Is it time to re-visit the role of Intrepid Potash in the
way we as racers use the Bonneville salt flats?
Are we shooting ourselves in the foot ?There seems to be a strong consensus that the salt on the salt flats is going away. WHERE the salt is going occupies a lot of our speculation ? especially since we are agreed that we are just about OUT of the salt that makes the track usable.
The salt flats are the remainder of an ancient inland lake that was initially part of the rest of the world?s oceans. When the ocean levels fell, the ?lake? that Bonneville became kept the dissolved salts in place in Utah. Since the lake had no normal outlet, the rain water ? and the salt ? remained at Bonneville. The only economical ways to remove that water ? and the salt - is by pumping. This is actually one of the cheapest ways to do ?extraction,? just spread out the brine in a ?pan? and let the sun evaporate the excess water.
Much of our negative thinking ? with some justification ? gets focused on the potash removal to the ?south side? of the interstate, where it is concentrated and eventually sold. Some of the sodium chloride ? table salt- which is a byproduct, is sold for winter road use. Most of us believe there is a HUGE amount of sodium chloride remaining ? essentially useless to Intrepid ? below I-10.
The common knowledge is that Intrepid gathers the salts by pumping brine from the North side to the South side involves a lot of salt ? but 5-10 times as much water is also pumped. Intrepid doesn?t want the water, but they can?t economically harvest the salt without having to also take the water the salt is dissolved in.
Reportedly, Intrepid did NOT pump more salty brine ?south? in 2019 because the spring was so wet, there was insufficient drying time to concentrate the salts enough to make an efficient harvest.
When Intrepid pumps south, the pumping creates a ?cone of depression? in the subsurface water. With long term pumping, this deficit becomes larger. Over a number of years, the ?reach? of this cone of depression can be MILES from the physical location of the actual pump. Many pumps create additional cones ? sometimes interacting with each other.
More pumps means less ground water, and a lowered water table. Does a lowered water table actually help us race on the salt flats? Does the water sink in better, and allow the track to ?recover? from rain more quickly? Does Intrepid?s pumping actually HELP the racers?
Perhaps part of 2019?s wet salt was due to Intrepid NOT pumping salt brine south.
As the winter and spring rains flooded the race track, and the water table had moved back toward the surface ? due to the lack of pumping ? and that the pre-race showers would have less ?space? to sink into the track. Since the pumping had not created this ?thirsty? top layer of salt, the track remained wet for the season.
More reading:
https://geology.utah.gov/map-pub/survey-notes/history-of-potash-production-from-the-salduro-salt-marsh-bonneville-salt-flats-tooele-county/Have we created our own problems by insisting that Intrepid stop pumping from the salt flats ?