Great Salt Lake and other shrinking salty lakes get $5M in funding
A bipartisan bill meant to address declining saline lakes in the West, including the Great Salt Lake, passed the U.S. Senate with unanimous approval Wednesday. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, introduced and co-sponsored the Saline Lake Ecosystems in the Great Basin States Program Act with Democratic Sens. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Roy Wyden of Oregon and Diane Feinstein of California. The bill earmarks $5 million each year over five years for the U.S. Geological Survey to study saline lakes throughout the Great Basin…. Owens and Mono lakes in California are also named, which water diversions have turned into sources of toxic and dangerous blowing dust.