The greatest natural racing surface on Earth, the Bonneville Salt Flats are in trouble and SEMA is ringing the bell for help from the gearhead world. As many of you know, the potash mining operation that is adjacent to the flats has long been the enemy of the salt. According to SEMA, the flats themselves have shrunken from an estimated 96,000 acres to 30,000 currently. Various programs and past efforts had forced the potash mining operation to replenish the salt, but as evidenced by the shrinking area, they have not been successful.
What the latest release from SEMA calls for is for rodders, racers, and gearheads to band together and contact the Bureau of Land Management to let them know that their latest examination of the salt needs to result in the creation of a permanent program to maintain the salt at the current levels and perhaps even reverse the tide of destruction that the area has faced for decades. Read below and join the cause!
This is a worthy cause, fire up the fax, shoot an e-mail and tell your friends. We need to help preserve the Bonneville Salt Flats!
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URGENT SEMA ACTION NETWORK ALERT
The Bonneville Salt Flats Are Being Destroyed – Help Save the Salt!
The history of the Bonneville Salt Flats is well known. Since 1914, racers have gone to Utah to set land speed records and achieve personal best times. In addition to its professional racing programs, Bonneville remains at the heart of every racer’s dreams. For decades, the Salt Flats have decreased in size, strength and thickness because salt has been removed by an adjoining potash mining operation.
Preservation of the Salt Flats is under the authority of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The BLM has conducted multiple studies to confirm that salt is being removed and not adequately replaced by the mining operation. However, the BLM has failed to stop the destruction and institute a permanent solution. Originally 96,000 acres in size, the Salt Flats are now about 30,000 acres. The BLM is “studying” the problem — again — and set to issue an “environmental assessment.” The assessment must call for a permanent salt replenishment program.
We Urge You to Contact BLM Director Robert Abbey and Demand That He Protect the Bonneville Salt Flats.
- The Bonneville Salt Flats (BSF) is central to the history of motorsports. Scores of world land speed records have been set on the Flats. The area is a “National Landmark” and an “Area of Critical Environmental Concern.” The BLM is responsible for protecting lands that have these two designations.
- We are seeking an assurance from the BLM that the upcoming Environmental Assessment will require the mining operator to implement a permanent salt replenishment program, that will require that salt be replenished with the same or more salt than is removed from the mining operation.
- The salt must be of the same or better quality, and the replenishment program must occur over a period of many months so the salt is dispensed throughout the BSF basin and the underground aquifer is replenished.
- No salt should be removed from the BSF region for commercial sale.
- The program must be permanent and verifiable.
DON’T DELAY! Please contact the Bureau of Land Management Director (contact information below) to urge a permanent solution for protecting the Bonneville Salt Flats! Please e-mail a copy of your letters to Stuart Gosswein at [email protected]
The Honorable Robert Abbey
Director, Bureau of Land Management
U.S. Department of the Interior
e-mail: [email protected]
fax: 202-208-5242
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The only way to get the BLM to listen is to sue them.
When a group that doesn’t like motorsports wants to shut a local track down, they sue using EPA noise and air quality standards. With the salt declining, the BLM and the Potash plant will have to be sued because the loss of the salt is an area of environmental concern.
So sue them.
I’m sure the SEMA lawyers/lobbiest are good, and I hope they are up on their environmental protections in regards to the BLM because this is a very large double edge sword. In my experience when ever the BLM designates any thing as an “Area of Critical Environmental Concern” they flat shut access of to it. It may already have that designation, but if if they start to actually enforce it, it could end as badly for the racer’s as it does for the pot ash company. Very big double edged sword..