Lake Tuz processing and refining. In 2001, Lake Tuz was declared a specially protected area, including all of the lake surface and surrounding waterbeds and some of the important neighboring steppe areas. The main Turkish breeding colony of greater flamingo ("Phoenicopterus roseus") is present on a group of islands in the southern part of the lake. Greater white-fronted goose ("Anser albifrons") is the second largest breeder here. Lesser kestrel ("Falco naumanni") is a common breeder in surrounding villages. Lake Tuz Lake Tuz ( meaning Salt Lake) is the second largest lake in Turkey with its surface area and one of the largest
Lake Tuz Natural Gas Storage salt formation covers an area of . It is long and around thick. It has a salt dome structure. To create the caverns in the salt formation, fresh water was brought by pipeline from Hirfanlı Dam at distance. Using the process of solution mining, water was injected through a borehole into the salt formation, and the saline water, which is formed after dissolution of salt in water, was pumped back to the surface leaving a void in the formation. The salt water was transported to far away Lake Tuz by pipeline. Gas pressure inside the storage is nearly . The