Federal officials will more closely monitor the impacts of shrinking lakes throughout the U.S. West after President Joe Biden signed legislation that creates and funds monitoring efforts into the region's saline lakes.
The legislation allocates $25 million for the United States Geological Survey to monitor lakes.
Those include Utah’s Great Salt Lake, California’s Mono Lake and Oregon’s Lake Albert.
Regionwide drought has diminished the amount of water that flows to the lake and raised the specter of environmental, health and economic disaster for surrounding communities.
The program does not mandate any conservation measures or institute new water management guidelines.