Connect with us

Utah

Utah’s Great Salt Lake is drying out, threatening ecological, economic disaster

Published

on

Utah’s Great Salt Lake is drying out, threatening ecological, economic disaster


SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, July 14 (Reuters) – Utah’s Nice Salt Lake dropped to its lowest recorded stage this month amid a two-decade drought, a grim milestone as researchers and politicians level to grave threats to wildlife and folks alongside its receding shores.

The close by metropolis of Salt Lake Metropolis is already topic to mud storms that specialists fears might worsen.

“To save lots of the Nice Salt Lake, in order that we do not develop into Mud Lake Metropolis, is to make a acutely aware selection that the lake is efficacious and that the lake must have water put into it,” mentioned atmospheric scientist Kevin Perry, who has biked throughout dried-out lakebed since 2016 to check its composition.

Register now for FREE limitless entry to Reuters.com

For years, water that will in any other case find yourself within the lake has been diverted for human consumption, business and agriculture. Mixed with the continuing drought, which has been exacerbated by local weather change, that has uncovered ever extra lakebed.

On July 3, the floor of the lake fell to the bottom stage since information started in 1847, to a mean of 4,190 ft (1,277 meters) above sea stage, in line with the U.S. Geological Survey. It’s anticipated to lower additional till fall or early winter, when incoming water equals or exceeds evaporation.

The lake accommodates little greater than one-fourth the quantity of water now because it did at its excessive level in 1987, USGS mentioned.

The lake has misplaced almost half its floor space from the historic common, exposing some 800 sq. miles (2,000 sq. km) of lakebed – an space bigger than the Hawaiian island of Maui.

Advertisement

Layers of earth that have been previously underwater have swirled into mud clouds laced with calcium, sulphur and arsenic, a naturally occurring ingredient linked to most cancers and beginning defects. Uncovered lakebed can also be contaminated with residue from copper and silver mining.

“In case you breathe that mud over an prolonged time period, like many years or longer, then it will possibly result in will increase in several types of most cancers, like lung most cancers, bladder most cancers, heart problems, diabetes and such,” Perry, from the College of Utah in Salt Lake Metropolis, informed Reuters on a current morning on Farmington Bay.

Advertisement

Extra than simply people are endangered. Underwater reef-like buildings host a micro-organism that’s meals for brine shrimp, in flip an vital meals for birds, however the buildings dry out and switch grey when uncovered.

Alvin Sihapanya, a researcher on the Nice Salt Lake Institute at Westminster School, cupped his fingers within the water and confirmed off two palms filled with water teeming with tiny shrimp.

“It is tremendous unhappy and devastating that these guys are uncovered,” Sihapanya mentioned, referring to the buildings. “It wasn’t like this final 12 months.”

An estimated 10 million birds from greater than 330 species migrate by means of or stay on the lake annually, mentioned Max Malmquist of the Nationwide Audubon Society’s Saline Lakes Program.

Half of the North American continent’s ruddy geese stage right here whereas half of its redheads nest right here, in line with the Nice Salt Lake Audubon. Some 90% of the world’s eared grebe inhabitants stage right here, feasting on the brine shrimp.

Advertisement

The shrimp are additionally harvested in a multimillion-dollar brine business, forming a part of a lake-generated financial system that officers estimate to be value as much as $2 billion yearly.

With public consciousness and stress to behave rising, Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed into regulation 11 payments associated to water conservation and coverage within the final legislative session. Longer-term options would require the main customers – agriculture, business, municipalities – to devour much less water and provides extra to the lake.

“As we hit these new document lows, we begin to run the danger that these all of these values that we derive from the Nice Salt Lake might be in danger,” mentioned Utah State Consultant Tim Hawkes. “And that is what’s driving this political stress to do one thing.”

Register now for FREE limitless entry to Reuters.com

Reporting by Nathan Frandino; Enhancing by Daniel Trotta and Donna Bryson

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Belief Ideas.



Source link

Utah

Utah Hockey Club Owner Ryan Smith Builds Buzz With Free Ticket Giveaway

Published

on

Utah Hockey Club Owner Ryan Smith Builds Buzz With Free Ticket Giveaway


When you’re the Utah Hockey Club, giving away 2,000 tickets to a regular-season game is a cause for celebration, not alarm.

After all, not every pro sports team team has an unused inventory of ‘single goal view seats’ that it can tap as a tool to help entice new fans.

Advertisement

It started with a simple tweet from Utah Hockey Club owner Ryan Smith ahead of the club’s home game against the Vancouver Canucks last Wednesday.

