[0:01] I think we're ready to start. I know

[0:03] there will be a slow trickle in of other

[0:05] folks

[0:10] to the Great Salt Lake Tech team um tech

[0:14] team meeting. This is about a a

[0:15] quarterly meeting where we um have

[0:18] researchers come together and share um

[0:21] ongoing work about Great Salt Lake. Um

[0:24] and we have a special contingent here

[0:25] who has never been here before. So, um,

[0:28] we usually go start by going around and

[0:29] doing introductions. Um, but be before

[0:32] we do that, can we have someone like a

[0:34] spokesperson for this group talk about

[0:37] who's here who's not usually here and

[0:39] why

[0:45] » Okay. All right, that works. Um, so my

[0:50] name is Scott Henick and I work for the

[0:53] USGS, Utah Water Science Center.

[0:56] um

[0:58] regularly attend tech team meetings, but

[1:00] I brought a uh contingent with me today.

[1:05] Uh so we have some delegations from

[1:08] Argentina and Bolivia, people that we've

[1:12] been working with for a while um that

[1:15] are um visiting and they've they come to

[1:20] Salt Lake periodically a and the purpose

[1:23] of of this trip is to understand about

[1:26] mineral resources, on Great Salt Lake

[1:31] regulation,

[1:33] environmental assessment,

[1:35] um and with special focus on the

[1:38] proposed

[1:40] uh

[1:42] facility on the north arm for direct

[1:45] extraction of lithium DLE. Um so yeah,

[1:49] we'll be going out there tomorrow to

[1:51] meet with Waterleaf, Lilac, and um yeah,

[1:56] so this is kind of an ongoing

[1:59] collaboration. We have some legal folks

[2:03] from the Commerce Department who who

[2:05] typically join us and the Department of

[2:07] the Interior. Um, and yeah, I don't I

[2:12] don't know what else to say. We're we're

[2:14] here to uh not be a circus, but to to

[2:17] just see how you guys do business,

[2:20] Angela.

[2:21] >> Great. Um, well, welcome. We're gonna kick this off. Um, Bonnie,

[2:26] you want to start with just your name

[2:28] and affiliation?

[2:30] Bonnie Baxter, Great Salt Lake

[2:31] Institute, Westminster University.

[2:34] >> I'm Angela Gong, Division of Forestry,

[2:36] Fire and State Lands. Oh, you have your

[2:38] own mic.

[2:40] >> I'm John Luft. I'm the Great Salt Lake

[2:42] Ecosystem Program Coordinator with the

[2:45] Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

[2:50] » Elliot, you want to go next?

[2:53] >> Elliot Jagki with Utah Geological

[2:56] Survey.

[3:00] Okay, Christine Ramsey, hydraologist

[3:02] with the USGS Utah Water Science Center.

[3:06] >> Good morning. Uh, my name is France

[3:08] Culp. I am the director of uh of the

[3:12] center of international business and

[3:14] diplomacy in the state of Utah

[3:16] governor's office of economic

[3:17] opportunity.

[3:19] One of our purpose is to promote trade,

[3:23] international trade. We hosted a

[3:25] delegation from Argentina a couple of uh

[3:28] weeks ago and we are very grateful for

[3:31] our collaboration with the beautiful

[3:32] country of Argentina.

[3:35] I um I'm originally from Austria and I

[3:38] just would like to let our guests know

[3:40] that Austria is going to play Argentina

[3:44] in soccer here in the next couple of

[3:46] weeks and uh it's it's like the dwarf

[3:50] against the giant. So that's all I can

[3:52] say. So, [laughter] so, so, uh, uh, I,

[3:56] um, but we, we are very grateful, uh,

[3:58] to, uh, I', I've been in my position for

[4:01] over 30 years. Um, and I, uh, we are

[4:04] looking forward to potentially have a

[4:06] delegation go down in go down to Buenos

[4:09] Cyrus and to Argentina in August. And

[4:12] so, I want to wish you a very warm

[4:15] welcome uh, here. And if there's

[4:17] anything that uh we can do uh we are

[4:20] grateful to the department of natural

[4:21] resources and all my colleagues here

[4:23] with the state. Uh so uh welcome.

[4:29] » My name is Anna Maiden. I work with Fron

[4:31] Co at the governor's office of economic

[4:33] development and um we were so thrilled

[4:36] as Fron said to welcome uh an

[4:39] Argentinian delegation uh just a little

[4:41] while ago. We're very excited to have

[4:43] you back in the state. It's so great to

[4:45] see all of you and thank you so much for

[4:47] our colleagues at DNR um hosting this

[4:50] amazing delegation. Um it's really nice

[4:52] to meet all of you. Thank you.

[4:55] >> I'm Dana Dean. I'm the deputy director

[4:57] of the Utah Division of Oil, Gas, and

[4:58] Mining over mining and um that includes

[5:01] brine production.

[5:05] >> Great. Let's come back here.

[5:06] >> Uh Jim Harris with the Division of Water

[5:08] Quality. I'm the water quality

[5:10] coordinator for the Great Salt Lake.

[5:13] >> Uh Burke Riggs. I'm a professor of law

[5:15] at Washurn University School of Law in

[5:16] Kansas. I specialize in water. So I'm

[5:19] with Scott and the CLLDP group.

[5:23] >> Good morning. I'm Emma Whitaker. I'm

[5:25] with the Division of Forestry, Fire, and

[5:27] State Lands, and I'm the lands

[5:28] operations manager.

[5:31] >> I'm Jake Alexander. I'm with the

[5:32] Division of Forestry, Fire, and State

[5:33] Lands, and I'm the minerals operations

[5:35] manager um managing minerals on the

[5:37] Great Salt Lake.

[5:43] Federico Martinez.

[6:11] Hi, I'm Georgie Corkery. I'm with Great

[6:13] Salt Lake Institute at Westminster

[6:15] University.

[6:18] » Hi, Mike Pectal, uh, US Army Corps of

[6:20] Engineers.

[6:23] >> Hi, my name is Aspen Johnston. I'm with

[6:25] the Office of the Great Salt Lake

[6:26] Commissioner as the strategic

[6:27] coordinator.

