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Airborne dust pollution is becoming an increasingly serious issue for residents of Utah and other Western states, particularly as the shrinking Great Salt Lake exposes more of its lakebed, creating a potential source of toxic dust. Natural dust carried by wind from the Great Basin frequently settles along the western edge of the Wasatch Front—Utah’s most densely populated area—and its surrounding mountains.

According to new research from the University of Utah, this dust doesn't remain purely natural. Once airborne, it combines with human-made pollutants found in urban areas, potentially contaminating nearby watersheds and triggering a range of harmful effects. The study, published in Scientific Reports, investigates how urban environments influence transient dust pollution.

Led by atmospheric scientist Kevin Perry of the University of Utah and Middlebury College geology professor Jeff Munroe, the research team examined the Earth’s "Critical Zone"—the thin layer where life interacts with rock, air, soil, and water. This zone is highly affected by dust processes such as deposition, erosion, and transport.

While dust naturally contains a mix of minerals, its composition is significantly altered by human activities like farming, grazing, off-roading, construction, and mining. This poses particular challenges in Utah’s Salt Lake Valley, where such activities are widespread.

“There are lots of dust sources in the urban area,” Perry said. “When wind stirs up dust from the Great Salt Lake and other upstream locations, it mixes with local dust that often contains more pollutants. That combination becomes far more harmful.”

With 2.5 million people—around 75% of Utah’s population—living along the Wasatch Front, this region offers a prime setting for studying the interaction between natural and human-generated dust. Co-author Derek Mallia, a research assistant professor in atmospheric sciences, noted that the dust originates from both natural areas like the West Desert and Sevier Lake, as well as anthropogenic sources like the Point of the Mountain quarries and industrial zones in North Salt Lake.

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“Being downwind of the Great Basin means we receive dust from numerous sources across the region,” Mallia said.

Between 2020 and 2022, Munroe collected 29 dust samples across four seasonal periods using passive collectors spread over a 500-square-mile area west of the Wasatch Front. Additional samples were gathered from within Salt Lake City and Provo, and from Little Cottonwood Canyon near a popular ski area.

The sampling effort, part of a long-term project called DUST² (Dust Squared), used simple, improvised equipment—trough-lined trays filled with glass beads—to collect falling particles. Researchers then washed and analyzed the dust for composition, size, and other properties.

“The dust in urban areas showed significantly higher contamination levels, especially with metals,” Perry said.

The study found elevated concentrations of zinc, calcium, molybdenum, cadmium, copper, lead, cobalt, and arsenic in city dust. Many of these are linked to mining, vehicle emissions, and industrial activities. Alarmingly, arsenic and cobalt levels exceeded safety thresholds set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and other metals like zinc and copper pose major risks to local water systems.

Perry noted that much of this dust ends up in the snowpack. As the snow melts, it carries these pollutants into local waterways. Team member Greg Carling, a geology professor at Brigham Young University, is currently studying the spring runoff to quantify the volume of metals flowing into streams and eventually the Great Salt Lake.