# Status of GSL and our Reservoirs



## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

I wanted to start a separate thread to really discuss the issue of our reservoirs and the GSL. While it is obviously related to winter snowpack, it just felt it deserved its own discussion.

One thought I’ve had recently is this: Just about everywhere that all reading this forum lives used to be under a big body of water named Lake Bonneville. That lake has, for all intents and purposes, almost completely disappeared. Of course we are now talking about saving one of its main remnants in the GSL, but there used to be this vast inland sea.

It did not disappear due to watering our lawns or taking too long of showers. It did not disappear due to inefficient agriculture practices. It didn’t disappear due to anything with humans at all.

I guess what I’m saying is that while I desperately hope we can reverse the course of the GSL for 1,000 different reasons, are we spitting into the wind here? Of course I want us to keep trying, to be clear.

I just wonder if there are forces well beyond our abilities to influence that are hitting our water sources, and that should be the scariest thing of all. Is the CO River system, along with all its reservoirs, and the GSL doomed regardless of what we do?


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

In the 1980s, I remember when we had so much water I-15 was underwater south of Provo... you could literally see carp swimming across the freeway as you drove past at reduced speed.






-DallanC


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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

The trend could definitely be out of our control at the ultimate level. Global warming itself is largely out of the control of even states and individual countries.

But the proximate causes of our water situation can be affected.


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## MrShane (Jul 21, 2019)

Vanilla said:


> I wanted to start a separate thread to really discuss the issue of our reservoirs and the GSL. While it is obviously related to winter snowpack, it just felt it deserved its own discussion.
> 
> One thought I’ve had recently is this: Just about everywhere that all reading this forum lives used to be under a big body of water named Lake Bonneville. That lake has, for all intents and purposes, almost completely disappeared. Of course we are now talking about saving one of its main remnants in the GSL, but there used to be this vast inland sea.
> 
> ...


Who is to say Lake Bonneville may not have still been here had it’s bank not breached and all of it’s contents got dumped in to the sea.
Just think of the lake effect storms that used to be produced off that size of lake!


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## JerryH (Jun 17, 2014)

Out of all the articles written about the GSL this past year. I like reading people's comments about lake Bonneville. It surprises me that alot of people think it evaporated.


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

MrShane said:


> Who is to say Lake Bonneville may not have still been here had it’s bank not breached and all of it’s contents got dumped in to the sea.
> Just think of the lake effect storms that used to be produced off that size of lake!


Back in college I had a geology class, the professor said it breeched up near Idaho somewhere initially and drained north. I dont remember much more than that.

Begs the question though, what kind of fish were in Lake Bonneville, how big did they get, and where are all the fossils that should be scattered across the valley.

-DallanC


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## middlefork (Nov 2, 2008)

Made me look for a refresher.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonneville_flood


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## NativeCutt (Dec 31, 2020)

DallanC said:


> Back in college I had a geology class, the professor said it breeched up near Idaho somewhere initially and drained north. I dont remember much more than that.
> 
> Begs the question though, what kind of fish were in Lake Bonneville, how big did they get, and where are all the fossils that should be scattered across the valley.
> 
> -DallanC


Maybe they all ran up the Jordan River and into Utah Lake as the GSL became more salty. Utah Lake used to have a passel of Bonneville Cutthroat with some very large ones recorded. Early pioneers and others who settled the valley started netting them eventually depleting their numbers and then man-made pollution killed the rest. Remnant populations ran up the Provo River and other tributary stream, then introduced brown trout cut into the populations. Maybe a lot of the Bonneville trout followed the flood waters north with the breach. Maybe deep under the settled pickeled sewage sediments of the GSL are rubberized fish skeletons.


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

middlefork said:


> Made me look for a refresher.
> 
> 
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonneville_flood


This. In addition, the great prehistoric western lakes, (Bonneville, lake Lahontan, and Lake Missoula) formed in association with ice ages. I don't think anyone would like that to recur.

There are some climatological factors that probably exceed mans ability to alter them. There are also some things that we can deal with, such as how we use the water we have, how we alter flows, and how we develop the land and populate it. Even though the fate of lake Bonneville is not an equivalent discussion to how our reservoirs, rivers, and GSL are doing, discussion on the latter is certainly fruitful.


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## bthewilde (Feb 8, 2018)

Pollution is what is taking the water more than anything else. Water that gets bound up in products, or industrial. Followed by golf courses that don’t use gray water. Ya’ll can fight me all you want, but it is people! Soylent green is people!!?!


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## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

The point of Lake Bonneville is that it disappeared in a way that had nothing to do with man, nothing more. The question I’m asking is whether our current water sources will do the same.

And I’ve seen Dennis Quaid in “The Day After Tomorrow.” Another ice age may not be all that bad.