[6:30] » Hi, I'm Ted Balling. I'm with Forestry,

[6:33] Fire, and State Lands. I'm a waterate

[6:35] specialist.

[6:47] Hello, I am Marcelo Claros. I am from

[6:50] Argentina.

[7:21] Good morning. I alvarez and I'm from the

[7:24] geological and mining survey of

[7:26] Argentina.

[8:01] Sanchez.

[8:12] » Brian over here.

[8:14] >> Hi, I'm Brian Rue. I'm a permit lead

[8:17] with the Utah Division of Oil, Gas, and

[8:19] Mining.

[8:23] Hi everyone. Thanks so much for having

[8:25] us today. My name is Carol Molnar and

[8:27] I'm with the commercial law development

[8:28] program of the US Department of

[8:30] Commerce.

[8:32] Thank you. Likewise, I want to express

[8:34] my gratitude for welcoming our group. My

[8:35] name is Olivia Sierra. I'm a senior

[8:37] project manager with the US Department

[8:39] of the Interior. Thank you.

[8:43] >> We've got some amazing translation

[8:45] happening back here.

[8:48] >> Do you want to introduce yourself?

[8:52] Rosemary,

[8:53] sorry, [snorts] Rosemary Garcia PTO,

[8:56] interpreter for this delegation.

[8:59] >> And Cases, also interpreter.

[9:02] >> Did we miss anyone?

[9:05] Great.

[9:07] Okay. Well, welcome everyone. This is a special meeting. Thank you for

[9:12] being here. Um, a couple of

[9:16] um announcements or updates to kick us

[9:19] off. Um the first update I want to share

[9:21] is is that working? Can you hear me? Um

[9:24] the first update I want to share is um

[9:27] several months ago uh we awarded the the

[9:30] tech team grants. Um however and I think

[9:34] we sent out a public notice but we

[9:36] didn't post it to our website. So some

[9:38] of you all may not know.

[9:42] So I just wanted to share um the

[9:44] grantees

[9:47] that were awarded for the fiscal year 27

[9:49] and some of them are two-year so also

[9:51] fiscal year 28 grants.

[10:00] Um so here are the grantees for fiscal

[10:02] year 27 and then two of them are two

[10:05] years. Um so Sageeland Collaborative is

[10:08] continuing um their amazing work with uh

[10:11] the Inter Mountain Shorebird

[10:13] uh survey. Um we the the team thought

[10:18] this was a really important continuous

[10:20] data set and wanted to continue to

[10:23] support that. Um Christine Rumsy who's

[10:25] here with us today um and her advisor

[10:28] Brenda Bowen at the U um are refining

[10:30] seasonal predictions for uh salinity in

[10:33] the south arm um and salt mass and that

[10:36] that's pretty relevant to what we're

[10:38] looking at today as well. So we might

[10:39] hear a little bit about that. Um

[10:42] Danielle Aziz and his team um head is

[10:45] heading a multi- agency effort to look

[10:48] at um lake evaporation and refine that

[10:50] modeling. um it's one of the biggest

[10:52] question marks in how water is moving in

[10:55] and out of uh Great Salt Lake. So, we're

[10:57] excited to get um

[11:00] uh more refined data on that. And then

[11:02] Caron Cat Ring at USU um is taking about

[11:05] the last 10-15 years of work that she's

[11:08] done um with reveation of Great Salt

[11:11] Lake wetlands and making it so it's much

[11:14] more accessible for um decision makers

[11:17] around the lake, wetland managers, uh

[11:19] private land owners upland who are

[11:21] trying to figure out after frag what

[11:23] next. Um so so some tools to help um

[11:27] people look at that. If you take a look

[11:30] at the total funding, we awarded about

[11:33] $370,000.

[11:35] Um, usually we award about we award

[11:38] $500,000. So, I just wanted to to take a

[11:41] moment to explain this. You remember

[11:43] that last year we started accepting both

[11:46] one and two-year projects. And so, this

[11:49] is the end of the first

[11:52] of year one of the first time we've done

[11:55] two-year projects. Um, so at our meeting

[11:57] in September, I'd like to spend do spend

[11:59] a little time doing a little bit of a

[12:01] post-mortem. How did that go? What do we

[12:03] need to adjust something? Um,

[12:06] and uh, you know, so hearing about that.

[12:09] So, usually it's 500,000, but what we've

[12:12] done the past two years is split it

[12:14] across two years. So, we've awarded um

[12:16] $250,000

[12:18] of this year and then we awarded

[12:22] $250,000 of next year's funds. And then

[12:24] it layered on. So this year we had the

[12:27] other 250,000 to award for this coming

[12:29] fiscal year and then 200 for the 250 for

[12:33] the year after that. What happened with

[12:35] this was it was kind of interesting just

[12:37] the way the projects fell out. Um we

[12:40] awarded all 250 for fiscal year 27. We

[12:43] maxed out the funding for this coming

[12:45] year, but just the way the funding was

[12:47] spread across these projects for year

[12:49] one and year two. um we only awarded I

[12:52] mean whatever the rest of it is $119,000

[12:55] for fiscal year 28. Um so what it looks

[12:58] like is I mean what we did is we ended

[13:00] up awarding less money than normal

[13:03] because there was more money left in

[13:05] year two in fiscal year 28

[13:08] um than we you know had thought there

[13:11] might be. So the bad news is you know it

[13:13] looks like a lower amount this year. The

[13:14] good news is next year when we open the

[13:17] grant process, which will be this fall,

[13:20] um for fiscal year 28 projects,

[13:23] uh 27 28. Wait, I'm losing track of my

[13:25] years. 28. Um

[13:28] we will be able to award more money than

[13:30] normal um because we'll have extra money

[13:33] in next year's pot, if that makes sense.

[13:35] If you have questions about that, let me

[13:37] know.

[13:39] A couple other updates. Um,

[13:45] for me, Great Salt Lake Advisory

[13:48] Council, um, is having its I'm not sure

[13:52] what the official term for this is, but

[13:54] it in its statute, it has, um, a sunset

[13:59] that um, unless it's renewed, it will

[14:02] sunset. So, it's having its sunset

[14:04] hearing at the natural resources

[14:07] um intram subcommittee meeting in May.

