UTAH ALLIANCE

[velocity]

LSR COMMUNITY: I am starting this thread to create a KNOWLEDGE BASE for the activities of the Utah Alliance. I respectfully ask that you only post items that reflect thoughtful, considered ideas and comments and keep the emotional rants to a minimum. Remember the ENTIRE world can read what you write in haste and while it may be YOUR opinion, it WILL reflect back on the entire land speed racing community. We must learn to speak with a single voice if we are to achieve a dynamic restoration program for the Bonneville Salt Flats. If you are bursting with rage, send me a personal email and we will try to get you some facts to cool your thoughts.


UTAH ALLIANCE
working with
SAVE THE SALT COALITION                                                                
 
Contact:   Louise Ann Noeth    C-805.312.0893    louise@landspeedproductions.biz
 
Stakeholders Meet to Discuss Fate of Bonneville Salt Flats

September 14, 2015 (Wendover, UT) - The Save the Salt Coalition and Utah Alliance met with a variety of stakeholder groups at the Bonneville Salt Flats (BSF) in Utah this week to discuss potential solutions for restoring the historic racing venue. The BSF has been in the spotlight following cancellation this year of five major racing events due to weather and deteriorating salt conditions.  In response, the Utah Alliance organized a tour of the area with government officials who oversee the BSF, mine operators, geologists, engineers, and other stakeholder groups.  The tour allowed the parties to then engage in follow-up discussions and begin identifying tangible restoration actions.
 
"Everyone displayed a willingness to come together to find a solution," said Dennis Sullivan, Chairman of the Utah Alliance,  "There was a mutual respect demonstrated among the public agencies, private entities and racers.  We all need to learn more from each other as we all have specific observations and experiences that need to be combined with scientific data to provide a viable way forward."
 
The Save the Salt Coalition and Utah Alliance were joined by staff from Utah Governor Herbert’s office, Senator Mike Lee’s office, Bureau of Land Management, Intrepid Potash-Wendover, Utah Department of Natural Resources, University of Utah’s Dr. Brenda Bowen, Mayor of Wendover, Utah, Councilman of West Wendover, Nevada, and a number of land speed racers.
 
The Utah Alliance and Save the Salt Coalition will next present a position statement to the stakeholders identifying a number of short- and long-term actions to be considered.  Priority will be given to determine how to expand brine pumping.
 
"Although concerns about deterioration at Bonneville have existed for decades, today marked the first time officials representing government, industry and racers sat at the same table to discuss solutions," said Doug Evans, Chairman of the Save the Salt Coalition.  "We are finally at the starting line in the race to save Bonneville."
 
The groups indicated that no quick fixes existed to resolve issues related to the condition of the salt.  However, they believe that given the high level of cooperation, the historic, internationally famous speedway will eventually be restored to safe racing conditions.
 
___________________

The Utah Alliance is a group of land speed racing individuals that live in or have connections with the State of Utah through employment or governmental agencies.

The purpose of the Utah Alliance is to work in Conjunction with the Save the Salt Organization on a local level to:
 - Preserve Our National Treasure - The Bonneville Salt Flats  
 - Develop and execute a Comprehensive Reclamation Plan

Utah Alliance Website: www.save-the-salt.org

The organization of the Utah Alliance is as follows:

Leadership:

DENNIS SULLIVAN - Chairman, USFRA President(penneyanteracin@gmail.com)

RICK VESCO - Save the Salt Founding Member, USFRA (teamvestcoracing@inforwest.com)

LARRY VOLK - USFRA Founding member(larry@rockymountainracedeck.com)

GARY WILKINSON - Save The Salt Vice Chairman, USFRA (gary_ellen@g.com)

HUGH COLTHARP - USFRA Treasurer, USFRA Founding member (hcgarage@comcast.net)

TOM BURKLAND - Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials (tom.burkland@peterseninc.com)

