Dust
Hundreds of square miles of dry lakebed
Exposed lakebed blows into the air over the Wasatch Front. More than 120 square miles of Farmington Bay alone is exposed, including 21 square miles of known dust hot spots.[2]
Sector 01America at 250 · The next great build
Bring the ocean inland.
The Great Salt Lake is running dry. Pacific Aquarius imagines bringing the Pacific to it, and building the biggest water park anyone has seen around the works.
A vision, not an approved project. Sponsored by Chiller Tech Support LLC.
Not so long ago, at a shrinking lake in Utah…
Chapter I
Bring the ocean inland
It is a time of drought. The Great Salt Lake has fallen to record lows, and dust lifts off its dry bed toward the cities on its shore.
A century ago, Americans built Hoover Dam and Glen Canyon to move the West’s water. Now, at 250, the country is looking for its next great build.
Pacific Aquarius imagines bringing the Pacific inland: the works hidden inside the biggest water park anyone has seen, with canals to carry the people. It is a vision, not yet a plan. Perhaps you will help build it…
Why this matters
The Great Salt Lake
is running low.
In 2022 it hit its lowest level on record, shrinking from about 1,700 square miles to roughly 800.[4] Utah’s Strike Team found human water use explains most of the drop: an estimated 67–73%.[1]
4,191.1ft
End of 2025: a little better, still about 7 feet short of healthy.
Birds
More than 10 million birds a year
Utah’s wildlife agency counts more than 10 million migratory birds, of about 250 species, passing through the lake each year.[5]
Brine shrimp
About 45% of the world’s brine shrimp
They feed fish and shrimp farms worldwide. At levels like today’s, the state’s lake-level guide flags harm to brine shrimp, and serious harm a little lower.[5][1]
Economy
$1.69–2.17 billion a year at stake
A 2019 study for the state’s Great Salt Lake Advisory Council estimated what a sustained decline could cost Utah each year, along with more than 6,000 jobs.[6]
What recovery takes
To reach a healthy 4,198 ft within 20 years, the lake needs 500,000 to 1,100,000 extra acre-feet of water every year.[1] Utah has already sent nearly 400,000 acre-feet its way since 2021 through conservation, leasing, and new laws.[2]
Conservation is the fastest, cheapest help, and it comes first. Pacific Aquarius asks a longer-range question: what if the West also had a new source of water?
Seen from orbit
Watch the lakes
shrink.
The same ground, photographed by Landsat satellites years apart. Drag the line to wipe from then to now.
Great Salt Lake
- June 1985
- about 4,209.7 ft
- July 2022
- about 4,190.2 ft
about 19.5 feet lowerour math
In 1985 the lake was near its all-time high. By July 2022 it had hit a new record low. The pale ground around the shore is lakebed that used to be underwater.[30]
Want every year since 1984? Scrub through Landsat for any place on Earth in Google Earth Timelapse ↗
History of water in the West
A century of
moving water.
Hoover Dam, Glen Canyon, Lake Mead and Lake Powell: the West has always built big to move water. This is the story Pacific Aquarius joins.
Timeline focusUintah and Ouray Reservation
Still mapApproximate geography · illustrative route · exaggerated schematic relief, not measured elevations. Lake symbols show locations, not size or water level.
Santa Fe — read the story
A river becomes a shared question.
Before these dams, representatives met to negotiate how the Colorado River’s water would be shared. Santa Fe marks that chapter in this journey.
1922 · The Colorado River Compact
Representatives of seven basin states signed the compact in Santa Fe on November 24, 1922. It divided the Colorado River Basin into Upper and Lower Basins, using Lees Ferry as the dividing point.
About this scene
A representative landscape locates the story; it does not reconstruct the signing venue. This short history is not a complete account of water rights or present operating rules.
Bureau of Reclamation · Colorado River Compact and basin geography
Hoover Dam · Lake Mead — read the story
Concrete across Black Canyon.
