This article is published through the Great Salt Lake Collaborative, a solutions journalism initiative that partners news, education and media organizations to help inform people about the plight of the Great Salt Lake and what can be done to address the difference before it’s too late. . Read all of our stories at greatsaltlakenews.org.
The deteriorating health of the Great Salt Lake isn’t just a calling card for Utah advocates, scientists and lawmakers: It’s on the radar of Utah military installations. These include Hill Air Force Base, Camp Williams, Dugway Proving Ground and Tooele Army Depot, as well as the Utah Test and Training Range, the largest block of contiguous special-use airspace in the continental United States.
Why does that matter?
For Utah’s military installations, keeping the lake thriving is a top goal, especially when it comes to wind-swept dust on 800 square miles of exposed lake bed in the Great Salt Lake due to unrelenting drought and diversions. upstream.
“I do think it is a concern for all of us. It is not only the damage it represents for the team, but especially for the staff who work every day and work on the team. And yes, that is a big concern for us because we have an aviation facility in western Jordan and those winds could easily reach western Jordan and some of that dust and those dust storms could fall into that area,” Paul said. Raymond. with the Utah Army National Guard.
An M109 Paladin conducting live-fire artillery training at Camp Williams. | Office of Public Affairs, Utah National Guard
Raymond is the director of the state-chartered West Traverse Sentinel Landscape program to facilitate important projects such as watershed restoration, wildfire mitigation, and encroachment on a rapidly growing population in Salt Lake and Utah counties. in the heart of Camp Williams country.
State designation in 2023 added a layer of protection and provided the military with options to work with communities and landowners to shore up an adequate cushion to continue their vital missions.
But earlier this year, protection escalated to an entirely different level with the federal designation of the Great Salt Lake Basin Sentinel Landscape.
The designation encompasses more than 2.7 million acres in northern Utah and contains the largest saline lake in the Western Hemisphere, the Great Salt Lake, and four military installations with unique missions and capabilities: Hill Air Force Base, Camp Williams, Tooele Army Depot and Air Force Little Mountain Test Facility.
A KC-135 Stratotanker assigned to McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas, refuels an F-35 Lightning II assigned to Hill Air Force Base, Utah, during EXPLODE, Feb. 27, 2024, over the Mountains Rockies in the western United States. EXPLODEO was a McConnell exercise that tested the ability of the 22nd and 931st Air Refueling Wings to rapidly deploy and employ in theater. | Airman 1st Class Gavin Hameed, National Guard
What does the ‘Sentinel Landscape’ designation mean?
Tyler Smith, a retired Army brigadier general who now works for the Utah Department of Military and Veterans Affairs as a facility resilience program manager, said there was a recognition from the beginning to combat climate change, the effects of drought, wildfire mitigation and community engagement. . He is the coordinator of the Great Salt Lake Sentinel Landscape.
Smith said that as the lake shrinks, it creates compounding problems for the military, pushing migratory birds eastward and leading to potential airstrikes.
The government’s new designation includes numerous federal partners, state agencies and nonprofit organizations, as well as the newly created Great Salt Lake Commissioner’s Office and the Utah Defense Alliance, whose mission is to defend the forces Utah Armies.
“The Great Salt Lake Sentinel Landscape has come together to begin working more effectively, with the military mission being central to the civilian landscape goals,” Smith said. “And so Hill Air Force Base, you know, can’t thrive if there are all these types of environmental factors that are creating problems in the community and in the state.”
It is funded with existing money from multiple agencies including the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Owens Lake and Dust
Located on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada in California’s Inyo County, Owens Lake has become the nation’s largest source of PM 10, particulate pollutants that penetrate the lungs and pose health risks. The pollution occurred after diversions left the lake dry. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power began diverting waters from the 110-square-mile lake in 1913. In 13 short years, the California lake dried up.
The China Lake Naval Air Weapons Center had to shut down operations several times due to dust, costing it millions of dollars.
Phill Kiddoo, air pollution control officer for the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District, which is the regulatory authority over Owens Lake and Mono Lake to the north, told the Deseret News in a previous report that the concern was so great that the Navy was doing its thing. own studies. In fact, the Department of Defense was one of the players that urged federal action to mitigate the problem because operations at China Lake were restricted up to 10 times a year.
U.S. Army paratroopers assigned to the 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne) prepare to complete proper landing procedures to avoid the risk of injury during an airborne jump Feb. 25, 2023, near Camp Williams , Utah. The parachute drop known as PLF is a safety technique that allows the parachutist to land safely and displace the energy of the body that contacts the ground at high speeds. | SPC Christopher Hall, Utah National Guard
Raymond said that, so far, dust has not been a major impediment to military operations at Camp Williams.
But the military is well aware of the potential.
The message: We don’t want to be another Owens Lake.
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