The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power began siphoning the waters of the 110-square-mile Owens Lake in 1913. Within 13 short years, the California lake went dry. The water helped build the then-fledgling city of Los Angeles, but left residents in the hills of Owens Valley choking on the dust left behind as the utility siphoned the waters from its tributaries and built a massive aqueduct. … The story of Owens Lake and its sister lake to the north, Mono, prompted a group of Utah media to travel to the area this summer to glean from the lessons, the failures along the way, and what the take home should be for the Great Salt Lake. 

Related articles:

• Fox 13 – Salt Lake City: Is dry California lake a peek into the future of the Great Salt Lake?
• Salt Lake Tribune: Is this northern Utah’s future? ‘You taste salt in your throat, in your mouth and in your nose.’