The canyon, the dam, the reservoir: Hoover brings three different scales into one view. Its construction story began before Lake Mead appeared.
1932–1933 · Preparing the site
Crews diverted the river around the construction site on November 14, 1932. Placement of the dam’s concrete began on June 6, 1933.
1935 · A lake takes shape
Water began collecting behind the dam on February 1, 1935. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the structure on September 30 that year.
About this scene
A representative illustration of a dam in a canyon. Shapes, dimensions and the water surface are artistic; they do not reproduce Hoover’s exact geometry or current conditions.
Bureau of Reclamation · Hoover Dam chronology
Bureau of Reclamation · Hoover Dam location and construction
Glen Canyon Dam · Lake Powell — read the story
A reservoir among sandstone walls.
Upstream on the Colorado River, Glen Canyon Dam created Lake Powell. The dam’s construction and the reservoir’s filling unfolded over very different timescales.
1956 · A signal from Washington
President Dwight D. Eisenhower remotely triggered the first construction blast on October 15, 1956, from Washington, D.C.
1963–1980 · The first filling
Lake Powell began filling on March 13, 1963. That initial filling reached full pool on June 22, 1980, more than seventeen years later.
About this scene
An artistic canyon-and-dam scene accompanies the history. It is not a measured reconstruction of Glen Canyon Dam, and the illustrated water does not show a current lake level.
Great Salt Lake — read the story
Water arrives. Salt remains.
Great Salt Lake belongs to a separate terminal basin. Its story is about the water reaching the lake and the water leaving through evaporation.
A basin with no outlet
The Bear, Jordan and Weber rivers are the lake’s largest tributaries. Runoff, precipitation, temperature and evaporation shape its changing shoreline.
About this scene
The lake and shoreline are representative artwork, not dated observations. This view establishes no water level, salinity, recovery forecast or benefit from adding seawater.
Oregon coast (illustrative) — read the story
The next scene is a question.
Pacific Aquarius imagines a connection between Pacific seawater and the Great Salt Lake. Here, the coast is a setting for that idea, not an identified intake site.
An imagined starting point
The shoreline, intake marker and any connecting line are original illustrations. They show no studied or approved route, selected parcel or committed project.
Questions before a route
Marine effects, land access, energy, treatment and the lake’s response would need independent study. The scene makes no claim about feasibility, water delivery or environmental outcomes.
Uintah and Ouray Reservation — read the story
A homeland within the basin.
The Ute Indian Tribe is based on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in northeastern Utah. The reservation lies within the Colorado River drainage.
2022 · Participation in river decisions
In comments dated December 20, 2022, the Tribe called for direct participation in Colorado River management decisions. The linked document presents that request in the Tribe’s own words.
About this scene
This representative basin landscape depicts no reservation boundary, cultural site or tribal architecture. The story makes no claim about current water allocations or settlement status.
Ute Indian Tribe · December 2022 comments, hosted by Reclamation
Colorado River Delta (Mexico) — read the story
The last stretch toward the sea.
At the northern Gulf of California, the delta carries traces of branching channels and dry reaches. Two dated observations tell different chapters of that story.
2000 · A river ending in sand
A September 2000 satellite image, described by USGS, shows the Colorado River ending in desert sands before reaching the Gulf. It records a historical moment, not today’s conditions.
2014 · A planned pulse
An environmental water release ran from March 23 to May 18, 2014. Researchers tracked its passage through the delta and documented water reaching the river’s estuary.
About this scene
The branching channels, sand flats and sea are original illustrative forms. Their shape and wet or dry appearance are not a map, a live observation or a restoration forecast.
USGS · September 2000 Colorado River endpoint image
USGS · Field and satellite observations of the 2014 pulse flow
1908
Reservations come with water
In Winters v. United States, the Supreme Court holds that when the U.S. set aside reservations, it also reserved water for them: the Winters doctrine behind tribal water rights across the West.[21]
1 / 16
Who holds the water?
The first people
weren’t at the table.
