According to new research, dust from the shrinking Great Salt Lake could cost Utahns more than just their health — it could also hit their wallets.
A University of Utah assistant professor calculates the economic impact and explains what he found when it comes to the price of living with dust.
An interest in dust impact
New research suggests that dust storms coming from the shrinking Great Salt Lake are costing the local economy millions of dollars every year, and the findings started with an assistant professor’s one simple question.
Looking over to a second monitor, he quickly typed up lines of code, running calculations on costs related to Great Salt Lake dust.
“I’m really interested—What are the impacts of dust exposure among the communities here in Utah?” he said.
Dr. Garcia is a University of Utah assistant professor with a shared appointment between the Department of Economics and School of Environment, Society, and Sustainability. His work examines the intersection of environment and economy, and in this most recent project he set out to understand the costs of the drying Great Salt Lake.
“We’re trying to translate the impacts of these dust emissions into something that is maybe more salient for policymakers,” he said.
The numbers on Dr. Garcia’s computer may be hard to decipher on the back end, but he pointed to the resulting charts and graphs that Garcia explained show a clear trend.
What he’s finding: The price Utahns pay to live next to the shrinking Great Salt Lake is substantial already and only expected to rise.
The cost of health outcomes
To arrive at an actual economic cost, Dr. Garcia first looked at where Great Salt Lake dust is blowing, which he was able to do thanks to work done by colleague Dr. Derek Mallia.
Dr. Mallia created a dust modeling map, predicting how much dust will blow into surrounding communities during wind storms at different set lake levels.
“So that feeds into my models,” Dr. Garcia explained. “I consider factors like the local population. Perhaps certain communities aren’t able to avoid these adverse health impacts.”
Not only did he figure out who is at risk of getting sick, he looked at how their health could be impacted.
For example, he described how if an area has a higher elderly population, there’s likely more chance for premature deaths related to dust exposure.
“Or if there’s a really young population,” Dr. Garcia continued, “that’s maybe where we expect more of those asthma symptoms to arise.”
Read the full article by Lauren Steinbrecher at Utah News Dispatch.
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 make a difference before it is too late.