[daltonrydalchParticipant Karma: 1 pt]

For me the biggest issue with damming The Bear River is the pollution effects that can come with it. Not pollution in the water but pollution from airborne particles coming from the exposed lake bed of The Great Salt Lake, as I gathered information on how much lake bed could possibly be exposed it was uncertain on how much the lake will drop, but it will drop overall. Dust from exposed wetlands will become airborne particles contributing to our poor air quality (http://utahrivers.org/?cause=the-bear-river-project), as well as exposing other things like; mercury and methylmercury. Along with creating more air pollution, the lake effect accounts for 10% of the annual snowpack as we learned in class. This means that there will be less water for the following summer and could possibly negate the building of a new reservoir if we are not getting the snowpack needed to fill the reservoir, also the ski industry in Utah will be affected which would be a big impact on our economy.

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