When Sediment Becomes a Hazard: What New Great Salt Lake Research Means for Utah’s Waterways

A new study from Utah State University and the University of Utah has put a number on something many Utahns have long suspected: the sediment resting at the bottom of our lakes is not inert. It is a reservoir of toxic metals accumulated over more than a century — and as conditions change, those toxins are finding their way into the food we eat and the air we breathe.

What the Research Shows

Published in April 2026 in the journal Atmospheric Environment, the research — led by former USU graduate student Molly Blakowski, with supervision from Janice Brahney and geochemical analysis by Diego Fernandez — examined dust blowing off the exposed bed of the Great Salt Lake. The team documented elevated levels of arsenic, uranium, lithium, beryllium, and antimony in leafy vegetables exposed to that dust. Critically, the metals remained on the plants even after thorough washing.

The findings underscore how mobile these contaminants are. Dust applied directly to plant leaves produced far higher metal uptake than soil exposure alone. And the metals behave differently depending on how they enter the body: cadmium, for instance, is about 20% soluble when inhaled but reaches roughly 80% solubility in stomach acid when ingested. In more than a third of the exposure scenarios the researchers modeled, the levels exceeded health-concern thresholds for children.

As Brahney noted, dust is an acute health hazard, but rarely measured for composition or bioavailability of potentially toxic components.

Why This Matters for Utah’s Waters

The study points to a sobering source for these toxins: lake sediments that have absorbed contaminants from a century of mining, waste disposal, and oil refining. As water levels decline and more lakebed is exposed, that buried legacy becomes airborne and bioavailable.

The lesson extends well beyond the Great Salt Lake. Sediment across Utah’s lakes and rivers functions as a long-term sink for whatever enters the water — and that includes the debris that sinks beneath the surface and stays there. Submerged vehicles, machinery, and abandoned equipment are not passive objects. Over years and decades, they leach motor oil, fuel residues, brake and transmission fluids, and the heavy metals embedded in batteries, frames, and components directly into the sediment that the new research shows can later harm human health.

The Case for Recovery

This is the heart of why underwater debris and vehicle extraction matters. Recovery teams across the country are increasingly documenting just how much sits unseen on the bottoms of our waterways. In the past year alone, divers located more than 90 submerged cars in the Chicago River system, while volunteer crews in Florida found dozens of vehicles in a single lake. Cleanup organizations elsewhere have hauled nearly a ton of debris from just a few miles of lakebed in a single season.

Every vehicle and every piece of debris removed is a quantity of oil, fuel, and heavy metal that will never leach into sediment — and never become part of the toxic reservoir that research like Blakowski’s warns about. Prevention at the source is far cheaper, and far safer, than managing contamination after it has spread into plants, dust, and drinking water.

That is the mission of Fathom Restoration. We locate and extract submerged vehicles and debris from Utah’s lakes and rivers, removing pollutants before they can break down and migrate. The Great Salt Lake findings are a reminder that what settles to the bottom does not stay safely out of sight. Clean waterways begin with clearing what should never have sunk there in the first place.

Sources & Further Reading

“Toxins from Great Salt Lake dust are absorbed by plants, soils and human bodies.” Phys.org, April 21, 2026. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-toxins-great-salt-lake-absorbed.html

“Chaos Divers locate more than 90 submerged cars in Chicago River system.” CBS News Chicago. https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/chaos-divers-locate-submerged-cars-chicago-river-system/

“Cold-Case Divers Find 32 Cars in Florida Lake While Searching for Missing Person.” The Drive. https://www.thedrive.com/news/cold-case-divers-find-32-sunken-cars-while-searching-for-missing-person