RUSS EYRES - Save The Salt Treasurer, SCTA/BNI Liaison (reyres@sanit.com)

ROGER LESSMAN - Nevada Liaison, USFRA (775-513-9030, roger@clickllc.us)

Partners:

"LandSpeed" LOUISE ANN NOETH - Media Contact, Bonneville Historian (louise@landspeedproductions.biz)

TERRY NISH - Nish Motorsports, Research & Racing History (terry@nishmotorsports.com)

MIKE NISH - Nish Motorsports, Research & Racing History (mike@nishmotorsports.com)

RUSS DEANE - SEMA/Save The Salt Legal Counsel (russ@russdeane.com)

ASHLEY AILSWORTH - SEMA/Save The Salt Legal Counsel, ashleya@sema.org

STUART GOSSWEIN - SEMA/Save The Salt Public Relations (stuart@sema.org)

CHAD BOOTH - AYL TV Salt Lake City, Media,  chad@ayltv.com

Supporters:

DICK ROSETTA - Utah Sports Hall Of Fame, Past Salt Lake Tribune Sports Editor

GREG MILLER - Director, Larry H Miller Family of Companies


The Save the Salt Coalition is an international group of businesses and organizations with a vested interest in the BSF.  The Utah Alliance provides expertise and connections at the state and local level.  Major LSR sanctioning organizations are members of both groups.  The two groups have partnered on the shared mission of restoring the BSF as the premier venue for setting world land speed records.  The collaboration allows experts within the groups to undertake specific roles and projects.  \\
 

[jdincau]

Who/what is the "Utah Alliance"?

[donpearsall]

Good question. In that press release there is the Save the Salt Coalition, The Utah Alliance, the Utah Coalition. I am losing track of all the organizations. Maybe this thread can define each organization and how they are different.
Don

[Dakin Engineering]

It is my understanding that the Alliance is a stripped down, streamlined version of previous efforts.
A true built-on-Bonneville innovation.

Best of luck to them,
Sam
#6062

[velocity]

The Utah Alliance is the NEW NAME for what was formerly known as the Utah Coalition. Because the two names were so close (STS Coalition /Utah Coalition) the name change was made to REDUCE confusion about the two groups.
Consider the Utah Alliance a group made up of land speed racers who have solid connection with Utah. It much smaller group than the Coalition that can react quicker and more forcefully than a broad-based national organization that must consider a wider membership.

Example: The Utah Alliance conceived and developed the two educational public outreach events held in Salt Lake City on the 9th and the Bonneville Salt Flats Tour on the 14th followed by the face-to-face sit-down discussion with influential parties. The STS Coaltion assisted, and even supported us by attending with 3 representatives from the Washington DC SEMA office, but the Utah Alliance together with a number of local Utah racers and their family members did the vast majority of the work.

The Utah Alliance intends to communicate with weekly posts on its own website: www.save-the-salt.org.  PLEASE note it is new and will be "morphing" as we figure out what we need to add and improve upon. We welcome your considered opinions, thoughts, documents and photos that will directly assist us in our march to restoring the Bonneville Salt Flats to safe, high-speed racing condition.

[velocity]

Don, All:

Thank you for catching the error. I hope you are now in full understanding.

[velocity]

RECAP OF SEPTEMBER 14th BSF TOUR | 9AM

"The Racer's Perspective"

RICK VESCO & RUSS EYRES - Tour Guides

Review Access Road: culvert, wind/water erosion, brackish water wells pump area for the 1997 Salt Laydown Project which required 4,203 acre feet of water. Potash Processing - 25 miles of surface obstructions and 21 miles of collection ditches north of I-80.

