Three years ago, when Utah’s Great Salt Lake was at its lowest levels, state lawmakers were alarmed enough to try what may be impossible: save the lake from drying up. If Utah succeeds, it would be the first place in the world to reverse a saline lake’s decline. The salt lake — the largest in the Western Hemisphere — once covered an area larger than Rhode Island. Today, more than half its water is gone. About 800 square miles of lake bed sits exposed, baking in the desert heat, sometimes billowing toxic dust plumes across the state’s urban core. … But the measures the state is pursuing will take decades to reap results, if ever. Critics now say the pace and scale of the efforts must greatly increase. 

Other Great Salt Lake news:

• ABC4 (Salt Lake City, Utah): Toxic dust storm sweeps across Salt Lake Valley, hitting Utah’s most densely populated areas
• Yale Climate Connections: Blog: Rising temperatures are contributing to the Great Salt Lake’s decline