Saving the Salt

[velocity]

Speed Collaborators

There will be a one-hour National Public Radio (NPR) radio discussion on Thursday, August 6th. 

Listen live at 11:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. MT on KUER 90.1 - RadioWest & VideoWest

You may also listen online to the podcast later in the afternoon
AND
the entire show will be available for download

The producer plans to have me speak about the salt condition and racing community for the first half of the show. This includes the passion for the landscape and racing  before moving on to the racing community’s concerns: how the conditions have required canceling racing, what it’s like to drive on less-than-optimal salt, and concerns about management of the resources.
 
The second half of the show will include commentary from the University of Utah scientist Dr. Brenda Bowen and West Desert District Manager Kevin Oliver from the US Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management to respond to those concerns.

I believe this is an honest effort by the radio station to have a frank, open dialogue about the salt situation. I am very hopeful that this program will provide a higher consciousness among the average American about the miserable state of affairs at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

If we are to effect any meaningful positive change for the speedway it will require the support of our non-racing citizens at large who will rally to halt the destruction of a significant American historic site and insist upon immediate and monitored restoration action.

I pray the words come across sincere and with a sense of bonafide urgency 

LandSpeed Louise

[Peter Jack]

That's good news. Thanks Louise! 

Pete

[ronnieroadster]

 Sid wow the effort you put into this project is amazing. Your discovery is heart breaking. With such thin salt discovered belowthe surface how can we ever expect the ground to support a place to run on? Some may question your qualifications for such an undertaking but the fact that your core samples show the proof the final discovery is hard to deny. Simply laying salt on the surface even if it was affordable is not going to solve this problem there's so much more to it and Sid has now proven it goes much deeper than most of us thought. This really sucks   
 Sid Thank You For Taking The Time To Do This

[Old Scrambler]

Thank you Louise

Thank you Sid 

Doing something positive will help the cause..............BTW........I have a little more  money and just now greased my trailer bearings for the trip to BMST

[JC Sparks]

 As much as I want to see racing on the salt flats continue for decades to come, I hate the idea of Intrepid Potash halting operations to solve this problem. This would surely result in many jobs lost in the area. From what I see for the most part you work for the casinos / hotels or Intrepid.

 The only thing I know for sure is that this country was built on industrial production of all types, and this country must continue to build on our industrial production base.   I personally don't see a easy or quick answer to this problem that is affecting all of us that race on the salt.  I'm afraid the fact is, that we humans will destroy everything in our path until there is nothing left.     JC

[jl222]

John,

Who is to pay for this? The boat ramp put in by Ron Main was $40K all by itself.

DW

  Dan...the BS I'm talking about is under Save The Salt- history.

  They claim 1,600,000 tons of salt has been pumped on the salt since 2011.

  So I don't understand '' who is going to pay for this'' it has already been pumped.

  And millions of tons of Salt [not brine] per year for many years before.

     JL222

[jl222]

Sid, The current statement that there is a layer of silt in between the salt layers is actually pretty consistent with both what you observed and the measurements save the salt have done over the last 10 years. The average for their measurements has been about 1.8" across the courses. We have been racing on thin salt for years. Some thing definitely needs to be done but I don't think this is the end. At least not this year.

JL222 when you are doing your calcs there are a few things you need to consider. First a cubic yard is 27 cubic feet. Second, the salt will not stay on the track. You have to figure that 4 inches across the entire basin, 36,000 is acres. That's 19,360,000 cubic yards. The average belly dump holds about 18 cubic yards. 1,075,556 truck loads. Say an average of 20 mile round trip with average consumption of 10ish miles per gallon that's 2,151,111 gallons. Diesel is what about $4/gallon, that's $8,604,444 just in fuel. Plus you have to pay for people, trucks, etc. Dry salt laydown is a good concept but tough to make that feasible.

  Did I say any thing about a dry laydown?

  Yeah 3x3x3=27 cu ft 3ft =3x3 = 9 sq ft  3ft =36''  36 divided by 4'' = 9  4'' deep sections measuring 9 sg ft  or 81sq ft per yd.

  The BS is the amount of salt supposed to have already been laid down and I was trying to equate that to Truck and trailer
loads.

  Also trying to restore the salt by pumping across the hole basin would be useless for the race tracks.

                  JL222
 
 

[BasementBorn]

JL, I think the problem has been that they have pumped back salt but the amount is only roughly equal to what has been removed. Really continuing the pumping is probably financially and logistically the best way to get the salt back to the flats. It helps them free up room in their evaporation ponds so they can continue to work and does put some amount back. I still am adamant that their claim north of I80 (which sid mentioned they have a ditch actively pumping from) needs to be segregated from BSF. Right now it is directly hydraulically connected so it does not actively rebuild the BSF. What they pump out = what they pump back = just maintaining at best. Cut that claim off and have them pump back to the BSF outside of their claim then you are rebuilding. Realistically there is no way to stop the mine and even if they were stopped, they will just leave which then means waiting  thousands of years for mother nature to rebuild it. We absolutely have to use the mine to accomplish what we want otherwise we just can't make anything happen.

