A new study finds health care costs associated dust blowing off a shrinking Great Salt Lake could cost as much as $2 billion a year. Lena Harris, an assistant professor at Texas A&M, wrote the working paper with researchers from Arizona State University and University of California Davis. She said they did a “back of the envelope calculation” that found just factoring PM 2.5 and PM10 blowing off the lakebed at scale could lead to significant costs for emergency room visits and years off Utahns’ lives. … The study also explored health benefits of getting water into the lake, factoring in acquiring agriculture water (spending as much as $1,000 an acre-foot). For every additional acre-foot of water in the Great Salt Lake? One model finds Utahns would get on average about $1,295 per acre-foot in health benefits.

Other Great Salt Lake news:

• Utah News Dispatch: The Great Salt Lake — Utah’s silent health emergency
• Utah Public Radio: Shorebirds tell the story of a changing Great Salt Lake