It takes 325,851 gallons of water for 1 Acre foot of water. The great Salt Lake is a little over 1 million square acres. So, to raise the lake a single foot will require approximately 325.851 billion gallons of water. If we are releasing "a few billion gallons per day" ( I always understood a few = 3 or so) then we would need to keep this going for about 3.5 months to raise the lake a single foot. This is why people are saying it's not enough. Because it isn't.
@@travisritzman6772 Not sure why that is a question. It has risen 4 feet because the lake has received a little over 1 Trillion gallons of water. Much of that falling directly from storms. It kind of gives you a new appreciation for mother nature's ability to move water. Plus, from the article we are talking about a few billion gallons a day of new water flow into the GSL. There were already existing flows. We are just adding to it. I was merely pointing out the extra efforts we are making are great, but in the end, it won't make that much of a difference.
This year's wet winter was a rare occurrence. What is the long-term plan, and source(s) of the additional water for farmer, industry, residents and the Great Salt Lake?
Live a little longer you will see you have been taken for a ride. This is how it works...lakes been there for a long time and will be there for a long time...in my life they were building pumps to get ridd of the water...you too will see this at some time as well. Then it will go down...back up ...back down... someone just wants your money or your vote..
Something I noticed during the winter is that the snow melted on my neighbor's gravel area and their artificial turf where the snow on my lawn didn't melt as fast. This showed me that not only do we need to be waterwise, we need to do it in a way that keeps our yards cooler. We can see also that the snow melts on asphalt and cement faster than on grass.
It also depends on which direction your yard is facing. My south-facing driveway generally melts quickly with little need for shoveling while my neighbors across the street have to shovel and salt theirs. Similar story with snow on our lawns - mine melts first.
Yes, shade is good. I can hardly stand to go to the side of town where there are few trees and huge parking lots for Discount stores in the summer because of the temperature increase and raise in uncomfortableness! Flowers come up first on the sides of walls facing south, because the ground gets warmer faster.
The Urban heat effect can be reduced with more tree coverage, more public transit reducing asphalt, and aerodynamic buildings that allow the wind to wick away heat from urban areas.
There was a kinda fundamental reason people didn't live in Utah until science and the industrial revolution started happening. Its mostly desert and rattlesnakes.. Although the Amerindians did quite well there by seeing their population and activities to the environment, not vice versa..
Why not Nuclear powered desalination plants or cloud seeding The reasons for scarcity are all man made. The myth that nature is fragile and sacred will destroy our children's future.
@@dfinlen Not a scientist are you? The problem isn't the amount of water you can shove through a desalinator, it's not even nuclear waste, if you use Thorium. The problem is heat, in the water that goes back into the sea, we already are on the knife edge for Aragonite - shed loads of any type of desalination = heat = acidity = shells don't form (Aragonite) = the Great Dying II. But I wouldn't worry, we'll be well on the way to extinction in about 3 generations anyway - look up micro dosing, pyrethroids, dioxin, pcbs, and the like.. Fertility related birth defects like double wombs and intersex conditions. Humanity has done a brilliant job of killing itself.
@@dfinlen the myth? what an ignorant view from a typical America... You absolutely don't know how to preserve your nature and country. Without a doubt, you is part of the laughing stock... 🤣 "children's future", your boarders been open for the past 250 years... you failed. Trojans also expected to be here today... but they also failed at keeping the boarders closed and draw bridge up.
@@billhosko7723 Actually you judgemental types never gather actual info before you judge someone. My family is very conservation minded....from food to gas and water. What do you do?
Make the basin bigger. When reservoirs are full you have 2 years of deliveries? And it only fills up every 10 years? Get these people that can't figure out this math out of positions of government ASAP!
Because if that reservoir could hold 10 years worth it wouldn't let anything through for the rest of the basins down stream...there isn't enough water...
Of course we need to use water more wisely as populations grow! We can also stop for five minutes and be grateful for a record setting year. I would like to see more data as to were we are and what projected needs are and projected plans to deal with growing needs.
Since ~80% of Utah's water is used for agriculture, it's safe to say that the best thing we could do to prepare for a growing population is start choosing more water wise crops and using efficient watering methods (so not flooding and sprinklers like we do now)
@@drcornelius8275 over population is a world wide issue. India. China Malaysia many countries are in trouble. Be prepared for a huge migration of people who once had homes and food as the environment of Earth decline.
Only 10% of GSL inflow diversions go to residential use, both culinary AND outdoor. Meanwhile 80% go to agriculture. Residents could cease watering, drinking and bathing altogether and it works do little for GSL
@@bob15479 I know in California, famers grow crops that use massive amounts of water...such as rice and oats. That needs to stop. We even export rice to China! So, what crops are raised in Utah that require a lot of water? ..cattle?
I know….very stupid, and I live in the middle-eastern part of the valley. We did something else with our yard. Our sprinkler system got punctured, so we could not maintain the lawn in every area. I consider it in part, a blessing. I wish our yard was managed better, though. I just do not have the say. We have a water 💦 conservation place in the valley, to show people how to do it, so we should all plant to conserve…,at least with part of our yards if not all. I hopefully will be moving from here one day, though. I need to be where it is quieter, and less crowded.