[14:11] So, if you're interested in that, you

[14:12] can talk to me about more details. Um I

[14:15] would and um there, you know, they're

[14:18] just hearing about what the work that

[14:19] it's done and thinking about how it

[14:21] looks going forward.

[14:23] Um one other update, the Solinity

[14:24] Advisory Council, we bumped the meeting

[14:26] from this Thursday to the 27th. It's a

[14:29] Wednesday at the end of the month and

[14:32] we're going to be looking at actually um

[14:35] it'll be a continuation of the

[14:37] conversation that we'll be having today

[14:39] with Christine and Gary um which is a

[14:42] really important look at uh how

[14:45] nutrients are moving in the lake. So

[14:47] this is sort of an emerging issue that um we're I mean most of us are new

[14:53] to. So, we're we're diving to that um in

[14:56] the salinity advisory council meeting

[14:58] and really thinking um about

[15:01] implications for the burm this year. So,

[15:05] come to that. That's going to be a winner.

[15:09] Um are there any other updates that

[15:11] anyone would like to share before we

[15:13] dive into today's presentations?

[15:20] Okay, great. Did I stop sharing?

[15:26] Okay. On our agenda today, we've got um

[15:29] two folks. If you came to the Great Salt

[15:31] Lake issues uh forum last week, you got

[15:35] sort of a a teaser for this. Um so today

[15:38] Gary Bolovski from University of Notre

[15:40] Dame and Christine Ramsey from USGS are

[15:43] talking to us in more detail about um

[15:46] what they're what they've been seeing

[15:48] and calculating um with nutrient

[15:52] um flows in Great Salt Lake. So Gary

[15:55] should be online

[15:59] and

[16:03] if you are Gary can you hear us? Can we

[16:05] hear you?

[16:16] Nope.

[16:27] Yeah,

[16:31] » Gary, if it's okay with you, we will

[16:35] Hey, now we see you.

[16:38] I mean, we can see your screen.

[16:45] » Can you hear me now?

[16:47] >> Yes.

[16:48] >> Okay. Uh the the link you sent me only

[16:51] allowed me to um

[16:54] uh to listen.

[16:57] So

[17:00] >> great. Now we've now we've got you on so

[17:02] we can hear you and I will

[17:04] >> share your slides that I've got here.

[17:13] » Where are they?

[17:27] Do you want me to share my screen?

[17:29] >> Uh, see if that's easier. It's just

[17:31] being quite slow for me.

[17:43] » Can you see that?

[17:48] Nope,

[17:49] it's not coming through.

[18:01] Nope. Let's see.

[18:10] There we go.

[18:16] How about

[18:16] >> Okay.

[18:17] >> How about that? Can you see mine?

[18:18] >> That's That's fine. I can see yours now.

[18:21] >> Great. Okay. Now,

[18:28] here we go. Okay.

[18:30] >> Okay. So, you're going to control it.

[18:32] [snorts]

[18:34] >> Yes.

[18:35] >> Right.

[18:36] >> Okay.

[18:39] » All right. Can we have the next slide?

[18:42] >> Yes. Although it's not showing the right

[18:44] one.

[18:46] Hold please. [sighs]

[18:49] >> Technology.

[18:52] All right. Um, so over the last three

[18:55] years, we've uh conducted uh experiments

[18:59] to be able to do nutrient budgets within

[19:02] the south arm of the lake. And these

[19:04] experiments have dealt with um looking

[19:08] at the decomposition rate, the fall rate

[19:11] through the water column and how um and

[19:15] the chemical composition of various uh

[19:18] biological materials in the lake. And

[19:21] with this, we've been able to put

[19:23] together um nutrient budgets for the

[19:26] south arm of the lake. and a lot a lot

[19:30] of the material ends up in the in the

[19:33] benthic zone and um

[19:38] that that poses problems in terms of the

[19:40] release of that from the benthic zone

[19:43] into the water column. However, after

[19:47] doing all of the calculations and

[19:49] everything, next slide,

[19:55] uh the results are very promising. Uh

[19:59] first, the budgets um in the pelagic

[20:02] zone and the benthic zones are nearly

[20:05] balanced, which is what you'd expect. In

[20:07] other words, the ecosystem is in some

[20:10] sort of I don't want to say equilibrium,

[20:13] but at least on the short term, on an

[20:15] annual basis, it seems that you're

[20:18] releasing certain amounts of nutrients

[20:20] at the same rate that they're that

[20:24] they're being used up within the lake.

[20:26] Now, the most important nutrient, let me

[20:28] point out right now, is nitrogen.

[20:31] appears to be the limiting

[20:34] nutrient for phytolanton production.

[20:37] and for the production of the the

[20:39] photosynthesis in the microbialite uh uh community. Now this could change over

[20:48] time with phosphorus becoming a limiting

[20:51] nutrient or both of them working in uh

[20:54] coordination to limit uh production but

[20:57] at least at present it seems nitrogen is

[21:00] the limiting nutrient. Next.

[21:04] Okay, we can test these results and

[21:07] Christine I'm sure may be talking a

[21:09] little more about this, but if we look

[21:12] at from her experiments the

[21:14] sedimentation in traps that she's put

[21:17] out in the lake for June and July,

[21:20] um the amount of total dissolved

[21:22] nitrogen or no, the mass that appears in

[21:25] the sediment traps that she's measuring

[21:28] is

[21:29] about 2.3 g per meter squared per day.

[21:34] And just based on the uh fecal pellet

[21:37] snowfall from shrimp uh artmia in the

[21:41] lake, we calculate 1.9 grams per meter

[21:44] squared per day. And that term snowfall

[21:47] is from marine studies uh where they

[21:50] measure uh it's the term they use for

[21:52] the uh sinking of fecal pellets from uh

[21:57] zoplankton in the water column. Next,

[22:02] when we observed the observed total

[22:04] dissolved nitrogen that Christine

[22:07] probably will be talking about today is

[22:10] 4.21

[22:12] mg per liter and the total dissolved

[22:16] nitrogen that the um budget comes up

[22:19] with is 4.15

[22:22] mg per liter. So we're getting similar

[22:25] results between what's being measured by

[22:28] US Geological Survey and what the budget

[22:32] excuse me uh is uh estimating next

[22:37] and the same thing can be observed for

[22:40] phosphorus dissolved phosphorus and we

[22:43] um the observation from USGS is 2.295

[22:47] 295 mg per liter and the budget that we

[22:51] get is 26 millgrams per liter. So we

[22:55] were very pleased with these results.

