Saving the Salt

[gnomenator]

Nice job lishle65, a tremendous debt of thanks goes out to you & Sid for really bringing the facts to the 'surface' so to speak. After viewing the posts of the you-tube videos, it makes me question if any other venues will stand a chance this year !I'm reasonably new to the salt myself(2007) but as you said, in that short period of time the decline has been very noticeable .I also thank all of the rest of the hard working people , some behind the scenes, who have done so much to try to recover this area. Also, I mentioned in an earlier post, the possibility of approaching the casinos for some support($$$$) as they stand to lose and have lost ,a good chunk of change by the cancellations. Couldn't hurt,no? Again, thanks to all for the great effort being put forth !! best, Gnomenator & crew

[stuartg@sema.org]

The Bonneville Salt Flats (BSF) have been under threat for decades.  In the 1960s, the land-speed racing community alerted the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the agency charged with overseeing the BSF, that there was a serious problem.  No protective action was taken until 1997 with the start of a salt brine pumping program proposed by the racers.  There was no need to wait so long.  A study published in 1979 detailed measures that could be undertaken to protect the BSF such as removing the salt brine-collection ditches.  In 1989, the BLM itself warned that the BSF was endangered.  Other studies echoed those sentiments.  Despite a significant salt-brine pumping program, it has become obvious that the amounts being pumped are insufficient to overcome the estimated 50-75 million tons of salt that were removed over the previous six decades. 
 
The cancellation of 2015’s Speed Week due to deteriorating conditions at the BSF has helped build a large coalition effort to address the problem.  With renewed focus, the team has constructed a plan to save the BSF.  Team members from Save the Salt, the Utah Coalition, SCTA-BNI and USFRA are working with state government officials from Utah and Nevada, along with members of Congress and the BLM, engineers and geologists to draft a comprehensive Reclamation Plan.  Additional information will be shared in the coming days and weeks so that the racing community can use their collective voices in demanding its implementation.

Stuart Gosswein
Save the Salt Coalition

[Koncretekid]

 Despite a significant salt-brine pumping program, it has become obvious that the amounts being pumped are insufficient to overcome the estimated 50-75 million tons of salt that were removed over the previous six decades.  
 

Stuart Gosswein
Save the Salt Coalition

Thank you Mr. Gosswein for sharing this information with the Salt Flat forum. Your above statement certainly implies that you are in agreement with those of us on this forum that the mining operations are responsible for removing tons of salt that have caused the apparent demise of the racing surface.  This is the kind of information that we need to go forward to try to stop the mining.  We look forward to your continuing contribution to keep us informed of the details of the proposed Reclamation Plan.

Tom Borcherdt

[Bob Drury]

  Thank you Stuart,  I just wish this could have been posted earlier.  At least all of the  fifty four or five pages of post's may have awoken those Racer's who think this can happen without ALL of Us doing our part.
                                                    With respect to You, STS, and all of Our LSR Community
                                                                                                        Bob Drury

[rgdavid]

hello salt racers,
just wondering, and it would need a chemist to verify,
would the salt that has been pumped back be no good what so ever ?,

an idea (and i dont know anything about chemistry) is that perhaps this salt minus the potasium/magnesiums etc is the wrong sort,
perhaps without the other elements, the salt just filters through the mud quickly or is being washed very deep,
perhaps it doesnt have the properties to stay in a crust and has no "substance"
or perhaps that the pumped salt being washed (pumping/rain floods) onto the hallite surface chemicaly degrades the halite.

a chemical survey is needed of the pumped back salt in liquid and dried form.

if it is found this is the case, couldn't Intrepid be in legal Subaru because they havnt chemicaly (enviromentaly speaking) replaced what they have taken ?

for the lack of communication from STS, perhaps they are doing a lot of "detective" work and dont need us jumping in and standing on the wrong feet and messing their "detective" work,
if so, it would be good if they told us,
to many cheifs and not enough indians and all that..we could be doing harm without knowing,
It would be great if Louise could be on the STS team,

just trying to help.
good luck, here in france, Bonneville is hallowed ground, the Mecca for many, even if they dont race or visit.

[kiwi belly tank]

All good questions that have been asked before David but I have not seen any factual answers to these & many more while we drown in feasibility studies. Frustrating isn't it??
  Sid.

[John Burk]

Have heard that Australia's salt flats doesn't have what is being removed from ours but it probably contains other compounds .

[gnomenator]

 Listening to several suggestions on getting 'media' involved gave me an idea. I have watched the "Car Crazy' episode from 2009 when Barry went to the flats and seemed very serious about his love for BSF. With that in mind, I sent an email to him to respectfully request he get his weight behind getting the deteriorating condition into the national attention. Figure anything could help, as he has a pretty large audience of gearheads. I'll post any answer I might get.

[lishle65]

Did anyone else read the mining agreement between BLM and Intrepid that was posted in the petition thread? One of the many things that jumped out at me was the voluntary brine water pump back. It seems they can stop at any time and there is very little, if any oversight to how much or how often they are actually pumping back onto the salt. Can anyone actually confirm they are pumping back onto the salt, how much and where?

[DND]

I always thought that ' Oren Hatch ' was a stand up guy , would it be worth the time to try and get him to pull some strings for us salt loving people

Since the salt is right in his back yard you would think this would be a natural thing for him to do, if he cares at all about history etc

Don

[rgdavid]

All good questions that have been asked before David but I have not seen any factual answers to these & many more while we drown in feasibility studies. Frustrating isn't it??
  Sid.

Thanks for answering Sid,
so what is needed is a good chemist, and a  very good geologist that cannot be "bought".

has STS done any thing with the scientists ?
as you say,would be good to know either way so not to step on shoes or start a needed scientific accesement.
even if sts has done an accesement,another independant accesement and opinion would be good,
more evidence the better the case.
sorry if this has been mentioned before,but 55 pages and accross the big pond its a little bit slow for all this to sink in.

[SPDRACR]

We brought back some samples of the different layers we found on our two day thickness testing.
Someone tell me where to ship and the samples could be there in days.
Eric Eyres

[kiwi belly tank]

Off the top of my head, I would think a University could probably analyze it but has STS not done this in the past?
  Sid.

[yamagamma]

I've raced at Bonneville since 1992.....  93 and 94 were rained out and I remember in 95 standing at the start line. the salt was a bit damp so I scraped it with my heel and immediately exposed wet clay! The salt was less than 1/2 inch thick in places way back then, that's 20 years ago!.... That said, the salt for the Bub 2013 was the best I have ever run on, Dennis Manning said it was the best he'd seen in 30 years!

I have a relative who works in mining, supplying equipment. He's been to Wendover many times, so I asked him about the brine pumping program. He said the problem is the salt brine being pumped not only has all sorts of minerals removed, it's also lacking the binding agents! In other words it's crap salt that is easily washed away.

A cease and desist order on mining operations to my mind is the only solution... excuse the pun! Chances of that happening....unlikely.  Money and jobs involved and money rules.

[Sumner]

.... In other words it's crap salt that is easily washed away....

I've heard that a number of times but have always wondered where it would be washed away to as there is no where for it to go.  It is a basin with no outlet other than what is being pumped across the highway and they really don't want that salt back there since it doesn't contain what they are looking for.

I just got the SCTA minutes being a club member and it pretty well describes the conditions they found this year and why we aren't racing.  We need to get the mining stopped and salt returned but the reason we aren't racing is the mud that flowed out onto the salt surface not that there isn't still one there.

Sum