Thirty federally recognized tribes live in the Colorado River Basin. Twenty-two of them hold rights to about a quarter of the river’s yearly flow, yet tribes had no seat when the river was divided in 1922, or when the states rewrote the rules in 2007. Many now want a legally granted seat at the table.[22]
In Utah, the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation holds reserved rights under the Winters doctrine. A compact Utah ratified in 2018 puts 248,943 acre-feet a year in trust for the Tribe and others, and says Congress and the Tribe must also ratify it.[21]
Downstream, Mexico is owed 1.5 million acre-feet a year by a 1944 treaty, and the river itself went years without reaching the sea.[27][28]
Our view: any new source of water for the West should start with the tribes at the table, not end with them.
Where the river ends
A river doesn’t stop
at a fence.
The Colorado starts as snow in the Rockies and once ran all the way to the Gulf of California. Dams and canals take it up along the way. By the time it crosses into Mexico, only about 10 percent of its water is left, mostly for farms. In a satellite photo from September 2000, the river simply fades into the desert sand before it reaches the sea.[29]
Mexico’s share is fixed by a 1944 treaty. In 2014 the two countries let a planned pulse of water run downstream, and for eight weeks the river touched its estuary again.[27][28]
Our view: same snow, same river, from the headwaters to the delta. Pacific Aquarius is aimed at the Great Salt Lake, a separate basin, but the lesson carries over: new water should leave everyone downstream better off, and the people at the end of the river belong in the conversation.
The idea, in three parts
Waterworks with
a world beyond them.
A water system can be something people understand, experience, and care about. Pacific Aquarius explores what happens when infrastructure and a destination are conceived together.
Connect the water.
Explore an Oregon Coast intake and a dedicated conveyance corridor to the Great Salt Lake.
The proposed systemCreate a destination.
Bring hospitality, recreation, immersive attractions, and learning experiences into the waterworks vision.
The visitor experienceProve the economics.
Evaluate whether visitor spending and potential water services could help fund construction and operations.
The business caseExplore the system
Follow the water.
Four parts of a proposed system. Select a stage to see the idea and the question it must answer.
Source & marine environment
The journey begins at the Pacific.
The proposal starts with a seawater intake on Oregon’s coast. Its location, intake technology, and marine protections would need site-specific study.
The question to answer
Where could an intake operate with acceptable marine impacts?
Read the system outlineProposed sequence only. No final alignment, system design, operating capacity, or environmental outcome is established by this illustration.
Ride along · The climb
Water doesn’t flow uphill.
This would have to.
Mile (of ~750)
0
Elevation
0 ft
Lift energy*
0
kWh / acre-ft
Schematic counters · illustrative profile, not a surveyed route
Mile 0, sea level
Seawater enters a screened intake on the coast.
Illustrative profile · see note below
Illustrative profile, shaped after Utah’s sketch of a Pacific route (700–800 miles, peaking at 7,232 ft).[1] An Oregon route’s real profile hasn’t been studied. *our math The least energy to lift one acre-foot of seawater to the highest point so far, with perfect pumps and no pipe friction. Real pumping needs much more.[7]
A ride along an illustrative elevation profile from the Pacific at sea level, over mountain passes near 7,232 feet, across the high desert, down to the Great Salt Lake at 4,191 feet. Lifting one acre-foot of seawater 4,200 feet takes at least about 4,400 kilowatt-hours.
More than a water system
Come for the place.
Discover the possibility.
The ambition draws inspiration from Disneyland’s immersive destination experience: a place people want to explore and return to, with the journey of water at its heart.
Independent concept. No Disney affiliation.
Open the concept galleryStay by the water
Waterfront hospitality, dining, and public spaces that invite a longer stay.
Explore and play
Recreation, immersive attractions, and landscape experiences built around water.
See the working system
Exhibits, guided experiences, and learning programs that make infrastructure understandable.
Proposed visitor experiences. Locations, resort designs, operators, and programs have not been established.
