The health costs of a shrinking lake are now tied directly to human water use

The health costs from dust blowing off the shrinking Great Salt Lake are now precisely measured. This means governments can now put a dollar value on reducing water use in the region.

Pollution from natural sources, like dust, often escapes regulation because it's hard to link to human actions. This paper provides a clear method and specific dollar figures to connect human water use to the health costs of a shrinking lake. It means that policies to reduce water use, which were previously seen as just environmental, now have a measurable public health benefit.