[22:58] Next slide.

[23:00] Except one thing that we hadn't

[23:02] considered was because we thought that

[23:05] the south arm of the lake was basically

[23:08] a single was a unit independent of the

[23:11] north arm of the lake. We did did not

[23:14] include the transport of material

[23:17] between the south arm to the north arm

[23:20] and return of material from the north

[23:22] arm to the south arm. So this became a

[23:27] concern to us when we started thinking

[23:30] about the burm that had been con uh

[23:33] constructed that restricted the movement

[23:37] of water from the south arm to the north

[23:40] arm and particularly restricted the

[23:43] movement of water from the north arm to

[23:45] the south arm.

[23:47] Next slide.

[23:51] So this burm was constructed and we can

[23:53] see that if we look at the ratio of the

[23:56] flow between north to south and south to

[23:59] north on the y ais and we look at

[24:02] measurements over time of that ratio

[24:05] where we have complete annual

[24:08] measurements monthly measurements of the

[24:10] flow. We can see that before the burm

[24:13] was constructed and took effect in 2023

[24:18] that there was considerable flow

[24:20] exchanged between the two arms of the

[24:22] lake. After the construction of that

[24:25] burm in 2022 and essentially its impact

[24:29] starting in 2023,

[24:31] the return flow from the north arm to

[24:35] the south arm was drastically reduced.

[24:38] Next slide.

[24:42] Well, looking at these data over time or

[24:45] looking at data from the south arm of

[24:47] the lake over time, we we were uh

[24:51] surprised in seeing that in 2024 to

[24:55] 2025, we got a dramatic decline in the

[24:59] annual chlorophyll a measurements for

[25:02] the lake. Prior to that time, you can

[25:05] see the green bars, we had higher

[25:08] chlorophyll A and 2024 and 2025, we

[25:12] started to see a decrease in the

[25:15] chlorophyll a comp uh produced in the

[25:18] south arm of the lake. And this was

[25:20] bothersome. It's because this

[25:22] phytolanton chlorophyll a in the south

[25:25] arm is what is controlling driving the

[25:30] whole production within the pelagic

[25:33] stone. If we look at the chlorophyll a

[25:37] per cell in the phytolanton

[25:40] the green line shows by month what the

[25:44] chlorophyll content is of the

[25:45] phytolanton cells. The brown line below

[25:49] points out what is the chlorophyll a per

[25:52] cell after the berm was constructed and

[25:56] went into started to change the flow

[26:00] rates.

[26:01] You can see that the cell chlorophyll a

[26:05] component is considerably reduced after

[26:09] the burm was put in place. Now this burm

[26:12] was placed there to try to control the

[26:15] salinity in the south arm of the lake

[26:18] which was getting too high under the

[26:20] current drought conditions and this was

[26:22] important to maintain the productivity

[26:25] of that south arm ecosystem.

[26:28] However, the un the unanticipated

[26:31] consequence of this berm controlling

[26:34] salinity was to change the productivity

[26:38] in the south arm by returning the amount

[26:42] of nitrogen from the north arm to the

[26:45] south arm.

[26:48] Next slide.

[26:52] So constructing a simple

[26:55] back of the envelope calculations of

[26:57] flow of water between the south to the

[27:00] north arm, the green arrow and the

[27:03] return from the north arm to the south

[27:06] arm

[27:07] about

[27:09] for the period without the burm and then

[27:12] solving that we saw that the equilibrium

[27:15] that was obtained in the south arm in

[27:18] terms of nitrogen per liter was matched

[27:22] up with what was predicted in the budget

[27:25] and very similar to what USGS was

[27:27] predicting or measuring in the south arm

[27:31] and that's 4.15 mg per liter.

[27:36] However, if you look at the north arm,

[27:38] the nitrogen content in the north arm is

[27:41] 9.96 mg per liter. And USGS, and I'm

[27:47] sure Christine will be talking about

[27:48] this, USGS measurements come up with a

[27:52] value between two to three times greater

[27:55] nitrogen content in the north arm.

[27:59] Our estimate here on these back of the

[28:01] envelope calculations is about 2.4 times

[28:04] greater nitrogen content at 9.96

[28:08] milligrams per liter.

[1:01:02] set at the new breach. So this is again

[1:01:05] where that exchange is happening where

[1:01:07] USGS heavily instruments uh this area to

[1:01:10] monitor both the discharge and

[1:01:12] concentrations of constituents so we can

[1:01:14] uh estimate the fluxes happening here.

[1:01:16] Um this is analysis done by Scott. So

[1:01:19] thank you for sharing your work here. Um

[1:01:21] these are total dissolved nitrogen

[1:01:23] concentrations. This is a plot of that.

[1:01:25] And the red dots indicate north to south

[1:01:28] concentrations from about 2017 to

[1:01:30] present. The green dots indicate south

[1:01:33] to north. And this is really just to

[1:01:34] illustrate the magnitude differences in

[1:01:36] concentrations between each of these

[1:01:38] arms of the lake. So in the south arm on

[1:01:40] average we have about 4.3 milligram per

[1:01:43] liter nitrogen. In the north arm what's

[1:01:45] coming to the south it's about 6.9

[1:01:47] milligrams per liter. So about one and a

[1:01:49] half times greater um concentrations uh

[1:01:52] in the north arm coming back to the

[1:01:53] south than in what is leaving. So that

[1:01:55] north arm really packs a punch. It's

[1:01:57] more concentrated than the south arm

[1:01:58] water.

