Setting a New Standard: A Crucial Step for Water Quality in the Great Salt Lake

American white pelicans
© Gary Crandall

The Great Salt Lake is one of our hemisphere’s most important migratory bird habitats. Yet today there are no numeric quality standards in place to protect its waters. Little data exists on pollutants that are dumped in the Lake, and how they affect its millions of shorebirds and waterfowl.

“It’s actually quite shocking,” said Chris Montague, the Conservancy’s Director of Conservation. “The lack of measurable water quality standards represents a serious threat to all of the Lake’s wildlife. We just have not been tracking how humans are impacting this natural treasure.”

The Great Salt Lake Challenge

The Conservancy is helping to raise money for the Science Panel, which is in desperate need of funding as it works to research selenium contamination and its impacts on birds that rely on the Great Salt Lake and its wetlands.

A long-time Nature Conservancy supporter has just pledged $25,000 to help establish a challenge grant for the research. Your support toward meeting this challenge will help with what may be one of the most important break-throughs in efforts to ensure a healthy future for the Lake.

Give Today

Contact Heidi Mosburg at 801-531-0999 or hmosburg@tnc.org to make your donation. Thanks to the challenge grant, your gift will be matched dollar for dollar up to $25,000, making a powerful difference in the race to set water quality standards for this Last Great Place.

But that’s about to change—thanks to an effort between the Conservancy, the Great Salt Lake Alliance, Friends of Great Salt Lake, the State Division of Water Quality, Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District, and Kennecott Utah Copper.

Together, the organizations have formed the Great Salt Lake Water Quality Steering Committee to recommend site-specific numeric water quality standards for the open waters of the Great Salt Lake, which will prevent impairment of beneficial uses and sustain the natural resources of the Lake and its wetlands.

The Committee is composed of federal and state regulatory agencies, other public entities, conservation organizations, recreation groups, and industrial users of the Lake. While the Committee will manage the strategy, process and administration of setting standards, it will rely heavily on a Science Panel for the research needed to understand the contaminants and their impact.

Beginning with the contaminant selenium, the Panel will analyze exiting data and recommend additional research to determine how much selenium is entering the Lake due to human activities, and how it is affecting the Lake’s bird species.

“The Science Panel is composed of the nation’s leading experts on selenium contamination and saline water bodies,” said Maunsel Pearce, a Conservancy Board

Member and Founder of the Great Salt Lake Alliance.

“This is a truly exciting first step for the long-term protection of the Lake and wetlands.”

If the standard setting for selenium is successful, the Steering Committee plans to tackle other major sources of pollution within the Lake waters. Working with the Environmental Protection Agency, Utah’s Division of Water Quality will implement the new standards and have a numeric, tangible foundation for regulating the health of the Lake.

After helping to spur the process, the Conservancy is now serving as an alternate on the Steering Committee and is raising funds to support the ground-breaking research efforts of the Science Panel (see sidebar).

“We’re extremely optimistic,” said Montague. “A globally important resource rests in our backyard, and this effort marks Utah’s first government-sanctioned attempt to protect its waters. That’s a major milestone for our state, and for the birds of the Great Salt Lake.”