The reason for such differing opinions is simple: where facts are lacking, conjecture rushes in. We know there are contaminants in the lake. What we don’t yet know is the extent of the contamination or exactly who or what is responsible for it. Until those long-overdue answers are provided there will continue to be wildly varying opinions about lake water quality.
Hopefully, a multi-agency study initiated in 2007 can at least give the public a sense of the scope of mercury contamination in the lake. The study, which involves the federal Fish and Wildlife Service, state Division of Wildlife Resources, state Division of Water Quality, Utah State University and the U.S. Geological Survey, is focusing on the way toxic methylmercury accumulates as it passes up the food chain — and possibly into our own food supply.
The multi-agency group is also hoping to determine where the mercury in the lake originated from. That’s certainly information the public should have, and we hope the group won’t shy away from naming names for political reasons. We can’t begin to clean up the problem until we know what activities have caused it.
But mercury isn’t the only concern. Many other chemicals have been washed into the lake over the years and the only way to know what dangers they pose is to undertake a comprehensive study of the lake’s water quality. It’s that big-picture study that’s always been missing from research on the lake.
We need to know not just how contaminants could affect people utilizing the lake for recreation, but how they could effect wildlife, including the millions of shorebirds that migrate through the area each year, and domestic animals, such as cattle that graze near the lake shore.
The Great Salt Lake has been shrouded in mystery ever since Jim Bridger believed it to be an inlet of the Pacific Ocean. But, in this day and age, what’s in the lake shouldn’t be a mystery any longer.
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