While flooding of the Bonneville Salt Flats is a natural part of its cycle that benefits the salt crust, increased rainfall and the shrinkage and degradation of the racing surface has led to concern about the possible end of racing at Bonneville. Photo by the author.
So often problems concerning the environment seem insurmountable, causing us to shrug our shoulders and then think about issues we feel that we can actually do something about. But since I traveled to Bonneville for my coverage of the challenges facing the Salt Flats, some very positive developments have taken place. Recently, I spoke with Dennis Sullivan, president of the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association (“USFRA”), who filled me in.
This is the G/STR-class 1927 Model T-based roadster that Dennis Sullivan and his son Kyle set a G/STR-class record in with a two-way speed of 143.8 MPH. Photo courtesy of Utah Alliance.
Dennis explained that some local land speed racers and longtime members of the Save the Salt Coalition established a branch organization dubbed “Save the Salt Utah Alliance,” whose mission it is to work with local and state-level politicians on local solutions to the problems confronting the Bonneville Salt Flats (“BSF”), while the original Save the Salt continues its efforts with the federal government in Washington.
The main thrust of the Alliance’s efforts thus far has been coalition building, and since early September it has held several events for Salt Flats stakeholders and local politicians, most recently at SEMA. These gatherings have included a two-hour-long tour of the salt conducted by longtime racer Rick Vesco. Participants gained a firsthand understanding of the concerns—the degradation of the halite racing surface, the shrinkage and siltation—facing this precious natural formation and historic landmark.
Longtime land speed racer and member of the 300 MPH Club Rick Vesco (top right, wearing blue hat) leads politicians, representatives of Intrepid Potash, geologists, land speed racers and other interested parties on a tour of the BSF this past September. Photo courtesy of Utah Alliance.
Now representatives from the Utah state government, the BLM and Intrepid Potash (the mining company) as well as land speed racers and key geologists have begun working together to find solutions. Dennis explained that this “…was the first time that all of those entities have sat down together at one table and talked about the problems and some possible solutions.”
The complexity of the situation—which includes a trend of increasing amounts of rainfall in the area—requires an answer that is not as simple as ending potash mining. Beyond the facts that the local economy benefits from Intrepid, that it legally obtained mining rights from the BLM until 2023 and that it owns the salt byproduct piled around its facility, is the potential positive role the company could play in saving the Salt Flats.
For instance, Intrepid has been using the pumping stations and the network of ditches that normally draw potash-laced salt brine out of the flats to put salt water back during its ongoing wintertime Salt Laydown Project and to good effect, according to geologists.
To help Bonneville heal, both short- and long-range strategies will be needed, and from the sounds of it, everything is on the table for consideration including—though unlikely—a land swap with Intrepid that would move the Speedway across the Interstate to where the Salt Flats continues south. In addition to the natural salt in that area, there is also 100 million tons of it in Intrepid’s drying beds, Dennis said the mining company estimates.
The Salt Laydown project can be effective, though it is often limited to the areas closest to the openings of the Laydown Manifolds. This photo was taken inside the Salduro Loop, just off from the rest stop on I-80, and shows the fluffy, snowlike “popcorn salt” that makes for a poor racing surface but is a necessary phase in its reestablishment. Photo by the author.
One thing is certain: Key to Bonneville’s reclamation will be increasing the quantities of salt returned to the flats. Because potash has been mined there since 1917, and salt even earlier than that, Intrepid would have to do more than maintain the mass balance it had been striving for if it is to begin to bring this formation back to anything approaching its natural state.
According to Dennis, plans are being drawn up to double the amount of salt returned to the BSF by using the area inside the Salduro Loop—a triangular parcel of land approximately between the end of the access road and Interstate 80—as a holding basin in which the salinity of the brine can be “super charged,” that is, significantly increased, before being distributed via manifolds to especially critical locations.
Taken from a 2003 Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Special Publication located on the BLM’s website, this map shows the Salduro Loop as well as the extent of the salt crust in 1999, the federal-lease collection ditches and the Laydown Manifolds coming from the area of Intrepid Potash. Racers report that the raceable salt surface has retreated well into the eastern end of the track, where the fastest vehicles would be slowing down.
Another proposed short-range strategy is for Intrepid to close off the ditches that flow under I-80 carrying salt away from the north side and into the mine’s processing area. Doing this will keep the Speedway’s salt-containing surface water from draining away—especially important if a salt laydown project is to be as effective as it could be.
Possible long-range strategies include removing some dykes, changing the access road and building salt berms around the rim of the Salt Flats in order to redirect silt-carrying runoff from the Silver Island Mountains.
Dennis speculated that funding could come from the money the government requires mining concerns to set aside for reclamation once operations are completed. Better to use it to maintain Bonneville along the way, rather than to have to try to recreate it 30 years from now when Intrepid projects mining will be completed and all the salt is gone. “We can’t wait 30 years to start reclamation,” Dennis said.
Russ Eyres, another longtime racer at Bonneville, has been extensively and methodically sampling the BSF for a decade. Here he explains to members of the tour how the halite crust can heal itself if the shallow brine aquifer has a high enough salt content.
Efforts have also been under way at the state and federal levels—championed by Chairman of the Federal Land Action Group, Utah Congressman Chris Stewart, and Chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, Utah Congressman Rob Bishop—to return BLM-managed lands, including the Bonneville Salt Flats, back to state control. At a recent meeting, Bishop said of the BLM: “It’s not because the federal managers are malevolent or incompetent, they just have too damn much land to manage. It’s too big to succeed.”
Other government officials, including Utah Governor Gary Herbert and Senators Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee, and Nevada Senators Dean Heller and Harry Reid from Nevada, among others, have also begun advocating for saving Bonneville, so the tide is really beginning to turn.
The governor of Utah is among the many politicians calling for the Bonneville Salt Flats to be saved.
While this is a good thing, Dennis urges, the pressure must be kept on. It takes a lot of continuously applied effort to effect changes at the federal level, and Bonneville doesn’t have the benefit of the volume of tourist traffic of National Parks like Bryce and Zion. So it’s important that every one of its supporters weighs in.
The Bonneville Salt Flats are a national natural and historic treasure, but they also play a role in many state economies, as racers, and those who manufacture equipment used by them, hail from across America. Call or write to your representatives in government and ask them for their help in restoring Bonneville before it disappears forever.
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