While the ECTA is at play, please allow me to start your Sunday reading
along a path we need to be aware of while being concerned about the future
of the Bonneville Salt Flats.
This is strictly a personal opinion and I may really need correction about
my assumptions ...
I have been asked many times why the racers are not aligned with
environmental groups to speed up the restoration process at Bonneville.
Reasons given are the large impact those groups have and their ability to
force things to happen in an expeditious way.
My reply is "there are no trees to hug." It's a flip answer but the truth
is we have so much to lose and nothing to gain as far as I am concerned. We
are better off operating on our own with a single focused purpose.
The United States Geological Survey studied the salt "migration" at
Bonneville in the 1990's and decades previous to that time. I have
personally been offended by the way their study was conducted simply because
it apparently did not accept the fact of mining activity as a primary cause
of salt loss and their neglect of initially determining how much was being
"harvested" by Reilly each year.
I may be wrong in this assumption but I have private evidence from people at
the USGS that makes me think this could have been been the case. Their
study did go over time and over budget. Reportedly enough that the cost
could have paid for the salt restoration for many years. After the study
and conclusions were published the admission by Reilly that they had taken
fifteen inches of salt off the flats negated the study conclusions to me.
With all this in mind, take an hour and go to this well documented series of
articles from the Sacramento paper that explores in depth the environmental
movement.
<http://www.sacbee.com/static/archive/news/projects/environment/index02.html
>
There is no direct link to Bonneville but the possibility shows a potential
threat to racing in the future as these groups search for other places to
"save". The access road to Floating Island and the off road activities just
west of the salt flats have been targeted for closure to motorized vehicles
as just one example. And ... 2/3 of Utah is Federal Lands so we live with
threats from these groups as a fact of living here. The BLM has my sympathy
if not always my understanding.
Wester
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