Environmental as well as community groups are suing the state of Utah, because they believe that the state has not done enough, to prevent the collapse of the Great Salt Lake. The groups filing a lawsuit against the state of Utah are the “Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment,” the “American Bird Conservancy,” the “Center for Biological Diversity,” and the “Utah Rivers Council.” 

There are many negatives to our Great Salt Lake decreasing. For starters, the Great Salt Lake is home to 338 different types of birds. As well as many brine flies, and brine shrimp that these birds feed on during their migration. They use the lake as a stopover and feeding pass before continuing their journey. However, the further depletion of the lake has led to fewer and fewer brine flies as well as brine shrimp, causing many birds to have a lack of food, leading to differing migratory patterns, or even death for many of these incredible birds. 

Another negative of the Great Salt Lake decreasing is the potential lack of jobs that this may lead to. The Great Salt Lake offers 7,700 jobs, such as mineral extraction, and harvesting brine shrimp. Many of these jobs are in danger of disappearing if the lake were to dry up. The state of Utah would also lose a significant amount of money, from these jobs as well as the tourism that the lake brings in. The lake brings in roughly 2 billion into our economy, which would be a significant loss for the State. 

The final and most substantial of the effects is the impact it would have on humans. The lake masks many lakebed sediments that are harmful to humans. The depletion of the lake, however, has led to many things such as arsenic, mercury, nickel, and lead, that go into the air. These are very harmful to breathe in, and people have already been exposed to a lot of these toxins and unfortunately breathe in. As the lake further depletes it leads to this problem only becoming worse. Ecologist Ben Abbot from Brigham Young University states that this would be, “one of the worst environmental disasters in modern US history.” 

“The shrinking of Great Salt Lake has already become a major source of air pollution and a serious public health hazard from the dust and the heavy metals and residual industrial and agricultural chemicals that contaminate that dust,” Dr. Brian Moench from the Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment and a resident of Davis County said. “Further shrinking of the lake, and its eventual disappearance, will become a public health disaster, and a threat to the health, well-being, and life expectancy of everyone who lives along the Wasatch Front.”

These are the largest effects, with the most impact. These are the prominent points that will be used most likely in this case. This is an impactful case and just shows the overall state that the Great Salt Lake is in.