[1:02:00] And if we look at loads, so pairing

[1:02:02] those concentrations with a discharge

[1:02:04] estimate to get a mass flux. Uh we can

[1:02:07] see kind of just compare the pre and

[1:02:10] postm modification time period. So prior

[1:02:13] to burm modification um which is right

[1:02:15] about here in 2020 summer of 2022 you

[1:02:18] can see um how north to south and south

[1:02:22] to north fluxes tended to be um a bit

[1:02:26] more uh in sync or a a bit more equal

[1:02:29] after burm modification when we really

[1:02:31] cut off that northarm arm flow. You can

[1:02:33] just see those go to zero. Essentially

[1:02:35] there was no flow nothing coming in. So

[1:02:37] we just see a really stark reduction in

[1:02:40] the the flux um at the new breach as you

[1:02:42] might expect. So the pre-burner

[1:02:44] modification fluxes were on the order of

[1:02:46] six tons per day. After that we're

[1:02:48] looking at less than one ton per day.

[1:02:50] And if we extrapolate those values on an

[1:02:52] annual basis, we're approaching about

[1:02:54] 2,000 u ton per year reduction in

[1:02:56] nitrogen coming back into the south arm.

[1:03:00] If we do a similar exercise for total

[1:03:02] dissolved phosphorus, we can see that um

[1:03:05] concentrations for total dissolved

[1:03:06] phosphorus in the north arm are higher

[1:03:09] than in the south like you might expect.

[1:03:10] Very similar for nitrogen. And pairing

[1:03:13] those with fluxes, we can see how prior

[1:03:15] to the bur modification when we had

[1:03:17] birectional exchange, um we were getting

[1:03:19] about 3 million or sorry.3 tons per day

[1:03:23] uh coming from north to south in

[1:03:25] phosphorus and then after that it really

[1:03:27] tapered off to almost nothing.

[1:03:31] And then looking at this a slightly

[1:03:33] different way, if we just look at the

[1:03:34] nut net nutrient flux. So comparing both

[1:03:37] what's going out and what's coming in,

[1:03:39] um we can see after burn modification

[1:03:41] shown in this salmon color, we had a

[1:03:44] higher great uh a greater nitrogen loss.

[1:03:46] That's kind of what that shift upward in

[1:03:48] the box plot indicates. We had more

[1:03:50] nitrogen loss to the north arm as you

[1:03:52] might expect because the fluxes coming

[1:03:53] back in were shut off and we continue to

[1:03:55] export to the south. And if we kind of

[1:03:57] take an annual estimate of what that

[1:03:59] nitrogen reduction is over a period of

[1:04:02] well I'll do it in on an annual basis

[1:04:04] and and compare that to the mass in the

[1:04:07] south arm. So we're considering the

[1:04:10] resident nitrogen mass in the south arm

[1:04:12] as well as the volume that we get about

[1:04:14] we estimate that we get about a 0.1 to 2

[1:04:17] milligram per liter nitrogen decrease in

[1:04:20] the south arm. So essentially

[1:04:21] extrapolating what's that flux at the at

[1:04:24] the breach to the entire south arm what

[1:04:26] that would do to the resident salt mass

[1:04:28] um is is kind of what you get a 0.1 to

[1:04:30] point 2 milligram per liter decrease in

[1:04:32] south arm nitrogen extrapolated over

[1:04:35] multiple years because the effect of

[1:04:36] this is cumulative it's about a.5

[1:04:38] milligram per liter nitrogen decrease

[1:04:40] over um kind of the last three years

[1:04:43] which is in line with kind of what Gary

[1:04:45] had estimated and also what we we we

[1:04:47] observed in the change in um total

[1:04:50] dissolved nit rogen concentration after

[1:04:52] the berm was modified. So I'll just

[1:04:55] summarize kind of these exercises by

[1:04:56] saying we we used two independent data

[1:04:59] sets. The first uh using our nutrient

[1:05:01] data collected in the south arm to show

[1:05:04] or to estimate that there has been a

[1:05:06] statistically significant decrease in

[1:05:08] the nitrogen mass in the south arm after

[1:05:10] the burm was modified. And similarly if

[1:05:13] we look at fluxes happening at the

[1:05:14] brereech we kind of we measure

[1:05:16] [clears throat] that there has just been

[1:05:17] a decrease in flux or decrease in import

[1:05:20] of nitrogen coming in from uh the north

[1:05:22] arm

[1:05:24] and moving forward as as Angela

[1:05:26] mentioned this will be a topic of

[1:05:28] conversation in the solen next salinity

[1:05:30] advisory committee um what we've done

[1:05:32] for salinity to help us track salinity

[1:05:35] salt mass and volume and kind of

[1:05:36] integrate those variables is to come up

[1:05:38] with a plot like this which we call an

[1:05:40] isomass plot

[1:05:42] um where south arm elevation is shown on

[1:05:43] the y- axis and we have a volume

[1:05:45] weighted salinity estimate on the x-

[1:05:47] axis. And this kind of allows us to

[1:05:49] triangulate at any given time when we

[1:05:51] have most you know more recent

[1:05:53] measurements and say okay here's our

[1:05:54] salinity at a given time here's our

[1:05:56] elevation and here's our mass. Putting

[1:05:58] that in the context of targets that have

[1:06:00] been identified currently we're in a

[1:06:02] pretty good shape. um you know one with

[1:06:05] the target our optimal range identified

[1:06:07] as 90 to 160 grams per liter and we're

[1:06:09] sitting at about 120. So this framework

[1:06:13] um allows us to kind of know where we

[1:06:15] are. It also helps us to uh predict

[1:06:17] where we might go because as elevations

[1:06:20] go up for a given salt mass, we predict

[1:06:22] salinities will decrease as we move to

[1:06:24] the left on that y- axis and vice versa.

