What if most of this water were land?

Tyler Green has the latest on the new threat to the Spiral Jetty, a fertilizer production operation that could lower the Great Salt Lake's levels permanently and turn Smithson's masterpiece into a permanently landlocked work... which would be sad, Smithson's work is all about changing land water and sky interactions. Not to mention the gigantic fertilizer operation would significantly alter the Great Salt Lake's shoreline and ecosystem. I find it interesting how art has become a water rights/environmental lightning rod here... would Mono lake's levels have been more protected if it had a Smithson earthwork (which was considered)?