@@weirdshibainu What's the evidence to back up your claim? This is the most amount of snow we've gotten in decades, arguably the highest amount of snowfall in the history of recorded Utah winters.
@@themidnighttavern6784 Decades is nothing in terms of climate or weather. 99 percent of what we know about weather we've learned since ww2. Records are broken repeatedly. What are you thinking? This is the heaviest snowfall we've ever received or ever will? Where's your evidence?
@@weirdshibainu So this is a freak storm, a 1 in 50 year event. That's what I'm using as the basis for my claims. It's a statistical outlier. Will we get another winter like this? Maybe in another few decades. But we can't reliably count on it.
Part of the problem is those metal gate dams they got in the Jordan river set too high water is not moving . Like it use to years ago . Same is with the Weber and Ogden where they both meet. Dont know on the Bear river if it has any of those gates and if it flows in to the lake . They just need to lower those gates some to get a more even flow year round to the lake . Bit of history here way back in the 60s in the winter I'd be walking in snow up to my knees in grade school. 70s was just below the knees in jr high and high school . The last really good snow we got was 36 inches in the valley. I forget what year that was. Fact is when the Great Salt Lake has plenty of water in it we dont really have dry years . Any way i put my two bits worth in on this wayer situation
They need to build a tunnel from the Snake River to the GSL. It's about 70 miles, so we've done that before. The NYC aqueduct is ~100 miles long and the Arizona one is 336 miles long. When the Snake River is flooding you can divert water to the GSL to reduce the flooding along the Snake River.
the closest points between the two are very similar in elevation as well, leading to what theoretically would be a somewhat easily managed system that could be highly beneficial for the entire western US
That's what people thought when they built aqueducts from the Colorado River to LA. That's become a problem. The Snake also feeds the Columbia River. Oregon and Washington are getting drier and will need that water as well. It's a nice idea but a project that large could have a lot of big unintended consequences.
Yet you have people like Elon musk complaining that lack of human population growth is unsustainable. Make that make sense to me. Less people is a good thing!!
@@gtv6chuck What am I supposed to think about? If some god made it rain, why did the same god cause the drought? So you can say praise to him for fixing his wrong and make yourself feel like you did something good?
@@gtv6chuck What about respecting the beliefs and feelings of those who don't want to hear about some god? I do not disrespect anyone for their beliefs, they can believe whatever they want. There is just no need to post about some god you believe solved the issue.
@@NickoBaggins Sorry my friend but it has been drying for over 1000 years. Where I live it was once covered in water. One day there maybe a mormon living in the bottom of what was once the GSL.
Everyone needs to put in native plants for front yards and unused grassy areas at businesses. Also all new construction needs to be Native plants,gravel or some water wise landscaping.
I am not american but i have seen videos of that Salton lake in California . I think this lake is in Utah I’m guessing. Nevertheless i am wondering if all this excess water in the Californian reservoirs could not dump or pump the excess over into that Salton lake to help save it , or flush it or whatever as it has lost so much water over the last few decades. Just saying all this would be a place they could redirect the excess and may be do something good with it and avoid flooding? May be it’s not that simple and I’m talking crap but suddenly you have got all this over load of water and that Salton Sea needs a drink bad.
I live in Nevada and had the opportunity to talk with a retired water resource manager from California. It was a long talk and he explained the machinations of water politics in California. This posting would be 3 feet long and still not do it justice. I asked him a question as the conversation continued " How is it that California is on the verge of a drought and yet I see bottled water from California in stores in Nevada and it's on sale? It doesn't make sense according to market economics." He said " It's easy...you know what the number one problem is for water management in California? It's that water flows uphill to the money."
When reservoirs are at maximum capacity there's only 2 years of supply.... that there is not good enough especially with an expanding population/city. Good luck.
Alfalfa farms and other water intensive ag are the biggest users by a lot. Typical consumers can't conserve their way out of the water shortage issues.
Midi is right. Household/yard use accounts for about 10% of water use, agriculture for about 80%. If we can get farmers to switch away from alfalfa and field flooding and sprinklers, we'd save a lot of water.
Doing what is has been doing for that past thousand years or so. There is an abundance of water right now. BUT don' think the wests water woes are over with.
They sound like a politician. The snow is going to melt and cause flooding and I know because I paid hundreds of thousands to go to school to learn that.
It isn't the population as much as it is we aren't expanding infrastructure to meet it. Look at California. They haven't okayed a new water project in over 40 years. We are outgrowing our ability to supply.
Still need to conserve and up your water bill for our revenue. It's gullible warming people don't pay attention to all the 15 minute cities we are developing.
The fact that California has dumped billions into the fast rail track that’s not even 40% done but hasn’t started making more reservoirs until last year is a complete failure.
How about shutting down the immigration particularly illegal immigration to the state. We only have so much water, so increasing the state population does not help the water issue.
Just do to the GSL what California did to Lake Tulare and get rid of it. We don't need lakes anyway. They're a waste of prime real-estate for condos, apartments, and WalMart stores.
They don't need to pump it to Utah... it'd make more sense financially for California to just desalinate the water it needs and stop using the shared water needed by states farther inland.