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## MrShane (Jul 21, 2019)

bthewilde said:


> Pollution is what is taking the water more than anything else. Water that gets bound up in products, or industrial. Followed by golf courses that don’t use gray water. Ya’ll can fight me all you want, but it is people! Soylent green is people!!?!


Soylent Green, excellent movie!


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## MrShane (Jul 21, 2019)

DallanC said:


> Back in college I had a geology class, the professor said it breeched up near Idaho somewhere initially and drained north. I dont remember much more than that.
> 
> Begs the question though, what kind of fish were in Lake Bonneville, how big did they get, and where are all the fossils that should be scattered across the valley.
> 
> -DallanC


I ran a jet boat while Sturgeon fishing in Hell’s Canyon.
It was nothing short of awe inspiring to sit in the bottom of that canyon, look WAY up, and realize the waters of Lake Bonneville cut straight down and through that lava rock.


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## 7mm Reloaded (Aug 25, 2015)

Correct me if I’m wrong but I heard somewhere that global warming comes right before Ice ages. Maybe lake Bonneville will be back in a couple thousand years .


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## one4fishing (Jul 2, 2015)

I keep on telling people to stop worrying. We’ll have to fire up the pumps again in a couple years. 
Deep down I wish I wasn’t teasing


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## APD (Nov 16, 2008)

There's the same amount of water on the planet that there was 2 billion years ago... It's just stored differently and access can be complicated. Currently too much of it is tied up in people and things we don't need.


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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

7mm Reloaded said:


> Correct me if I’m wrong but I heard somewhere that global warming comes right before Ice ages. Maybe lake Bonneville will be back in a couple thousand years .


Would be cool to witness sloths in Utah. Then I refresh my memory and remember they were the size of today's bison 😲

Not to mention the giant beavers.


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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

APD said:


> There's the same amount of water on the planet that there was 2 billion years ago... It's just stored differently and access can be complicated. Currently too much of it is tied up in people and things we don't need.


The scary thing is how it changes distribution and location across the globe in short order now*. Humans of the modern era seem to like to stay in place, at least that's how we've thrived. I'm not sure how we adapt to keep up with these rapid changes.

But it's also not a shock to see how many diasporas have happened in the last few decades. That doesn't bode well for us either given how tribal our species can be with resource allocation. 

*Just look at the reporting about the unprecedented heat wave in the Alps this past summer and now this winter. The photos are crazy. Beyond our water needs it's wild to realize that classic, golden era mountaineering routes no longer exist. Books like the "White Spider" might as well be fiction now.


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## MrShane (Jul 21, 2019)

backcountry said:


> Would be cool to witness sloths in Utah. Then I refresh my memory and remember they were the size of today's bison 😲
> 
> Not to mention the giant beavers.


You can witness Sloths now.
Just go to any fast food restaurant where teenagers work and you are sure to find one or two.
The dead give away that you have located one is if your order comes to something like $4.78 and you don’t want a pocket full of change so you slide $5.03 across the counter.
The looks of confusion and the contorted face wondering why you paid the the .03 is the ‘tell’.


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## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

This one will give ya the warm fuzzies inside! 









Great Salt Lake set to vanish in 5 years, experts warn Utah lawmakers in dire report


Utah has months to reverse the lake's decline before it's too late, according to a dire report.




www.ksl.com


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## MrShane (Jul 21, 2019)

Vanilla said:


> This one will give ya the warm fuzzies inside!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That report dated 7/22/22 said we only had months to save the lake.
That deadline has come and gone.
Did we succeed?


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## JerryH (Jun 17, 2014)

Perfect timing. 
Write when I plan on being out of here.


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## MrShane (Jul 21, 2019)

JerryH said:


> Perfect timing.
> Write when I plan on being out of here.


Jerry, where you going?
You probably already know but I helped a mutual friend of ours move to Montana last Oct.


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## JerryH (Jun 17, 2014)

We haven't zeroed it down quite yet. But there will be some dirt road back streets!


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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

MrShane said:


> That report dated 7/22/22 said we only had months to save the lake.
> That deadline has come and gone.
> Did we succeed?


To be fair, that's not what the white paper said nor the quote from the authors. That was a poor summary under a photo on the part of KSL. The authors just said what decisions were made in those months would be important. And that makes sense given the sluggish pace of government and bureaucracies. But the experts don't seem to be as naive as to claim we only had months to save the lake.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

MrShane said:


> You can witness Sloths now.
> Just go to any fast food restaurant where teenagers work and you are sure to find one or two.
> The dead give away that you have located one is if your order comes to something like $4.78 and you don’t want a pocket full of change so you slide $5.03 across the counter.
> The looks of confusion and the contorted face wondering why you paid the the .03 is the ‘tell’.


What's really funny is when they give you 4 nickels and five pennies back😡 🤬


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

GSL vanishing in 5 years. Ya right, I'll take that bet. Not going to happen. Nice hyperbole though.


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