The business case
Can a destination help
fund the waterworks?
That is the proposition to test. A viable venture must support both the water system and the destination over time.
Potential revenue
What could support it
- Hospitality, dining, and visitor spending
- Attractions, recreation, and guided experiences
- Water services, subject to demand and approvals
Whole-system costs
What it must cover
- Construction, financing, and land
- Pumping, energy, treatment, and maintenance
- Resort operations and environmental management
Profitability is a goal to evaluate. Demand, energy costs, capital requirements, and financing must be tested together.
Review planning assumptionsWhat it would take
The vision,
checked against the facts.
A good proposal shows its hard parts. Here’s what researchers and the State of Utah have already found about piping ocean water to the lake.
A · It’s been studied
“Feasible but expensive, slow, and controversial.”
That’s how Utah’s Great Salt Lake Strike Team summed up importing ocean water in 2023. Their sketch: 500,000 acre-feet a year through a 13-foot pipe, 700–800 miles long, pumped over the Sierra Nevada at 6,500–7,000 feet. Cost: possibly more than $100 billion, and decades to build.[1]
B · Energy
Pumping uphill takes a power plant.
A 2023 BYU study found that about 405,000 acre-feet a year needs at least 400 megawatts of pumps, roughly 11% of Utah’s electricity, costing over $300 million a year and nearly a million tonnes of CO₂.[7] At the concept’s 9.3-billion-gallon-a-day target, that scales to roughly 10 gigawatts, more than double Utah’s whole electricity use.our math
C · Scale
The full concept is ten times what the lake needs.
9.3 billion gallons a day is about 10.4 million acre-feet a yearour math, against the lake’s need of 0.5–1.1 million.[1] The rest would feed treatment and regional supply. For scale, the nation’s largest seawater desalination plant, at Carlsbad, makes about 50 million gallons a day.[10]
D · Salt
Every acre-foot brings about 43 tonnes of salt.
Seawater is about 35,000 parts per million salt.[11] If fresh water is taken out and the salt stays, the lake gets saltier.our math The Strike Team warned imported seawater could change the lake “in unanticipated ways.”[1]
E · Law and permits
Several states, federal review, and the ocean.
A Pacific line crosses state borders and would likely need federal involvement,[1] which brings a full environmental review under NEPA.[14] The ocean intake and the water rights would each need their own approvals. In 2024 Utah set up a framework to seek water from outside the state, which may mean water-rights deals rather than a pipeline.[13]
G · Built for salt
Seawater eats metal. Plan for it.
Desalination plants already handle this: plastic (HDPE) pipe for seawater intakes and fiberglass for lower-pressure lines, with super-duplex stainless steel where the pressure is high.[23] The rest is maintenance, like the Navy: its Pacific and Atlantic fleets have put about a quarter of their maintenance budgets toward fighting corrosion.[24] And seawater isn’t clean just because it’s salty: it carries life that fouls pipes, so intakes need screening and treatment.
F · A cautionary tale
California asked the same question.
In 2022 an independent panel studied piping seawater to the shrinking Salton Sea. It found the idea technically possible but extremely expensive, decades away, and environmentally risky, and did not recommend it.[9] In 2023 Utah’s lake commissioner said a Pacific pipeline wasn’t among the options the state was weighing.[8]
How we did “our math”
- Flow
- 9.3 billion gal/day × 365 ÷ 325,851 gal per acre-foot ≈ 10.4 million acre-feet a year.
- Lift
- One acre-foot of seawater (1,233.5 m³ × 1,025 kg/m³ ≈ 1.26 million kg) raised 1,280 m takes m·g·h ≈ 4,400 kWh, with perfect pumps and no friction.
- Power
- BYU’s lower bound is 400 MW for about 405,000 acre-feet a year. Scaled in proportion to 10.4 million acre-feet: ≈ 10 GW. By BYU’s own ratio (400 MW ≈ 11% of Utah’s use), that’s more than double Utah’s electricity use.
