A dust plume blows into Salt Lake City on the morning of Jan. 20, 2025. Strong north winds carried dust off exposed playa in Great Salt Lake’s Farmington Bay into Utah’s most populated urban area. Credit Jim Steenburgh, University of Utah
Airborne dust pollution is becoming an escalating health and environmental concern across Utah and the Western United States, with the drying Great Salt Lake exposing more of its lakebed and increasing the risk of hazardous dust storms. According to new research from the University of Utah, this dust—originating from the Great Basin—often travels eastward and settles along the Wasatch Front, Utah’s most densely populated region, as well as in nearby mountain ranges.
While airborne, the dust interacts with urban pollutants, raising concerns about contamination of critical water sources and broader ecological impacts. The study highlights how urban environments intensify the risks posed by transient dust, contributing to both air and water quality degradation.
The research, led by atmospheric scientist Kevin Perry of the University of Utah and geologist Jeff Munroe of Middlebury College, explores these dust dynamics within Earth’s Critical Zone—the thin surface layer where air, water, rock, and living organisms interact. Processes like dust deposition, erosion, and transport are shown to play a key role in shaping this zone, especially in regions experiencing environmental stress.
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As the Great Salt Lake continues to shrink, researchers warn that airborne dust may carry increasing quantities of harmful particles, making public health risks and environmental management urgent priorities for the region.
Dust particles are typically diverse in their composition, as they are influenced by natural environments. However, agriculture, grazing, off-roading, construction, mining and other human activities alter the dust composition, with important implications for places like Utah’s populated Salt Lake Valley.
“The problem is that there are lots of dust sources in the urban area, and when it’s windy and it’s picking up dust from Great Salt Lake and other places upstream, it gets mixed in with this local dust that has a lot more junk in it,” Perry said. “So, if we think about the contaminants of concern in Great Salt Lake dust, and then you add in additional contaminants from the local dust, it just makes it that much more potent, and not in a good way.”
“Our dust comes from various sources. We have natural sources like the West Desert, the Bonneville Salt Flats, Sevier Lake, but then we also have a lot of dust from Great Salt Lake and anthropogenic dust sources, quarries at Point of the Mountain, the Staker quarry in North Salt Lake,” said co-author Derek Mallia, a research assistant professor of atmospheric sciences. “This can be locally sourced, but you can also get dust impacts from sources on the other side of the Great Basin. An artifact of being on the eastern side of the Great Basin is we’re just downwind of a ton of dust sources.”
