Ed,
I think the important thing is for or voices/opinions to be on record as
wanting the Save the Salt project to continue.
We need to contact the people involved directly and keep them at the
project, not allowing them to back off the pressure and accountability that
they have.
The squeaking wheel gets the grease type of thing. If the support is not
perceived to be there we can all lose a great place.
Wes
on 12/29/00 8:39 AM, Ed Van Scoy at edvs@uswest.net wrote:
> 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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