Do people live by The Great Salt Lake and does it smell?

Yes, people live by the Great Salt Lake. Salt Lake City and its northern and western suburbs are right near it. I live in West Jordan, another suburb of Salt Lake to southwest. Occasionally the lake does smell if the conditions are right. It smells like you would expect a body of water with no outlet to smell: kind of rotten. read more

According to the Great Salt Lake Ecosystem Project, the hyper-saline environment of the Great Salt Lake is what makes it smell. read more

While the temperature inversion-enhanced smog in the winter can certainly smell and even "taste" bad, I suspect that the bad smell that you are actually alluding to is a phenomenon that local Salt Lake City residents sometimes refer to as "Lake-Stink". read more