many other things people don’t want in their lungs will all end up in the air. The other problem from a smaller lake is a feedback loop. Without the larger lake to produce lake effect snow, there’s less water in the rivers, and that leads to less water going back into the lake. So, the problem will not only accelerate towards a complete dry-up, but it will leave the people who took too much water from the rivers with less water and less tourism from skiers.



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