Reducing alfalfa production essential to saving the Great Salt Lake, study finds

The shores of the Great Salt Lake near Syracuse are pictured on Tuesday, May 21, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)

Despite the various steps lawmakers have taken in recent years to get more water to the Great Salt Lake, researchers say there’s no way to truly restore the lake without cutting back on the production of crops like alfalfa. 

That’s according to a new study published Tuesday in the journal Environmental Challenges that outlined how much water is needed to bring the Great Salt Lake to the “ecologically healthy” level of 4,198 feet. 

“You can’t get the volume of water that you need to save the lake in any other way, other than substantially reducing how much water is going towards those cattle feed crops,” said Brian Richter, president of Sustainable Waters and a lead author of the study. 

To reach that healthy level, Richter and his team proposed reducing water consumption in the Great Salt Lake Basin by 650,000 acre-feet each year. That’s enough water to fill most of northern Utah’s reservoirs — Jordanelle, Deer Creek, Echo, Rockport, East Canyon, Pineview, Smith and Morehouse, Hyrum, Newton, Causey and Lost Creek — and still have about 40,000 acre-feet to spare.

An acre-foot is enough water to submerge an acre of land in one foot of water

The lake, which directly supports $2.5 billion in annual economic productivity through mineral extraction, recreation and brine shrimp harvesting, according to the study, has been in decline over the last decade. In November 2022 it hit a historic low of 4,188.5 feet, rebounding slightly in the following two years. On Tuesday, both the north and south arms hovered around 4,192 feet. 

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But since 1989, on average, the lake has lost about 309,000 acre-feet each year, according to the study. Researchers found that agricultural use is responsible for 71% of the water diverted from the lake — of that, 80% is used to grow cattle-feed crops, like alfalfa and other types of hay. 

The study found that each year, the Great Salt Lake Basin produces more than 50% of the alfalfa grown in Utah, and about 2% of the U.S. total. 

And despite the Utah Legislature enacting numerous changes to the state’s laws regarding water rights and conservation in the basin, the lake is still far from healthy, the study notes. 

“The Utah legislature has in recent years passed multiple bills designed to encourage water conservation,” reads the study. “However, in 2022 these measures managed to increase inflows to the Great Salt Lake by less than … 100,000 acre-feet, which is only 15% of our target level.” 

Researchers point to four options: 

• Changing the crop mixture to reduce water consumption, while encouraging split season irrigation and partial fallowing of grass hay (fallowing is when farmers leave their fields grazed or unmowed to encourage grass reseeding). Farmers could cut back on alfalfa for crops like winter wheat, which would save an estimated 91,500 acre-feet of water per year, while reducing the number of cuttings on alfalfa farms, which would save more than 477,000 acre-feet annually. 
• Focusing just on split-season irrigation while increasing grass-hay fallowing, which would yield similar results as the first option. 
• Reducing industrial, municipal and mineral extraction water consumption by 20%, which would save about 108,000 acre-feet annually. The remaining 542,000 acre-feet could be saved through a mix of the first two options. 
• The last option would incorporate HB33, a 2022 bill from the Utah Legislature that allows the state to lease water rights in the Great Salt Lake Basin. If the state leases enough water to hit the study’s target, farmers “could be allowed to conserve and deliver the leased water in any manner preferred,” the study notes. 

“None of these are recommendations. What we’re trying to do is explore possibilities, explore scenarios, explore options. And ultimately, the best solution is going to be a mixture of these things,” Richter said. “It’s also really important for everybody to be involved in a water conservation program. There needs to be a city component, there needs to be an industrial component. Not all of this should be put on farmers’ backs.”

Richter says the options also represent different financial commitments — if the state, with farmers and ranchers, focuses on split-season irrigation or fallowing, that could cost about $100 million each year. If the state were to focus on leasing that water, it would be between $144 to $400 million. 

But despite being the more expensive option, leasing water puts the power in the hands of farmers and ranchers, Richter said, who can figure out how to conserve water while being compensated. 

“We think it’s really important to be honest and truthful about what we think needs to be done. But on the other hand, we really don’t want this work to shame, blame or vilify farmers or ranchers for growing these crops,” Richter said.