Record snow brings Great Salt Lake back from the brink of drought

signs of Hope for the environments in 2022 Utah's Great Salt Lake was at a record low level it came as a state experienced its driest year in 128 years scenes of shimmering water were replaced by startling images of parched cracked lake bed struggling to survive but over the winter Utah received an historic amount of snow and as John Blackstone shows us that has helped bringing the Great Salt Lake back from the brink there's a particular Beauty to this Lake in the desert it seems all the more special this year you are talking to a person who literally wrote an obituary for Great Salt Lakes biologist Bonnie Baxter is among the many who until recently feared the Great Salt Lake was dying last time I was here just a year ago this was absolutely bone dry yes dry out to there and to look at it now yeah look at that look at the sailboats it's like the people haven't been able to even have boats on the water last year when the lake reached its lowest level ever recorded what water there was became too salty for much of the life the lake supports but now the Swarms of tiny brine flies on the water's edge is a sign the lake is returning to hell but this is exciting for you yes we're exciting so exciting the birds are back on the shore the Flies are back on the shore it tells us that if we can get water to this Lake the lake will take care of itself but got to get water yeah and relying on mother nature to do this Mammoth snowstorm season again is not a good strategy Utah got more snow this past winter than it's received in at least 40 years as that snow melts the rivers that feed the Great Salt Lake are running high and fast 20 bands you go a little further Mike Freeman of the U.S Geological Survey is tracking the flow on the Bear River the Bear River provides about a little under half of the total volume that goes into the Great Salt Lake the measurement is made in CFS cubic feet per second for which Freeman has an excellent explanation one cubic foot is equivalent to one basketball going from this point every second so if you think about a river right now we have about 3 300 CFS so 3 300 basketballs per second moving down the river it's a bounty badly needed after a long drug says Utah's director of Natural Resources Joel Ferry it's a 20-year drought at the very tail end of the worst drought in 1200 years and it was Dire and then the heavens opened the heavens opened this last year we received over 200 percent precipitation Statewide as well as his government job Ferry runs a ranch that's been in his family for five generations when we were here a year ago this was parched yeah this was nothing would grow here if we didn't hear a gate yeah and now it's well it's been flooded flooded by the Bear River in spite of that Ferry is still pushing for more conservation to send more water to the Great Salt Lake we might be out of drought today but we're preparing for the next one it's coming I guarantee you that we will be in drought within the next five years last year we saw University of Utah scientist Kevin Perry measuring Arsenic and other heavy metals in the dust of the dry lake bed which is the source for dust storms that threatened the health of millions in the Salt Lake City region you can see this wall of dust and it reduces the visibility and people are very concerned about what might be in the dust that they're breathing the risk of dust storms has not gone away even with this year's water level rise of about five feet much of the lake bed remains dry we need to gain 11 feet for it to be stable we would be in water here oh yes oh yes yeah we would be we would be in water so it's not mission accomplished to hang our hat we're done it's go to work really all hands on deck to continue to save that Lake it's a lake that is still challenged but from brine flies to boaters is slowly returning to life for CBS Saturday morning John Blackstone Great Salt Lake um so great to see those boats out there you know the predictions were that that Lake would be gone in five years and now there's some hope well you heard her say one of the women say in the in the piece she said I wrote the obituary for this place yeah now I'm saying it's back the thing that's coming off for me was the thunder and lightning background right thank you I look beautiful clouds

Channel: CBS News

Views: 37,707

Keywords: CBS Saturday Morning, CBS News, video, utah, great salt lake, snow, extreme weather, snowfall, drought

Id: khhAJlphyM4

Length: 4min 53sec (293 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 05 2023