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Sustainability of Water Resources

Drought

The Great Salt Lake Basin includes the rapidly growing Salt Lake City metropolitan area, where the population is expected to increase nearly 50% in the next 20 years. The Utah Water Resources Department predicts a shortfall of 800,000 acre-ft per year by 2050 for consumptive use in the basin, which will need to be addressed by conservation and new water development. These issues lead to the following questions:

What are possible realizations and frequencies of drought, and the effects on water resources?

What is the outlook in terms of drought with respect to water resources, economic impact of lost lake industries, and reduced air quality due to dust generation?

The plot above shows the statewide annual average precipitation for 77 SNOTEL sites located throughout the state of Utah. Utah is currently in its fifth year of below average precipitation, which is one of the most severe droughts in recorded history. Source:  Utah Division of Water Resources

Most reservoirs within the Great Salt Lake Basin are currently well below their average storage, reflective of the current drought conditions. The above plot is for reservoirs within the Weber River Basin. Agricultural and municipal water users rely heavily on these reservoirs for water supply during the dry summer months. Source:  Utah Division of Water Resources

Characterization of Groundwater and the Effects of Bedrock

The location and types of bedrock, the occurrence of geologic faults, and the distribution of precipitation within the watershed affect groundwater recharge in the Great Salt Lake Basin. In addition, differences between the bedrock structure and composition of the mountainous regions versus the valleys within the watershed have been observed. These complexities have led to the following questions:

How is the sustainability of ground water resources related to the interaction between geology, precipitation and recharge?

What are the pathways by which recharge to groundwater occurs, and what is the role of faults and bedrock structure in hydrologic systems?

What are the groundwater budgets for the basins, and what are the contributions of bedrock-dominated groundwater flow to this budget?

How does the bedrock structure and composition of the mountainous regions affect the groundwater flow (alpine karst in carbonate rocks vs. deformed sedimentary rocks vs. igneous massifs)?

Where and how does bedrock flow cause underflow from one topographically defined watershed to another?

Groundwater in the Great Salt Lake Basin generally comes from precipitation on the mountains or valley benches, where it infiltrates into the soil and moves to the basin-fill aquifers. Source:  USGS (2004)

References

USGS. 2004. Water Quality in the Great Salt Lake Basins Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming 1998-2001. National Water-Quality Assessment Program. Circular 1236.

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