Compass Minerals

This collection on Compass Minerals examines one of the Great Salt Lake’s most visible and controversial industrial forces. For decades, Compass has extracted salt, potash, and magnesium chloride from vast solar evaporation ponds that reshape the lake’s northern horizon into geometric fields of color and containment. These operations have withdrawn immense volumes of brine, altering the lake’s chemistry and contributing to its decline. Yet in recent years, the company has taken steps toward accountability—agreeing to return significant water volumes to the lake and limit production during low-water years. The result is a landscape both engineered and endangered, where industry’s imprint mirrors the fragile balance between extraction and preservation.