Professor of Atmospheric Sciences
University of Utah
Bio:
Kevin Perry is a Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Utah. He earned a B.S. in Meteorology from Iowa State University and a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Utah. His research focuses on air quality, dust emissions, and environmental systems in the Intermountain West, with particular emphasis on Great Salt Lake. He is a member of the Great Salt Lake Strike Team and a Presidential Societal Impact Scholar at the University of Utah, working at the intersection of science, public health, and policy to support data-driven environmental decision-making.
Subscribe to Kevin's new publication Salt & Sky Brief, a bi-weekly, one-page newsletter focused on Utah’s air quality, water systems, the Great Salt Lake, energy affordability, and public education.
Title: Description and Costs of Potential Dust Control Options for Great Salt Lake
Abstract: Rapid hydrologic decline at Great Salt Lake (GSL), driven primarily by long-term human depletion of tributary inflows, has exposed more than 800 square miles of playa, increasing the potential for windblown dust emissions in a region already vulnerable to particulate pollution. Approximately 70 square miles (9% of exposed lakebed) currently function as active dust hotspots, with potential expansion to 187 square miles (24%) under continued crust degradation and groundwater decline. These trends raise critical policy questions regarding when intervention is warranted, what tools are available, and the long-term fiscal and hydrologic consequences of large-scale mitigation.
This presentation summarizes findings from Description and Costs of Potential Dust Control Options for Great Salt Lake, prepared for the Great Salt Lake Basin Integrated Plan gap analysis. Central to the report is a structured weight-of-evidence (WoE) framework that integrates air quality monitoring, source attribution, exposure patterns, toxicology, and population vulnerability to determine when engineered dust mitigation is scientifically justified.
Within this framework, twelve engineered dust control measures (DCMs) are evaluated, including water-dependent approaches (precision wetting, shallow flooding, brine caps, dynamic water management, managed vegetation, chemical suppressants) and non-water-dependent strategies (gravel, tillage, artificial surface roughness). Each is assessed for suppression performance, water demand, ecological tradeoffs, infrastructure requirements, longevity, and 50-year lifecycle cost.
Estimated costs range from roughly $3 million to $450 million per square mile. Applied to currently mapped hotspots, projected expenditures range from $3.2 to more than $31 billion, increasing substantially if dust-active areas expand. While engineered controls are technically feasible, they entail enduring financial and hydrologic commitments. Water-intensive measures offer higher suppression reliability but may conflict with basin-scale recovery goals, whereas non-water approaches reduce hydrologic demand but show greater performance variability.
A central conclusion is that restoring lake levels through reductions in consumptive water use addresses dust generation at its source and avoids the perpetual infrastructure liabilities of large-scale mitigation. The WoE framework supports adaptive, proportional deployment of engineered controls tied to verified air quality risk, providing a science-based and fiscally transparent foundation for managing dust hazards in terminal lake systems.
