By Katie McKellar | Senior Reporter
It’s been a long time coming, but more dust monitors meant to track particles blown from the shrinking Great Salt Lake’s exposed lake bed are on the way to getting up and running.
The monitors are meant to help Utahns get answers to pressing questions about the dust that gets whipped up as the lake’s shoreline continues to recede: Is it bad for their health? To what extent are fine particles of cancer-causing metals drifting from the dried clay and into their neighborhoods?
In today’s Dispatch, we look at state officials’ progress getting the new dust monitors operational, the first UTA base fare increase in 13 years, and concerns that people with disabilities face as state and federal protections fade away.
“It's incredibly frustrating. But I'm grateful for the fact that the state has now stepped up.” — Kevin Perry, a dust scientist, on the yearslong wait for more dust monitors.
Pierce Wratten, an environmental scientist with the Utah Department of Air Quality, swaps out the filters on an air quality monitoring station at Great Salt Lake State Park in Magna on Tuesday, April 14, 2026. Although not a part of the Utah Dust Observation and Research Network, the station is similar to those that are. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
GREAT SALT LAKE COLLABORATIVE
By Annie Knox
Four years after the Great Salt Lake dropped to a historic low in 2022 — and as the lake’s water level is threatening to plunge to a new low while storms whip up brown plumes above the lake bed — a new dust monitoring network is still taking shape.
After a slow start to the rollout three years ago, the state Division of Air Quality has picked up speed, outfitting eight locations spanning more than 100 miles to the east of the lake with new equipment as part of the Utah Dust Observation and Research Network.
A UTA Trax train travels through Salt Lake City on Thursday, April 18, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
By Alixel Cabrera
After 13 years of paying $2.50 to ride Utah Transit Authority buses or trains, commuters may see a fare increase to $3 next year. But first, UTA officials say they want to hear feedback.
The increase is something the authority has held off for as long as possible, said Gavin Gustafson, UTA’s senior public information officer. However, he said the costs to keep the transit service running has gone substantially up over the last decade.
Rob Stone, pictured with his mother, Jeneva, has a rare genetic movement disorder, dystonia-parkinsonism, that limits his mobility and speech. (Photo courtesy of Jeneva Stone)
STATELINE
By Anna Claire Vollers
Disability advocates around the country are fighting a surge of federal and state actions that have eroded protections meant to keep people with disabilities living and working in their communities, rather than in institutions.
The federal government has walked away from decades-old requirements that states deliver disability services to people where they live. At the same time, state leaders, citing budget shortfalls, have rolled back community services the feds don’t require them to fund.
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