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Show A-10 Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, September 5-8, 2020 The Park Record Continued from A-8 BUYING OR SELLING IN OLD TOWN PARK CITY? Great Salt Lake Home: 1184 Lowell Avenue, Park City 3 BD | 3 BA | 1,838 SF | $1,525,000 Condo: 1402 Empire Avenue, #1A, Park City 2 BD | 2 BA | 1,013 SF | $625,000 Lot: 1209 Norfolk Avenue, Park City Flat Lot | 0.04 Acres | $600,000 Call us for your local Real Estate needs. We will help you find your Park City dream property! Jillene Cahill Bear, Weber and Jordan rivers. The council’s recommendations are geared toward keeping minimal flows on those rivers to ensure enough water reaches the Great Salt Lake to prevent an ecological catastrophe. The report was compiled by the Salt Lake City law firm Clyde Snow, which solicited strategies submitted anonymously by the public. Of 70 strategies identified through this process, the council selected 12 to embrace with the hope of stopping and perhaps reversing the lake’s decline, according to Leonard. “There is always hope. Measures taken so far show people are willing and able to conserve. We have barely scratched the surface of conservation opportunities,” said Leonard, president of the Utah Artemia Association which represents the brine shrimpers. “It would also be nice to have help from Mother Nature.” Not making the cut were steps long urged by environmental activists, such as scaling back the proposed Bear River water project and eliminating subsidies that keep water prices artificially low. The stakes are huge, not just for the industries that rely on the lake, but also for the lake’s biological integrity and the quality of life it supports, according to Westminster College professor Bonnie Baxter. She co-edited the forthcoming book, titled “Great Salt Lake Biology: a terminal lake in a time of change,” whose 16 chapters are all framed around the question of the lake’s dropping levels. As the lake shrinks, its salt concentrations rise, affecting the lake’s chemistry and altering the communities of organisms that inhabit its waters, from microbes to migratory birds. “Salinity is the major driver of the ecosystem,” she said. “The biology would be significantly disrupted because as less water reaches the lake, the salinity goes up and that means different microbes will grow.” The invertebrates will in turn be displaced and the effects will ripple up the food chain. “The brine shrimp and brine flies depend on the microbial community, they provide food for the next layer of the food web, the birds,” Baxter continued. “It is indeed a cascading effect that could lead to the decimation of this entire ecosystem. Less water for shorebirds means their habitat moves based on their leg lengths.” Modeling suggest that even with “extreme” conservation measures, the Great Salt Lake could still drop another 1.5 feet. “If things don’t change, the level could drop 11 feet,” she said. “It is such a shallow lake, one foot is a big deal, much less 11 feet.” Topping the advisory council’s list of recommendations is a proposal to recognize irrigators’ rights to water they save through conservation. Under Western water law, water users lose the rights to water they don’t put to “beneficial use,” creating a huge disincentive to conserve. “Water conservation efforts will be a cornerstone strategy to meeting the realities of the future and `stretching’ Utah’s limited water supply,” the report’s summary states. “Establishing a legal right to conserved water provides the incentive to engage in these efforts.” The report also urges quantifying how much water users are conserving and requiring meters on secondary water, the untreated water many northern Utah residents use on landscaping with almost no restriction. One pilot program found a 25% decrease in consumption by residences once their use was metered. Also encouraged was the use of “split season” water rights where a portion of a right that is not used during irrigation season can be made available for instream flows. The council is likewise pushing for more efficient use of water by agriculture, which accounts for about 80% of the state’s overall consumption. But water saved by farmers won’t do much to help the lake without significant changes in Utah water law, which the report urges lawmakers to consider. “To ensure water rights intended for Great Salt Lake uses get to the lake, they must be first recognized as a legitimate beneficial use of water and then shepherded through the local water system,” it states. “To ensure other water users along the way do not take instream flows intended for lake uses to satisfy their own rights, there must be a legal recognition of an instream flow that sits in a similar standing with other appropriated water rights.” The report went on to urge changes in the law that would allow state agencies and nonprofits to acquire rights, through donation, purchase or lease, to water that would remain in streams, ultimately reaching the Great Salt Lake, whose value to Utah is finally being recognized by policymakers after decades of neglect. Kambrin Thorne REALTOR® Associate Broker 435.513.1200 435.513.1474 jillene.cahill@sothebysrealty.com kambrin.thorne@sothebysrealty.com This material is based upon information that we consider reliable, but because it has been supplied by third parties, we cannot represent that it is accurate or complete, including price, or withdrawal without notice; square footage is an estimate only. ©MMXX Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Sotheby’s International Realty® is a licensed trademark to Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates, Inc. An Equal Opportunity Company. Each office is independently owned and operated. Copyright© Summit Sotheby’s International Realty 2020. YOUR PERFECT SKI DAY STARTS HERE Park City’s Newest Ski in Ski Out Private Ski Club Memberships starting at $6,000 Secure Your Season Call Today www.jacksonshideaway.com 435-200-8832 1415 Lowell Ave. Park City, UT 84060 |