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How clean is the Great Salt Lake?

Posted by: Maven on April 26, 2009 at 6:54 am

From the Tooele Transcript Bulletin:

On many spring days, the Great Salt Lake is an inviting sight, the azure blue of the water blending into a cloudless sky. But how pristine is North America’s largest body of salt water? Can you swim in it? Can you eat foods associated with it? What if the water gets in your mouth?

Those are open-ended questions. State water quality officials and environmentalists admit there are contaminants in the Great Salt Lake that could be harmful, but opinions vary as to how dangerous they are and what risks they pose.

John Whitehead, an assistant director of the Utah Division of Water Quality within the Department of Environmental Quality, said mercury and selenium have been two issues of concern at the lake. But that doesn’t mean everyone who’s taken a dip in the brackish waters has reason to worry. “At this point, we’re not aware of a health issue [to humans] from contact with the water,” Whitehead said.

Still, Jeff Salt, director of the Great Salt Lake Water Keepers, an environmental organization formerly called Great Salt Lakekeeper, said he’s cautious.

“I’ve swam and played in the Great Salt Lake but I’m cautious about that because I believe, being that the lake is in a terminal basin, it’s receiving all of the pollution from the entire watershed,” he said. “Everything is flowing down and ending up in the lake, either through the Bear River, Weber River, or Jordan River — or pollution that’s been discharged directly into the lake by companies like Kennecott and US Magnesium.”

Read more from the Tooele Transcript Bulletin by clicking here.

Photo credit: BW Jones of flickr.

April 26, 2009 · Filed Under Colorado River & the Southwest

Comments

One Response to “How clean is the Great Salt Lake?”

  1. Suzy on July 18th, 2010 4:24 pm

    it the water green?

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