Bonneville water shed

[Steve Walters]

Thought I would bump the meeting off the USFRA threads since it is now out of place. 

I don't know why I assumed that the Salt Flats got water from Salt Lake from the Wasatch mountains drainage, must be cause it was all one lake at one time, or cause when you look at it on a map it all looks like it connects together.   But I got corrected by a KIWI,    I remember the pumping project, so I guess Salt lake would be under water before the Salt Flats got any wasatch shed.  Could any body explain to me how much drainage there is to Lake Bonneville, and does it just disapate into the aquapher?

Steve   

[55chevr]

It is a basin and doesnt drain ....

http://geology.utah.gov/utahgeo/gsl/flash/lb_flash.htm

[kiwi belly tank]

Yep, that's right. It does not drain, it just gets "sucked to death". 
  Sid.

[Dean Los Angeles]

34,363 square miles drain into the Great Sale Lake Basin. It is an endorheic basin, or terminal basin (no outflow).
The Jordan, Weber, and Bear rivers feed the Great Salt Lake. The West Desert is where the salt flats are located.

Streams in this basin have very little flow, except in the snowmelt runoff months of late April through early July, when peak flows occur. However, during drought periods, the streams in this basin carry virtually no runoff during any month. The mean annual precipitation for the basin is estimated to be less than 12 inches, and ranges from less than 5 inches over much of the lower elevation area to approximately 50 inches in the mountains of the basin. It is estimated that the mean water yield from this basin is less than 8 percent of the annual average precipitation, resulting in less than 1 inch of the total precipitation being runoff.

http://www.greatsaltlakeinfo.org/Background/WestDesert

[Glen]

It wasn't to many years ago the lake was overflowing and they were pumping water to the salt flats. The distance was to far to do much good over our way. SLC spent a lot of money on the huge pumps to help drain the lake.

[kiwi belly tank]

Wasn't that the 100yr flood back in 84-ish?
I checked out one of those pumps back in 91 & it was an unusable pile of rust then. Undoubtedly a huge waste of money when it appeared they could have managed the same thing with canals.
  Sid.

[Wester]

None of the water from the Great Salt Lake drainage could make it to the Bonneville Salt Flats without some heavy pumping since there are two mountain ranges between the two sites.  When the salt gets water now it is from the immediate surrounding mountains.  There's virtually NO salt deposited in the process because it is fresh rainwater or snow melt.  When the pumps on the west side of the Great Salt Lake were running in 1983 they pumped to an area that has since been scavenged by the salt companies leaving only salty dirt.  With rain flooding the salt for Speed Week and the BUB Meet you see how rapidly the runoff can inundate the flat playa.  The high August temperatures and extremely low humidity help to dry the racing area and it is usually only a day delay to dry the course.  Take a drive along I-80 to mile marker 14 and check out the canal running north from the interstate while you are waiting for the salt to dry.  That's how they mine the salt flats, brine water that is pumped into many square miles of ponds south of the freeway and railroad where the sun does the work for them.  Unseen on the racing area, quiet, a death knell to the salt as we used to know it.