- Salt
- 1,233.5 m³ per acre-foot × about 35 kg of salt per m³ ≈ 43 tonnes.
Rough arithmetic from the cited sources, for scale only. Not an engineering estimate.[7][11]
So why keep talking about it?
Because the West’s water squeeze is a long-range problem, and big works start as conversations. The honest next step isn’t a pipeline. It’s an independent feasibility look at whether any version of this, at any size, could make sense next to conservation.
Current stage: concept
An ambitious vision.
A clear view of the work ahead.
The starting point
A concept dossier, proposed system outline, and preliminary planning assumptions.
Read the dossierThe critical questions
Engineering, energy, environmental effects, water rights, permitting, and commercial demand.
Read the FAQThe next foundation
Dated studies, a documented assumptions register, and a milestone plan. No construction date is committed.
The published concept does not establish an approved route, secured water rights, financing, or an engineering design.
Historical precedent · Boulder Canyon Project
Build the works. Show the works. Let productive infrastructure carry the case.
Method 01
Upfront capital
Congress authorized and federally financed construction of the Boulder Canyon Project.
Method 02
Revenue repayment
Long-term hydroelectric power contracts were designed to repay federal construction costs with interest.
Method 03
Regional finance
Related metropolitan water works used separate public bond financing and water revenues.
Method 04
Public conviction
Engineering reports, jobs, progress films, tourism, and monumental imagery made the works visible.
Pacific Aquarius proposes a privately sponsored seawater system and destination resort. This precedent illustrates revenue-producing infrastructure; it does not establish funding or profitability for this proposal.
Go to the source
The water picture, grounded in data.
Explore observations from the agencies that monitor these water systems.
Check the source. Check the date.
Current storage percentages and combined deficit totals are unavailable here while the data is verified. Use the official sources below for dated observations. Lake elevation alone does not establish stored water volume.
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
Colorado River reservoirs
Compare published reservoir storage, drought, and watershed conditions.
View official data for Colorado River reservoirsU.S. Bureau of Reclamation
Lake Powell and the Upper Basin
Review storage, elevation, inflow, and release records from the operating agency.
View official data for Lake Powell and the Upper BasinState of Utah
Great Salt Lake
Explore lake levels and watershed conditions from Utah’s official monitoring resources.
View official data for Great Salt LakeThese independent sources describe existing water systems. They do not endorse Pacific Aquarius or establish the feasibility of its proposed infrastructure.
Help shape the next chapter
Big ideas need
good questions.
Bring your questions, corrections, or supporting research. Let’s have a useful conversation about the proposal.
Pacific Aquarius
A concept sponsored by Chiller Tech Support LLC
Discuss the proposal Call (801) 244-6588Sources
Where the numbers come from.
Facts on this page link to the list below. Figures tagged “our math” are our own arithmetic from these sources, with the steps shown under “How we did our math” in the reality check. None of these organizations endorse Pacific Aquarius.
- 1.Great Salt Lake Policy AssessmentGreat Salt Lake Strike Team (Utah) · 2023
- 2.Great Salt Lake Data and Insights SummaryGreat Salt Lake Strike Team (Utah) · 2026
- 3.Great Salt Lake elevationsU.S. Geological Survey · ongoing
- 4.Great Salt LakeBYU Ballard Center · n.d.
- 5.Great Salt Lake brine shrimp and bird migrationMarine Stewardship Council, citing Utah Division of Wildlife Resources · n.d.
- 6.Potential costs of declining water levels in Great Salt Lake (summary of the ECONorthwest study for the GSL Advisory Council)Audubon · 2019
- 7.Estimated energy and emissions impacts of pumping Pacific Ocean water to Great Salt Lake (Sowby, Williams & South)Environmental Research Communications · 2023
- 8.Can ocean pipeline save the Great Salt Lake? New report cites staggering costsDeseret News · 2023
- 9.Salton Sea water importation panel recommendationsUC Santa Cruz · 2022
- 10.Seawater desalination (Carlsbad plant)San Diego County Water Authority · n.d.
