Utah officials are increasing efforts to measure water flow into the Great Salt Lake, acknowledging the crucial role of data in managing the shrinking lake. The state is installing new streamgages and dedicating millions of dollars to improving water tracking.
You can’t manage what you can’t measure, and I think that’s the theme of the last few years,” said Deputy State Engineer Blake Bingham. 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 — and what can be done to make a difference before it is too late.
Read all of our stories atThat gage is about 10 miles from the lake, said Deputy Great Salt Lake Commissioner Tim Davis, adding streamgages along the Bear and Jordan rivers also aren’t close to the lake.There’s been a lack of information about exactly how much water is flowing to the lake, he said, but the state has started to realize the importance of better data over the past five years. Officials have dedicated millions to figuring out the gaps in measurement, and now filling them — including $3 million from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to install and maintain 13 streamgages. The state will use $1 million more each year to install dozens more measuring devices in tributaries, said Deputy State Engineer Blake Bingham. More than 200 additional devices are necessary to ensure water is getting where it needs to go and understand how it flows through the massive lake basin, Bingham said. “It’s critical,” he said. “You can’t manage what you can’t measure, and I think that’s the theme of the last few years.”Though two good winters have helped the lake recover slightly, water levels are still below the 30-year average and a target level the state has defined as healthy.for the Great Salt Lake identifying its healthy range — when islands are islands again, salinity levels help brine shrimp and brine flies thrive, and bird habitat is abundant — but the water is not so high that it causes the flooding and havoc, like that seen in the 1980s. That ideal level is between 4,198 and 4,205 feet above sea leve
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