[1:06:26] If we're entering more of an evaporative

[1:06:28] season and we elevations go down, we can

[1:06:30] predict where we might end up in terms

[1:06:32] of salinity. So that this framework has

[1:06:34] been useful for salt and it was

[1:06:36] requested by solinity advisory committee

[1:06:38] that we kind of build something like

[1:06:40] this for nutrients and so I just here's

[1:06:42] the first cut at that um is trying to

[1:06:45] get at our ISOs plot for nutrients and

[1:06:47] exploring whether this framework is also

[1:06:49] useful for something like nutrients or

[1:06:51] any constituent that that the state or others identify as important for

[1:06:55] trying to track and understand um

[1:06:57] constituent fluxes and the status of

[1:06:59] mass in the south arm. So similarly

[1:07:01] we've got south arm elevation on the y-

[1:07:03] axis and a volume weighted in this case

[1:07:06] totals dissolved nitrogen uh

[1:07:08] concentration on the x axis and so the

[1:07:11] most recent data we have is from

[1:07:12] November 4th. So we can integrate where

[1:07:14] we were in terms of elevation where we

[1:07:16] were in terms of the um nitrogen

[1:07:19] concentration and the mass. So

[1:07:21] integrating kind of these three

[1:07:22] variables that have been helpful for the

[1:07:25] solenity advisory committee and division

[1:07:26] of forestry fine state lands as they try

[1:07:28] to manage the exchange the mass fluxes

[1:07:31] of various constituents in the south

[1:07:33] arm. Um and so as a first cut looking at

[1:07:36] this for nutrients um where we currently

[1:07:38] sit is kind of in the middle of the

[1:07:40] range of total dissolved nitrogen

[1:07:42] concentrations. And so this is actually

[1:07:43] something that I would love to explore

[1:07:45] with Gary or others who are interested

[1:07:47] is that um we've been here before. These

[1:07:49] total dissolved nitrogen concentrations

[1:07:51] are not anomalously low. They're kind of

[1:07:54] middle of the road. And so in the past

[1:07:56] where we've had similar nit total

[1:07:58] dissolved nitrogen concentrations, what

[1:07:59] has been the effect on the biota? Um

[1:08:02] because we're not we're kind of from

[1:08:03] what I can tell not at an extremely low

[1:08:06] nitrogen concentration relative to what

[1:08:08] we've measured in the past.

[1:08:10] In terms of mass in the South Arm, we do

[1:08:12] it does seem to me like we're kind of in

[1:08:14] the lower end of that distribution. If

[1:08:16] we sort of look at where we've been in

[1:08:17] the past around 30 to 35,000 tons, now

[1:08:20] we're sitting at around 30,000. So that

[1:08:22] does does look different and you know

[1:08:24] statistically is significantly lower.

[1:08:27] And then of course we are at the low end

[1:08:29] of a distribution in terms of lake

[1:08:30] elevation. So, um, this is just an

[1:08:32] initial framework to help us wrap our

[1:08:35] brain around this new constituent

[1:08:37] extending management considerations to

[1:08:39] more than just salt. Um, not sure if

[1:08:41] this will be useful yet, but it's a

[1:08:43] first stab at something that might be.

[1:08:44] So, with that, I will I'm happy to take

[1:08:46] any questions or clarify anything that

[1:08:49] might have been confusing.

[1:08:55] » Thank you, Christine. Questions?

[1:09:06] I got one.

[1:09:08] Um, so we've I think arrived at for

[1:09:12] salt. If you were to take one annual

[1:09:16] observation that you were going to use

[1:09:18] for long-term trends that you would use

[1:09:21] October, November to look at the total

[1:09:24] dissolved salt mass because it would

[1:09:25] incorporate the cumulative effects of

[1:09:28] runoff and then strong evaporation.

[1:09:32] Uh I'm wondering if there I if there is

[1:09:36] a time of the year given that nitrogen

[1:09:39] is so reactive salt the salt is too in

[1:09:43] this system I guess but um is there a

[1:09:45] time of if there was one sample a year

[1:09:48] that you could use to to look at

[1:09:50] long-term trends would it be the same or

[1:09:53] different?

[1:09:54] >> Good question. Um I guess I'll just

[1:09:56] start by saying and you know look

[1:09:58] working with these data they are much

[1:09:59] noisier than a salt concentration or a

[1:10:02] salt mass estimate. So that's for

[1:10:04] starters the data set is more variable

[1:10:06] and as you mentioned it's more reactive.

[1:10:08] So inorganic nitrogen is exchanging with

[1:10:11] the biota um decomposition is happening

[1:10:13] things are changing deep brine layer

[1:10:15] affects these things. Um I don't know

[1:10:18] yet. I think that it would be similar

[1:10:21] probably fall just because you remove

[1:10:23] hydraological variables that variance

[1:10:24] there. But I think we need to work with

[1:10:26] Gary and other biologists to really uh

[1:10:29] kind of home in on a time of year where

[1:10:31] we we would think those would be more

[1:10:33] stable. I will also say this initial

[1:10:35] framework that I have shared with you

[1:10:38] today is integrating the entire water

[1:10:40] column. So this volume weighted um

[1:10:43] concentration that I share is is uh is really including anything that might

[1:10:49] have historically been sequestered in

[1:10:50] the deep brine layer. And perhaps a more

[1:10:52] relevant uh framework would actually o

[1:10:55] be only looking at the concentration in

[1:10:57] the upper brine layer and how that

[1:10:58] changes through time and that's

[1:11:00] something we can easily do but I didn't

[1:11:01] have a chance to do that. Um, so there's

[1:11:03] I guess I'll just answer by saying I

[1:11:04] don't know. And there's additional uh

[1:11:06] considerations that we haven't really

[1:11:08] had to dive into for salt that we will

[1:11:11] for nutrients and I think we should do

[1:11:12] that pretty carefully.

[1:11:18] » Quick question out of curiosity. Do we

[1:11:20] know the nitrogen coming out of West

[1:11:23] Davis water treatment?

[1:11:25] >> I believe they're measuring it, but we

[1:11:27] have not analyzed those data. And in

[1:11:29] fact, it might it perhaps would be a

[1:11:31] worthwhile while well exercise for us to

[1:11:33] update the kind of mass balance that

[1:11:35] Hannah did and include that outflow. Um,

[1:11:38] but no, we haven't looked at that yet.

[1:11:43] » We have a couple of questions online.

[1:11:44] Alex,

[1:11:48] » hey Christine, Alex of Duke University.