STOPS:

1. Old pole line maintenance road damage, repair questions & solutions for Brent Bingham and Brenda Bowen.
2. 1997 Salt Laydown brine water outlet & manifold system. Review new access area and Old Salduro modifications (private land - Intrepid). Point out 1914 race track area & Salt Laydown pumping station.
3. Review Salduro tailings/erosion on the 7 mile long area. Compare race track side to inside at point of original collection ditch. Show early 1930’s - 1970’s race track access bridge.
4. Look at surface elevations, track side compared to inside the Salduro Loop. Explain results of test drilling on each side.
5. Hardest salt area  - somewhat crystallized and becoming much harder to locate.
6.20 culverts, 24” diameter @ I-80. How to change inlet and north of I-80. Talk about ground water seepage - 24 hours non stop in the deep ditch south of I-80.
7. 1963 Installed collection system approximately 14 miles long. Decades of racetrack side surface water ran into this ditch. 1997 ditch cleanout mud was placed on track side to stop this flow. Today we have mud migration issues on the raceway side.
8. Russ Eyres, Bonneville Nationals/Save the Salt, summary of 12 years of track location & salt crust measurements.

[Dakin Engineering]

Let's look at this from Intrepid's side of the road.
How much profit is expected from just the BSF lease before it plays out?
Intrepid will write off the reclamation expenses on their taxes, is my guess.
How about some simple math;
Reclamation fund minus future profit equals amount to actually spend on reclamation.
And Intrepid gets to write off full amount of the fund plus the forfeited future profits.

Intrepid suddenly becomes a hero for forgoing profit to save the Bonneville Salt Flats!


Sam
#6062

[Sumner]

...Intrepid suddenly becomes a hero for forgoing profit to save the Bonneville Salt Flats!...

Probably a hard sell to stock holders and company executives

Sumner

[Sumner]

.....on its own website: www.save-the-salt.org. ....

Wondering why the choice of the domain name ....

http://www.save-the-salt.org/

... since it is almost identical to Save the Salt's domain name....

http://www.savethesalt.org/

.... To me it causes confusion as to which I'm visiting or seeing.  Was this a joint decision between the two groups?

Sumner

[Bob Drury]

  Now I am really confused.  I see that Russ Eyers Is listed as  Save the Salt Treasurer, SCTA-BNI Liaison.
  Does this mean that The Utah Alliance is a part of Save The Salt or is this a whole different effort?
  Whatever, I whole heartedly applaud both groups and stand ready to offer any help I can to support ALL efforts to regain our beloved Salt Flats.
                                                                                     Bob Drury

[USFRAMONTE]

One reason for forming the Utah Alliance is that local people could be recruited to help without having to get them voted in or elected to the Save The Salt board.  Luckly there are a number of folks here that are retired or have the time to devote to attending the meetings and making the necessary phone calls, emails and txt messages.  Unfortunately I do not have the free time to do this type of thing.  There are a number of local people who care enough and have the energy and devotion to throw themselves into this. My sincere appreciation to everyone that is putting their hearts and minds to this effort. The more people, groups, organizations etc that can put their voices and thoughts behind us the better our chance for success. Long live the Bonneville Salt Flats!

[half-fast racer]

Something I've been thinking about and I'm just going to toss it out. We are in a very time-limited bubble of press and public visibility here. The more we can keep this in the public eye, the better.

What if, say on Saturday Oct. 3 (right after lots of people were planning on being there for the World Finals) we ALL showed up on the Salt for a peaceful, positive show of solidarity and support. With all of the racers, crew, and interested parties, could we put 1,000 people there? 2,000? More? Would it get some attention, especially if the media was alerted? Would it show we're not a bunch of crazy speed demons?

Maybe a little "We are the World" but what the heck - I'd go, just to be counted. Logistics shouldn't be too tough - rent sopme porta-potties, maybe engage the red roof inn - done! My nephew will come too, so we're up to 2. One more and we've got a movement - any takers?

[half-fast racer]

By the way, Louise, I really do mean this to be a positive, constructive idea. I firmly believe that press and media are among our strongest tools at this point, and since we have their ear and attention, put the pedal down!

[1leg]

Million Racer March -  I like