Shrinking Great Salt Lake could be devastating to Utah economy

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — The continued loss of the Great Salt Lake could have a "devastating, irreversible" effect on Wasatch Front's economy, environment, and health.

More than 50 years ago, Hartley Anderson, while driving home from his job at Hill Air Force base, decided to stop off on the shores of the Great Salt Lake.

He scooped up a shovel full of minerals from the lakebed, refined what he found and began selling and giving away the mineral supplements to neighbors.

“A neighbor lady was having some pain and stiffness in her knees and couldn't kneel down to say her prayers at night,” says Anderson’s son, Bruce. “And in a relatively short amount of time(after taking the supplements) she was kneeling down again.”

Since that breakthrough, Hartley and his wife Gaye started Mineral Resources International.

In the last five decades, it has grown to a multi-million dollar company employing dozens of people.

Bruce Anderson, has since taken over for his parents, and finds himself manning the helm of the family business at a time when the Great Salt Lake finds itself in troubled waters.

“It’s rather alarming,” said Anderson as he evaluates to dry lakebed where water used to flow.

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“We've seen, really, in the last 20 years, the Great Salt Lake right up close to our (harvesting) ponds now it’s (the shore of the lake) out four to five miles,” he said.

That has added distance and makes it more difficult and more expensive to harvest minerals for the health food supplements they manufacture.

Laura Vernon is the Great Salt Lake Coordinator for Utah. Her job was created by the Utah State Legislature in 2020, as lawmakers began to acknowledge the emergency growing in the salty body of water.

Vernon said if the lake continues to evaporate, the economic impact could be significant.

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“As the lake levels decrease, we could see economic impact from $1.7 to about $2 billion annually and the loss of over 5,000 jobs,” Vernon said.

Overtime a variety of industries will be affected by a shrinking lake, including the mineral extraction business, of which MRI is a part.

According to data from the Department of Natural Resources, that industry could lose $1.3 billion a year.

If the evaporation continues, and lake-effect snow decreases, Utah’s ski season could be shortened by as much as a month, that could cost that industry $10 million annually. Additionally, more dust rising from the dried-out lake could lead to an extra $22 million in medical cost a year.

Anderson said now is the time to act.

“The alarm bells are going off. If we don't start taking some really significant action, we might be getting to the close of irreversibility,” he said.

Now the legislature is listening to those alarms. In the last legislative session, lawmakers vowed to spend $40 million and passed 11 significant bills to help save the lake.

For Anderson, he said saving the lake is important for his business, but even more so for the state.

“When I’ve seen the miracles that we've seen because of the Great Salt Lake, it would be a travesty to not recognize that value,” Anderson said.