by As the Great Salt Lake shrinks and scientists worry about toxic dust storms and its possible ecological collapse, Utah state leaders say all options are on the table for a rescue.
Rob Sowby, an assistant professor of civil and construction engineering at Brigham Young University, hopes to implement one: a pipeline that would pump seawater from the Pacific Ocean to Utah to refill the lake.
“It’s really distracting,” Sowby said.
Sowby analyzed the idea in a study published last month in the scientific journal Environmental Research Communications and determined that it would cost at least $300 million in electricity each year to pump water more than 600 miles uphill to the Great Salt Lake. The project would require an incredible amount of energy: about 11% of Utah’s current energy demand.
Sowby said the study represents simple engineering math for the theoretical minimum energy for a pipeline. In reality it would be much more complicated.
“Even the best-case scenario doesn’t look good. We can put down our pencils at that time,” Sowby said. “I hope this can put an end to the Pacific pipeline idea.”
The real-world consequences of overconsumption and drought have sparked public interest in costly engineering solutions, including many that seek to tap distant and underutilized water supplies.
Utah is not the first Western state to be attracted to a megaproject pipe dream, no matter how far-fetched. The fact that none of the megaprojects have come to fruition in recent decades reveals the hard truth: It is cheaper to conserve water, and most water experts think that Western states will simply have to learn to live with less.
“The era of big dams and big projects is dead,” said Michael Cohen, senior associate at the Pacific Institute, a water nonprofit. “There have been a lot of changes in thinking across the West in terms of water conservation, living within people’s means and the idea of limits: we can’t just use whatever we want.”
Water import schemes often grab headlines but rarely receive serious attention.
In the 1990s, a Los Angeles County supervisor proposed exporting water from the Columbia River, which divides Oregon and Washington in its southern reaches, to send water to Southern California. Actor William Shatner stirred up the issue again in 2015 when he said he planned to launch a crowdfunding initiative for the $30 billion idea.
In 2021, Arizona officials asked Congress to examine pumping flood waters from the Mississippi into the Colorado River Basin, according to The Associated Press. More recently, California officials studied and abandoned the idea of pumping seawater from the coast to replenish the state’s dwindling Salton Sea.
Cohen said large water importation plans, while technically possible, are rarely cost-effective compared to conservation projects and would take 20 to 30 years to permit and build.
“They are harmful because people don’t put the time and effort into finding realistic solutions,” Cohen said.
Instead, he sees importation as a zombie idea that will occasionally be resurrected as long as water remains a scarce commodity.
In Salt Lake City, “I think we’re going to hear more questions about the pipeline, rather than less, despite the studies,” Cohen said. “People will be increasingly desperate to find a solution.”
Water levels in the Great Salt Lake have been declining since 1986 and reached a new low in the fall of 2022. Drought and overconsumption of water from the rivers that feed the lake are the main problem.
Climate change is not helping. In January, local researchers issued a dire warning that the lake “as we know it” was “on track to disappear within five years.”
The lake’s water volume has shrunk by more than two-thirds since pioneers settled the Salt Lake Valley, leaving much of its surface exposed and eroded.
Scientists are concerned that dust kicked up from the exposed lake bed could pose significant health risks to people. The dust contains toxic metals and scientists are still trying to understand what increased exposure means for people in nearby communities.
Lawmakers have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars and new legislation into conservation projects designed to help reshape the way Utah uses its water. Meanwhile, some lawmakers have explored ideas for creating a new water supply, through ideas such as cloud seeding, new reservoirs and a possible pipeline, which was chosen as a legislative study topic.
Sowby said he became concerned because the idea of an oil pipeline seemed to make a strong impression on the public.
“It’s one of those things that, at first, sounds ridiculous, but the more you talk about it, the more it becomes a reality,” Sowby said. “It was starting to attract the attention of policymakers and private funders.”
SoSowby and his team crunched the numbers, using the most conservative and generous idea for a potential project.
The team assumed the 10-foot pipeline would go directly to Salt Lake City from the San Francisco Bay Area and rise about 4,200 feet to the Great Salt Lake, providing about one-third of the recommended flow to the lake.
Sowby said the study considers an unrealistically straight pipeline that doesn’t rise or fall with topography or avoid obstacles. The study also does not consider the cost of land, the cost of construction or the challenge of obtaining permits.
Pumping water uphill would require a huge supply of energy. Given Utah’s coal-intensive energy supply, the power generated to operate the pumps would create the same greenhouse gas emissions as 200,000 passenger vehicles, the study found.
“I hope it directs more positive attention toward more viable alternatives,” Sowby said. “We have to do things here at home to better manage our water use.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
