June 7, 2022- I read an article, a few minutes ago, about Great Salt Lake being in danger of becoming Great Salt Lick. In my lifetime, Salton Sea, Aral Sea and Arizona’s own Stoneman Lake have virtually disappeared. I have seen huge salt licks in Nevada, which, though tourist-sites on their own, do not provide sustenance to those who live nearby. They used to be part of Lake Lahontan, which is still large, but not the behemoth it once was.
The lake, though, is not what drew those whose choices are endangering it. They came for the mountains-the Wasatch Front, which borders the Salt Lake City-Provo-Brigham City metro area on the east. They are often forced by Homeowners Associations to use exorbitant amounts of water, to maintain the green lawns which the HOAs and their attorneys regard as essential to maintaining property values. Yet, here’s the rub: The very people on whom these lawyers depend for their communities’ survival will move, maybe en masse, if the lake is sacrificed for the grass AND the toxic soil that is left behind becomes windblown, creating the sort of haboobs that sometimes torment Phoenix and its eastern and southern suburbs. The difference is that the Salt Lake bed contains huge amounts of arsenic, which would be blown eastward, into the lungs of HOA directors and tenants alike. HOAs in the Phoenix area long ago began transitioning to xeriscapes in their neighbourhoods’ yards. My guess is that Utah, being also largely in a desert environment, will have little choice in the long run, but to do the same.
Then again, there are those bottom lines to consider.
A Sagittarian Seeker 
The bottom line will not be an issue if the issus are not properly addressed. Unfortunately, most HOA’s are governed by Boards of Directors who are volunteers, and far from experts in the field of property management! And CC&R’s are difficult to amend, even in times of crisis. I don’t envy the people of those Associations surrounding the GSL!
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No, they are between a rock and a hard place-as is anyone who has thrown in with a Homeowners’ Association. I recall that owning property, in and of itself, is an undertaking often fraught with peril. It seems the CC&Rs, in a good many of the communities, were drawn up in a time when Climate Change was only dimly on the horizon. “You, too, can bring the Midwest to beautiful Utah-lawns, trees and all!”
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And then, as I think we talked about, there are Board members who make really bad decisions based on their desire to spend the money available in the Reserve Fund (savings account), or to manage the Association as inexpensively as possible — decisions like changing the landscaping from Long Island or Cape Cod to Southwestern native simply because it would save money and corporate neighbors have done it, but without regard to the wishes of the Association members. Fortunately the worst of these have been overcome for now, but there are other issues along the way!
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I remember your stories about those “improvements” very well. There is never a dull moment!
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