Sea Monkeys’ very existence is threatened due to Utah farmers trying to grow alfalfa in a desert
Sea Monkeys are brine shrimp (basically plankton) and brine shrimp live in saltwater lakes, the largest of which in the Western Hemisphere is The Great Salt Lake in Utah. By the end of last year, the lake had lost 73% of its water and 60% of its area exposing more than 800 square miles of the lakebed.
Brine shrimp are food to more than 10 million of migrating birds as well as harvested as fish food for farmed fish and shrimp that feed millions of people around the world.
But the lake is being drained by the population in Utah which is the largest user of domestic water per capita in the entire Southwest. According to a 2010 study of American water consumption by the United States Geological Survey (the most recent available), Utah residents consume an astonishing daily average of 167 gallons per person! That’s nearly double what the typical American uses.
Like pouring water on the ground in a desert
And Utah has unmetered water!
Utah has a unique system of delivering irrigation water to residential yards that dates back to the 1800s, when the state was settled by Mormon pioneers. It allows homeowners to access untreated agricultural water from canals, sold at an unmetered flat rate, to irrigate their lawns, gardens and landscaping.
https://deeply.thenewhumanitarian.org/water/articles/2018/03/05/utah-americas-thirstiest-state-wrestles-with-unmetered-water-use
“It is total insanity that the Great Salt Lake is drying up and we are using hundreds of thousands of acre feet of treated culinary water to irrigate the totally useless crop of Kentucky bluegrass,” Zach Frankel, executive director of Utah Rivers Council, said of the thirsty emerald green turf that is the preferred lawn in Utah.
“Utah uses more municipal water than any state in the country, except for Idaho. And why the state has long supported a heavily subsidized water pricing system and zoning laws that encourage, if not flat-out demand, a yard full of well-tended grass.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/25/mormons-lawns-utah-old-testament-godly-act-megadrought
When the Mormon settlers were pushed out of the East and into the high plain deserts of Utah, they didn’t abandon their old ways of farming rather they used tremendous amounts of water to try to turn a desert green.
Nearly 70% of water used by Utah farmers goes to raising alfalfa hay — a water-intensive crop that adds just 0.2% to the state’s gross domestic product.
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-02-04/great-salt-lake-disappearing-utah-water-diversions-agriculture-brine-shrimp-grebe-phalarope-toxic-dust