- 11.Saline water and salinityUSGS Water Science School · n.d.
- 12.Optimization of energy efficiency … with reverse osmosis membranes in seawater desalination plants (Leon, Ramos & Perez-Baez)Membranes · 2021
- 13.A bill to explore water importation is advanced in the Utah State LegislatureFOX 13 / Great Salt Lake Collaborative · 2024
- 14.What is the National Environmental Policy Act?U.S. EPA · n.d.
- 15.New study confirms loss of storage capacity in Lake PowellU.S. Geological Survey · 2022
- 16.Lake Mead and Lake Mohave evaporation studyU.S. Bureau of Reclamation · 2022
- 17.Hoover Dam power FAQU.S. Bureau of Reclamation · n.d.
- 18.EPCOT (concept), including the 1966 EPCOT filmWikipedia · n.d.
- 19.Elevation-area-volume tables for Great Salt Lake, Utah, 2002–2016 (Root)U.S. Geological Survey · 2023
- 20.The Colorado River and Hoover Dam: facts and figuresU.S. Bureau of Reclamation · n.d.
- 21.Ute Indian Water Compact (Utah Code Title 73, Chapter 21), ratified by Utah in 2018Utah State Legislature · 2018
- 22.Historically excluded from Colorado River policy, tribes want a say in how the dwindling resource is usedColorado Public Radio via Circle of Blue · 2022
- 23.Fitting the pieces: selecting materials for membrane plantsWaterWorld · n.d.
- 24.Defense management: opportunities to reduce corrosion costs (GAO-03-753)U.S. Government Accountability Office · 2003
- 25.Seawater for flushingWater Supplies Department, Hong Kong · n.d.
- 26.Member agenciesMetropolitan Water District of Southern California · n.d.
- 27.Law of the RiverU.S. Bureau of Reclamation · n.d.
- 28.U.S.-Mexican Water Sharing: Background and Recent Developments (R43312)Congressional Research Service · 2017
- 29.Endpoint of the Colorado River, Mexico (NASA satellite image, September 2000)U.S. Geological Survey · 2000
- 30.The Great Shrinking Lake (Landsat, June 1985 and July 2022)NASA Earth Observatory · 2022
- 31.Lake Mead Keeps Dropping (Landsat, July 2000 and July 2022)NASA Earth Observatory · 2022
- 32.Lake Powell Drops to Record-Low Levels (Landsat, Sept. 2017 and Sept. 2026)NASA Earth Observatory · 2026
- 33.Falkirk Wheel (rotating boat lift, opened 2002)Wikipedia · n.d.
- 34.Trump pledges help to Utah to make Great Salt Lake greatThe Salt Lake Tribune · 2026
- 35.Hoover DamHerbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum (National Archives) · n.d.
- 36.Hoover Dam chronologyU.S. Bureau of Reclamation · n.d.
- 37.Glen Canyon DamU.S. Bureau of Reclamation · n.d.
- 38.A lake divided: the causeway and the West Desert Pumping ProjectUtah Geological Survey · n.d.
- 39.Reclamation announces 2022 operating conditions for Lake Powell and Lake MeadU.S. Bureau of Reclamation · 2021
- 40.Colorado River post-2026 operationsU.S. Bureau of Reclamation · 2026
- 41.Great Salt Lake current conditionsState of Utah · ongoing
Music
The soundtrack: Gustav Holst.
- Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity and Neptune, the Mystic, from The Planets, Op. 32 (1914–16), by Gustav Holst (1874–1934).
- Jupiter performed by the U.S. Air Force Heritage of America Band (Frontiers, 1998). Neptune performed by “The President’s Own” U.S. Marine Band (2016). Both are works of the U.S. government, in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
- Ocean waves are generated in your browser.
- Questions or concerns about the music on this site? Email chillertechusa@gmail.com.