Wes,
Would anything we did (write, call, pitch a fit, etc) do anything that would
screw up the efforts of Save The Salt?
Ed
Wester S Potter wrote:
> List members and concerned racers,
>
> The following is my opinion.
>
> The heading "Salt Flats are Dry" should send chills up the spine of everyone
> who cares about the Bonneville Salt Flats. Thanks to Cris and Ed Shearer we
> have an accurate, off-season, on-the-spot report to those who only go to the
> salt in the summer.
>
> This is an occasion where everyone who cares about the future of the
> Bonneville Salt Flats needs to start pushing for Reilly Industries to get
> the brine pumping going again.
>
> Larry Volk who is Save the Salt Chairman and Mary West, the Secretary,
> should be on top of this. The money that has been paid to the Save the Salt
> Fund is supposed to be going to a watchdog effort. At Speed Week there was
> a lot of talk about supporting that cause with additional money. Larry's
> phone number is (801) 292-5425.
>
> The combined USFRA, SCTA/BNI leadership/membership needs to put up a howl to
> the BLM asking why there has been no pumping for over six weeks. This
> pumping is part of an agreement between three parties, racers/Save the Salt
> who use the race course area, the BLM who has Federal control of the area
> and Reilly who actually owns part of the area (including the south end of
> the race course) and has leases for mining on virtually the whole basin.
> The target amount is 1,500,000 tons of salt returned to the racing surface
> each winter. The last two years the amount returned has been over a
> million, eight hundred thousand tons. That's well over the target amount
> but obviously a do-able amount to pump and the facilities are in place for
> it to continue. There are seventy three million tons on the south side of
> I-80 that belong on the north side. The Reilly mining leases are due for
> renewal in the next two years. The BLM Salt Lake office number is (801)
> 977-4300.
>
> If this down time were costing Reilly anything you can be sure they would
> have solved the problems involved many weeks ago. The fact that they pumped
> a very high brine content last April could have damaged the pumps and
> probably did, but they had all summer to repair any problems there. Their
> main offices are in Indianapolis, IN.
>
> The former, as of this month, BLM Director, Tom Fry, was on the salt at
> World of Speed in September and voiced the opinion, at that time, that the
> pumping project should continue until there was a good thirteen mile course
> again. He was a Democrat appointee ... campaign type promises?
>
> If this is an example of how well Reilly performs when the pressure is off,
> look out for the future of the pumping/restoration project at the end of the
> first five years. You have all seen how much two really good pumping years
> helped the salt after a less than sterling first year, BUT WE ARE LOOKING AT
> NET GAIN, and all that and more could all be lost in another two bad years.
>
> I was on the salt the first time for Speed Week in 1951 and I remember how
> much salt there was out there and how hard, thick, endless and deep it
> seemed ... and how safe the racers felt running there. I'd like to see it
> that way again in my lifetime. How can we assure it?
>
> Wes Potter
>
> on 12/26/00 10:25 AM, Cris Shearer at cshearer@tacisp.com wrote:
>
> > Ed and I drove to the salt flats Sat via: Lakepoint, across the UP
> > railroad and over to Lucin.
> > When we got to the end of the access road, the flats were dry. There
> > were cars doing burn-outs and laying rubber. We called Gary Allen from
> > the end of the access road and let him know. He said the pumps were
> > still down and were suppose to begin pumping again this week. We then
> > drove over to the pumps and could see one pump was running. Gary said
> > he and Larry talked about what Reilly would do to make up for the 1 -1/2
> > months of down time. We also heard one or two of Reilly's big boys
> > retired. Don't know what/if any impact this might cause. Just wanted
> > to give you a quick update. I'm home all week if anything comes up.
> > Hope you all had a great Christmas. Cris
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