WHEELON, Utah — Standing next to a canal near Cutler Dam, groups of people huddled and talked about water.
Cutler Dam is the last dam on the Bear River before the Great Salt Lake. It was a perfect spot for a group of farmers, political officials, researchers and others at an event hosted by Utah State University's Water Research Laboratory on Tuesday.
"We really set this up to provoke conversation, right? It’s not a one-way, experts deliver their information to the participants," said Dr. David Rosenberg, a professor at USU's Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. "Everyone brings their own information, knowledge, values."
It's related to research the university is conducting about better ways to get water to the Great Salt Lake. "Immersive modeling" brings together people from various backgrounds where they look at potential water solutions from someone else's perspective, which can often yield more questions or provide valuable insights.
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"People are immersing in different water user roles in the model session, in the collaborative modeling session," Dr. Rosenberg said. "They’re making choices about how much to consume, conserve."
The Great Salt Lake dropped to a record low in 2022 as a result of water diversions, drought and impacts from a changing climate. A shrinking lake presents a significant threat to Utah's health, ecology and economy with reduced snowpack, dust storms and impacts to wildlife and industries that rely on the lake. The public and Utah political leaders have reacted with alarm, pushing conservation measures and spending hundreds of millions of dollars aimed at reversing the declines. The lake rebounded thanks to record-breaking winters, but has started to decline again.
When it comes to saving the Great Salt Lake, everyone has ideas to save it.
"With all the research that’s out there and the things that are available now? There has to be a solution," said Garland Mayor Linda Bourne, who participated in Tuesday's event.
Farmers discussed the savings they've seen by switching to newer, more water-saving technologies.
"We figure, conservatively, we’ve saved two weeks of water," said Boyd Bingham, who farms in Box Elder County.
Bingham told FOX 13 News he does believe the water he has conserved is getting downstream to the Great Salt Lake.
"How much? I don’t know. I can't measure that," he said.
Reversing the Great Salt Lake's declines has a simple solution — get water into the lake. But Hadia Akbar, a PhD student at USU who is working in immersive modeling, said that actually presents a lot more complicated questions.
"It's not as simple like, 'I'm letting go of my water, just take it to Great Salt Lake,'" she told FOX 13 News. "There’s a lot of other users involved."
But the immersive modeling research being conducted by USU is already yielding some new ideas. Akbar said one that came out of their work was an idea of what to do with water saved and how better to track whether it makes it to the lake. Summertime is when water diversions are at their peak.
"If somebody is allowing their water to be banked, which is essentially they’re getting paid not to use it or they lease it to the bank and we store it in the reservoirs in the valley? That can be released later in off-season or in the winter season when there is less diversions happening," Akbar said. "That essentially is less diversion losses or transmission losses from the valley to getting it to the Great Salt Lake."
Akbar has been working on that for a portion of the Cache Valley — a large agriculture sector for Utah — and on Tuesday she said she would like to see if they can scale it up to other parts of the Bear River Basin, which feeds into the Great Salt Lake. However, that also presents its own challenges, she said, involving stakeholders in Idaho and Wyoming, which are also on the Bear River.
But Akbar said they are finding people are willing to work together to find solutions.
"It’s just really interesting to learn that in the history of Bear River Basin, there’s been more collaboration among people instead of contention and that gives me hope," she said.
Dr. Rosenberg has also been doing immersive modeling involving stakeholders along the Colorado River (another contentious environmental issue) that is also showing promise.
"We’re seeing takers in our immersive modeling work. People are leasing water to the bank, they're conserving, they're negotiating what the price is going to be for that," he said.
Brian Steed, the Great Salt Lake Commissioner, who is tasked by state leaders to come up with a plan to save the lake, attended Tuesday's event and said the research can be helpful.
"I think this approach offers a unique opportunity to really work with all parties to see how we can do that with causing the least harm to individuals," he said.
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 at greatsaltlakenews.org.
