The state of Utah has finalized an agreement with Compass Minerals to donate 200,000 acre-feet of water to the Great Salt Lake annually. The deal hinges on HB453, a law signed in March that established tax incentives for mineral extraction companies to reduce their water usage when the lake falls below 4,198 feet.
The lake is currently at 4,193 feet, five feet below its minimum healthy level.
Compass Minerals’ Ogden plant extracts salt to make sodium chloride, sulfate of potash and magnesium chloride, which are used for deicing products and fertilizer.
This is the first agreement the Utah Department of Natural Resources has reached with a mineral company, said Ben Stireman, deputy director of lands & minerals.
“This has been six months of negotiations and working to find something that would be meaningful for the lake, but also, that is workable for a company that wants to continue to operate.”
He said they are also in negotiations with the other mineral companies around the lake.
Still, the Great Salt Lake needs about a million more acre-feet of water per year to reach and maintain a healthy level, said Ben Abbott, associate professor of plant and wildlife sciences at Brigham Young University and director of Grow the Flow. He said it’s hard to know exactly how much of a difference this donation will make.
“If they were already taking much less than their rights, which most of the mineral extractors were, then it might not actually translate into that full amount, 200,000 acre-feet not being taken from the lake,” he said.
Ultimately, water levels are affected by how much water goes in and how much water goes out.
Stireman said Compass Minerals has already been using less water than it could have, and “this is their commitment to not expand.” In addition, the company agreed to reduce its consumption based on the water level.
“If the lake's doing good, they can operate to that full remaining water right,” he said. “If the lake starts to decline, this is their commitment to even reduce their use down to the point where they're not in operation.”
Even though all 200,000 acre-feet of water won’t be new to the lake, Abbott said it’s still a victory. He said the donation from Compass Minerals is one of the most important moves that’s been made to preserve the lake.
“Now, that didn't happen in a vacuum. It was because of public interest, public priorities, that then motivated legislators to really move on this issue.”
He noted that of the roughly 120 large saline lakes around the world, more than 100 are in decline.
“When these lakes die, so do the communities around them,” he said. Lake bed dust causes public health issues, economies suffer as people change where they want to live, and those who rely on water can’t access it anymore, he said.
Abbott hopes Compass Minerals will inspire other companies to protect the Great Salt Lake, and not for economic gain, but from “recognition that if the lake continues to decline, then all of us suffer.”
“We're still just sitting a few years away from lake collapse, and so the only thing long term that's going to restore the lake for the health of our community, for the vitality of our economy and for our national and global reputation, is to live within our means and use less water.”
Macy Lipkin is a Report for America corps member who reports for KUER in northern Utah.