In a followup, Smith said that he’d planned to give away the eight seats in his owner’s suite. But when he got more than 700 responses, he decided to open the invitation wider.

In the end, he put 2,000 extra people into Delta Center on top of the usual sold-out crowd of 11,131. And the fans got a good show as Utah staged a third-period rally from a 2-0 deficit before Mikhail Sergachev buried the game-winner on a 2-on-1 with 12 seconds left in overtime.

Acquired in a trade with the Tampa Bay Lightning during the 2024 NHL draft weekend, Sergachev has been a massive difference-maker for the Utah team in its first season in its new home. Helping to fill holes after fellow veteran blueliners John Marino and Sean Durzi went down early with long-term injuries, 26-year-old Sergachev is averaging 25:45 a game, third-most in the entire NHL.

Advertisement

With eight goals and 26 points in 33 games to date, the two-time Stanley Cup winner is also on pace to match his previous career high of 64 points in a season, set in 2022-23.

Another standout has been goaltender Karel Vejmelka. The 28-year-old now sits second in the NHL with 16.5 goals saved above expected according to MoneyPuck, and has amassed a career-best save percentage of .918.

After their vagabond years in Arizona, including their last two seasons as secondary tenants at 4,600-seat Mullett Arena on the campus of Arizona State University, perhaps it should come as no surprise that the re-established Utah team would come out of the gate as road warriors. Unbeaten in regulation in their last eight games, with a record of 6-0-2, they’re up to 11-6-2 on the road this season.

Utah’s home win over Vancouver last Wednesday boosted the squad to 5-5-3 on home ice. The club followed up on Sunday with a 5-4 shootout loss to the Anaheim Ducks, which has the team just outside of the Western Conference wild-card picture with one more game to go before the NHL’s three-day holiday break — hosting the Dallas Stars as part of a 13-game slate on Monday.

On Dec. 2, the Stars earned a 2-1 win at the Delta Center — Utah’s only regulation loss since Nov. 24. The Western Conference standings are tight, but the new club is trending positively toward making the playoffs in its inaugural season. The Coyotes’ only post-season appearance in the franchise’s last 12 years came as part of the expanded 24-team field in the 2020 pandemic bubble, when they eliminated the Nashville Predators in the best-of-three qualifying round before falling to the Colorado Avalanche.

Advertisement

Of the ice, Smith and his wife and co-owner, Ashley, have already helped make winners out of their 31 fellow NHL owners. Smith Entertainment Group’s $1.2 billion purchase of Arizona’s hockey assets last April fueled a 140 percent increase in the valuation of the franchise — a key metric in the league’s 44 percent increase in average valuations in 2024 per Forbes estimates, which dramatically outpaces the growth of the other North American sports over the last year.

The rosy economic picture for the Utah Hockey Club and the league as a whole bodes well for the next round of collective bargaining. While the current deal is not set to expire until the end of the 2025-26 season, commissioner Gary Bettman indicated at the league’s board of governors’ meetings in Florida earlier this month that he and NHL Players’ Association executive director Marty Walsh plan to start formal discussions in February, with an eye toward potentially completing an agreement before the end of this hockey year.



Source link

Continue Reading

Utah

Washington EDGE Lance Holtzclaw transfers to Utah

Published

on

Washington EDGE Lance Holtzclaw transfers to Utah


Lance Holtzclaw has found a new home. The former Washington edge rusher entered the transfer portal after three years on Montlake and has signed with one of the Huskies’ former Pac-12 opponents, the Utah Utes.

Now in the Big 12, coach Kyle Whittingham’s team should be a good fit for the 6-foot-3, 225-pound pass rush specialist, which finished third in the conference in total defense, allowing 329.7 yards per game in its first year in the conference.

The Utes also finished fifth in the conference with 24 sacks, a statistic that Holtzclaw may be able to assist with if he can see the field more often.

In three years with the Huskies, the former three-star recruit who is originally from Dorchester, Massachusetts, played in 26 games and tallied 13 tackles, 2 sacks, and a fumble recovery.

Advertisement

Holtzclaw’s most notable moment in a Husky uniform came in Washington’s 26-21 win over the USC Trojans in November. He came in on fourth down and pressured quarterback Miller Moss, forcing an errant throw in the game’s final seconds. He also completes an effective defensive line trade between the two schools, after the Huskies added a commitment from former Utah defensive tackle Simote Pepa last week.



Source link

Continue Reading

Utah

Dybantsa, Mandaquit lead Utah Prep to ‘Iolani Classic title | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Published

on

Dybantsa, Mandaquit lead Utah Prep to ‘Iolani Classic title | Honolulu Star-Advertiser




Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending