FLYING ABOVE the Great Salt Lake, you’ll see a patchwork of colors. Evaporation ponds for potash production glow neon-green and fuchsia. The lake’s North Arm, separated from freshwater instream flows by a railroad causeway, radiates a bright pink from microorganisms that survive high salinity. The south half is a deep blue, punctuated by red streaks from brine shrimp cysts, which 21 companies harvest. Often there’s a brownishgray smog, caused by emissions from magnesium producers and oil refineries or toxic dust clouds from the dried-up lakebed.
The peculiar colors of Utah’s inland sea — the largest