[1:11:51] Um, really fascinating results. I'm

[1:11:53] really interested to see how this uh

[1:11:55] progresses. Um I'm curious if these

[1:11:59] uh nitrogen concentration data are

[1:12:01] available through from like the whole

[1:12:05] time range like through 2025 up on USGS

[1:12:09] website. Right now

[1:12:10] >> they're [snorts] not. Um so a

[1:12:12] complicating factor in this has been

[1:12:13] that we we switched labs because the

[1:12:17] USGS laboratory decided no longer to

[1:12:20] analyze hyperscaling nutrients. So in

[1:12:22] about 2023, sorry a long story, but they

[1:12:24] um essentially we've been in the middle

[1:12:26] of a transition into using a new

[1:12:29] laboratory which is not an insignificant

[1:12:32] task because we're dealing with hypers

[1:12:34] saline water as you know and so we have

[1:12:36] been doing a pretty rigorous an um

[1:12:39] evaluation of this new laboratory. We've

[1:12:41] been doing a number of comparisons and

[1:12:43] doing a lot of additional um analytical

[1:12:46] requests in terms of spike recoveries

[1:12:48] and everything. And so I say that all to

[1:12:50] say we have not published it publicly

[1:12:52] because we're we've been really busy

[1:12:53] trying to verify this new data set.

[1:12:55] We're close to doing that. We're close

[1:12:57] to wrapping that up and we hope that by

[1:12:58] the end of the summer we will load all

[1:13:01] of our data into um water quality portal

[1:13:04] so that it will be available to

[1:13:05] everyone. [snorts]

[1:13:07] >> Fantastic. And then um you already

[1:13:09] touched on uh this I think but I just

[1:13:11] wanted to double check because I'm not

[1:13:12] as used to thinking about dissolved

[1:13:14] nutrient species but um this is

[1:13:17] measuring just like dissolved uh nitrate

[1:13:20] nitrite and ammonia and it does not

[1:13:22] count things that are like currently

[1:13:24] locked up inside biomolelecules. Uh

[1:13:27] correct.

[1:13:28] >> This would so this total dissolved

[1:13:30] nitrogen uh metric does include organic

[1:13:33] and inorganic forms of phosphor or sorry

[1:13:35] nitrogen

[1:13:37] >> and phosphorus.

[1:13:38] >> Uh we do have phosphorus. Yes. Two also.

[1:13:41] Okay.

[1:13:41] >> Mhm.

[1:13:42] >> Yeah.

[1:13:42] >> Wonderful. Thank you.

[1:13:44] >> Yeah. Um and the dissolved fraction is

[1:13:46] 045 microns.

[1:13:50] 045. Yeah.

[1:13:51] >> Gary, you had your hand raised.

[1:13:55] >> Yeah. Uh just Scott's question about

[1:13:58] picking a time of the year that is uh

[1:14:02] most uh instructive in terms of the uh

[1:14:05] nitrogen value. I think uh couple

[1:14:09] cautions here. [snorts] Um one is

[1:14:12] because of the problems of measuring

[1:14:15] nitrogen in the hypersailing water. um

[1:14:18] we're talking about total dissolved

[1:14:20] nitrogen and biologically the most

[1:14:24] important is the inorganic nitrogen

[1:14:27] and um that those measurements are uh

[1:14:33] not as uh good because of the uh

[1:14:38] oftentimes they come in beyond detect

[1:14:41] they can't be detected they're below the

[1:14:43] uh criteria for detection and so total

[1:14:47] dissolve nitrogen is being used because

[1:14:49] that is easil more easily measured.

[1:14:53] Second of all, the problem that you face

[1:14:56] um with a time of the year is that the

[1:14:59] phytolanton are very productive in the

[1:15:02] wintertime often before uh without

[1:15:06] grazing by the the shri the shrimp. And

[1:15:09] as a result, that's critical and that

[1:15:12] helps to go into how much you're going

[1:15:14] to have into the spring and early summer

[1:15:17] as the shrimp population starts to grow.

[1:15:20] But that also you need to know the

[1:15:22] nitrogen at other months um because

[1:15:25] that's when the uh phytolankton is

[1:15:28] recovering from being fed upon. So

[1:15:31] trying to pick a particular time that's

[1:15:33] most important I think is much more

[1:15:36] difficult than the salinity question.

[1:15:43] I'll just add that um in the winter

[1:15:46] months there there's a lot of

[1:15:47] chlorophyll but when we measure carbon

[1:15:50] assimilation it's very low. So um

[1:15:53] photosynthesis like most biochemistry

[1:15:56] works very slowly when it's cold. So um

[1:16:00] that we shouldn't equate presence of

[1:16:02] chlorophyll with actual metabolism.

[1:16:08] Let me just point out the metabolism

[1:16:10] isn't the necessarily the key. It's the

[1:16:13] population that is the food resource for

[1:16:16] the grazer. So, you know,

[1:16:19] >> that's absolutely. Yeah, I agree.

[1:16:28] » Other questions?

[1:16:32] Okay. Well, thank thank you both um for

[1:16:35] these sort of different perspectives on

[1:16:38] the same

[1:16:40] uh the same issue that that we're

[1:16:43] looking at. This is really interesting

[1:16:45] but a helpful conversation. Come back to

[1:16:46] the salinity advisory committee meeting for more at the end of

[1:16:50] the month. Um Ben made the joke that

[1:16:52] we're considering calling it the

[1:16:54] salinity and nutrient advisory committee

[1:16:56] which is snack

[1:17:00] » um for snacks.

[1:17:01] >> Yeah.

[1:17:02] Thank you so much everyone. Um I know that for our um visitors here

[1:17:10] today the specific content might not

[1:17:12] have been exactly relevant to to the

[1:17:15] problems you're working on, but are

[1:17:16] there any questions about the tech team

[1:17:18] in general or about the lake um more

[1:17:21] broadly that anyone in this room might

[1:17:23] speak to?