[BasementBorn]

  Did I say any thing about a dry laydown?

  Yeah 3x3x3=27 cu ft 3ft =3x3 = 9 sq ft  3ft =36''  36 divided by 4'' = 9  4'' deep sections measuring 9 sg ft  or 81sq ft per yd.

  The BS is the amount of salt supposed to have already been laid down and I was trying to equate that to Truck and trailer
loads.

  Also trying to restore the salt by pumping across the hole basin would be useless for the race tracks.

                  JL222
 
 

I think that was just worded weird or at a weird point in the conversation because I think Dan and I thought you were referring to something else.

I got ya on the volume now, you were going square foot per yard for the dump truck loads. Makes more sense now. So same end result we are just going about it in a different way.

For the calc you were thingking, rock salt is ball park 1 ton per cubic yard (it varies a lot depending on dryness, etc.) so it's approx. 90,000 belly dumps worth.

You have to spread it across the basin because salt is soluble and the flats get wet in the winter which spreads the salt out for the expanse of where the water is. The whole track Ron laid down last year I am sure is gone and spread out, mixed in to the salt. It will not stay where you lay it beyond the dry season.

[mfitzdaddy]

I haven't read all ideas and who to blame,  but WE need to come up with a way to pay for it.  A new user fee(never use the word tax), the first cent of all fuel bought goes to half to save the salt and the other half to battery research.  An extra cent to fill up your lawnmower or your semi, is that too much?  Hate the tree hugger help, ask yourself more huggers or salters?

[hotrod]

Why should the racers (the best friend the salt flats have) be the ones to pay for the damage done by others?
There is long precedent for mining operations being obligated to mitigate the damage they do by extracting minerals. Unlike most mines the recreational use of the salt (racing) predates the opening of the mine. We have the historical senior interest in the salt and its welfare. Returning waste (for their purposes) NaCl salt to the flats should be a cost of doing business for them. We should not be obligated to pay for their damages.

They should be obligated to return by what ever means most effectively returns salt to the salt flats, more than they harvest.

Dry lay down is not a total fix but it would be a useful way to minimize damage to the lands end area of the salt. Sure it would be redistributed each spring but by not damaging the salt top crust in that area each year it would recover faster.

They could also investigate restoration areas which are flooded year around. I was up in Rocky Mountain National Park this last weekend and the National Park service periodically ropes off small areas around high traffic areas to keep people out so that area has a chance to naturally recover to a healthy ecosystem. The same technique could be used to improve the salt near lands end, temporarily dike off a small area immediately south of the lands end area from the lands end road to the highway and back a mile or two  towards the bend. Run pumping 24x7x365 in that area including during the summer when evaporation would be highest, then once a couple million tons of salt is put down in that restoration area, open the dike on the east end of the restoration area and let that salt be carried out on to the thinnest area of the international course over the winter, it would build up the salt where it is needed most and increase the total lay down tonnage while still allowing normal recreational use of the historical race course areas.

Just like the National Park service does in mountain parks, help mother nature do her job without blocking normal recreational uses of the salt flats.
It would be a long term project, perhaps 5 - 10 years but it would substantially increase the amount of salt they could get across the highway each year.

Likewise during the normally flooded seasons they should be pumping at maximum capacity as soon as the last usage permit expires in the fall. The only way to get back to normal conditions for the salt is to move more salt than they strip for the mining operation over decade time spans.

It has taken 40-50 years to cause the current depletion of the salt it will take another few decades just to reverse the trend and decades beyond that to return the salt to the condition it was in the 1960's.

This is a long term problem with a long term solution. Don't push for a quick fix but push for a well thought out long term plan to get ahead of the depletion and accomplish effective restoration, not just a half Axxxd holding action at current sorry conditions.

[Peter Jack]

I like the approach Hotrod. Now to get that sort of approach enforced. There's the present challenge.

Pete

[Richard 2]

THANKS SID

[Seldom Seen Slim]

Louise, will that discussion be on National Public Radio -- nationwide -- or just on the SLC station?  Or don't you know?  I assume i could find the station on the internet and listen to it, but I'd be happier than the dickens if every NPR station around the country had access to it and ran the show.  Let us know if you know the answer, please.

[DND]

Hi Slim

I'am going to call the SL city station in the mourning and see if it will be sent to the Los Angeles area so us out here could hear it too

Don