[1:17:29] So, one thing that that so you guys

[1:17:32] please this would be an opportunity to

[1:17:34] speak with people. Um, and I believe the

[1:17:38] plan is still to stay in here and

[1:17:39] continue some conversations, but I'm not

[1:17:41] sure Angela, but um, so one of the

[1:17:44] things that I wanted everyone to

[1:17:46] understand is this is a public meeting

[1:17:47] and this is how discussions and

[1:17:49] management of this resource sort of

[1:17:51] evolve. This is one of them. So, just

[1:17:54] consider that. Um, and then I'd also

[1:17:56] like to point out Bonnie over here who's

[1:17:59] done a lot of work. You you can tell the

[1:18:01] people who are actively engaged in the

[1:18:04] science here. Um, and so she's at a

[1:18:07] university in town. Gary's at a

[1:18:09] university someplace else. And it's also

[1:18:12] just really I think really important to

[1:18:14] understand the number of different

[1:18:16] entities that that share a common

[1:18:19] interest and and and how science and

[1:18:22] management advances in this system. Um,

[1:18:25] so

[1:18:27] anyway, have at it please if if you have

[1:18:30] some thoughts or or or anything about

[1:18:34] this system or or the governance you're

[1:18:36] kind of observing.

[1:18:45] » Okay, great. Well, no pressure right

[1:18:47] now, but it but you know, as the meeting

[1:18:49] wraps up, you can stay and and chat with

[1:18:51] any individuals that you you'd like to.

[1:18:54] Um and I also and I also neglected um at

[1:18:56] the beginning of the meeting to

[1:18:57] acknowledge that we have a lot of folks

[1:18:59] online um who are listening in and and

[1:19:02] can participate. Um

[1:19:07] I always feel self-conscious reading

[1:19:08] people's names but there's Alex P. Um

[1:19:11] Gary of course is remote mano mason.

[1:19:15] Uh Sarah Null,

[1:19:18] um

[1:19:20] Andrew Upky, Ben Starman, Joe Havsy,

[1:19:26] Heidi Hovind. Oh, I think these people

[1:19:28] actually are online. Anyway, so we have

[1:19:30] some folks online who are here. Um last

[1:19:34] thing before we wrap up. Um I reached my

[1:19:38] year and a half mark in my position this

[1:19:41] week. Um and so thank you. Thank you.

[1:19:44] And so one of the things I wanted to do

[1:19:45] is um this has been a long-standing

[1:19:48] meeting series um that has been going on

[1:19:50] I mean far longer than I was here and I

[1:19:53] think even before my my immediate

[1:19:55] predecessor was here. And one thing we I

[1:19:57] just want to do is do a pulse check on how this meeting is being useful for

[1:20:01] folks. Um so I'm going to drop into the

[1:20:06] well hang on a second. I'm going to

[1:20:08] share my screen.

[1:20:13] Um, and then also drop into the chat um

[1:20:16] a tiny URL or um

[1:20:19] what's that thing called? A QR code um

[1:20:23] to a short survey that just has it has

[1:20:26] about 10 15 questions about what what

[1:20:29] you think the purpose of tech team is,

[1:20:32] what the purpose is for you, and then

[1:20:34] just some questions about the content,

[1:20:37] about the format, and about the

[1:20:38] takeaways um that might make this

[1:20:40] meeting more useful to you in general.

[1:20:42] So, um, if you if this is your first and

[1:20:45] only time here, you don't have to worry

[1:20:47] about filling this out. Um, but I'll

[1:20:50] also send this out in the in the email,

[1:20:53] uh, so that folks can, um,

[1:20:57] can fill this out. Um, and and what I'd

[1:21:00] like to do is just get some feedback

[1:21:01] about what's working, what's not

[1:21:03] working, what could we tweak to make

[1:21:04] this more useful um, or a better meeting

[1:21:06] for you.

[1:21:10] So, what I'd like you to do right now is

[1:21:13] » [clears throat]

[1:21:13] >> um whether you're online or in person, I

[1:21:17] want you to open this um because what

[1:21:21] will happen is if we don't do it right

[1:21:22] now, I know what will happen is what

[1:21:24] happens to me when people ask me to fill

[1:21:26] out surveys, which is I forget about it.

[1:21:28] So, go ahead and open it. I'm going to

[1:21:30] give you like two or three minutes to

[1:21:32] start it. If you don't finish, that's

[1:21:34] fine. But at least then it's started and

[1:21:36] then the next time you open your phone

[1:21:38] it'll be there. I just also dropped it

[1:21:40] into the chat for the

[1:21:42] um

[1:21:44] for the Google Meet. So take about two

[1:21:46] three minutes to to go through as much

[1:21:48] as you can of it.

[1:21:52] Play soft lobby music.

[1:23:02] This is also anonymous. So if you have

[1:23:06] mean things to say about it, I won't

[1:23:07] know it's you.

[1:23:51] Bless you.

[1:24:14] » [clears throat]

[1:25:00] » Okay, the responses are starting to come

[1:25:02] in. I know many of you are not done. Um,

[1:25:05] but as you finish up, I will um just

[1:25:09] open the meeting up for any public um

[1:25:13] public comment that anyone in the room

[1:25:15] or online would like to make. Anyone?

[1:25:19] This is usually where Lynn stands up and

[1:25:21] announces the public the issues forum.

[1:25:25] [laughter]

[1:25:28] » Thank you.

[1:25:30] very much. Um I want to thank

[1:25:32] all of you uh for coming to the great

[1:25:34] Salt Lake issues forum last week and the

[1:25:37] entire 3-day program has been recorded.

[1:25:40] Uh, and that video of all of the

[1:25:43] presentations will be posted on the

[1:25:45] forum website probably within the next

[1:25:47] week or 10 days at the most. So, um, if

[1:25:51] you missed something or you'd like to

[1:25:53] revisit a particular presentation, it'll

[1:25:56] be there for you. Um, so, thank you so

[1:25:58] much. I do have cookies.

[1:26:01] There you go.

[1:26:03] That was a great [applause]

[1:26:09] » Anyone else have a public comment?

[1:26:11] Anyone online? I didn't hear any hands

[1:26:14] up.

[1:26:17] Okay, great. With that, we are a wrap

[1:26:22] today. Our next tech team meeting is on

[1:26:26] uh September 8th. So, end of summer,

[1:26:29] beginning of fall. Thank you so much.

[1:26:30] Feel free to stay and and chat and

[1:26:32] mingle.

Great Salt Lake Technical Team 5/12/2026 (technical issues)

Transcript