Hi Ed, I think you are right. Let's wait a couple days until we get the
report back....as Gary Allen and Larry Volk are on their way to Wendover
today to meet with involved parties. The main problem is a pump failed,
this takes time to pull it , repair it, and reinstall it. There is also lead
time involved after they rip the pond and flood it to get the salt ready to
come back over. This is a very delicately balanced process. Pumping water
without the right salinity does more damage than good.
Gary & Ellen Wilkinson
Utah Salt Flats Racing Association
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ed Van Scoy" <edvs@uswest.net>
To: "Wester S Potter" <wspotter@jps.net>
Cc: "Cris Shearer" <cshearer@tacisp.com>; " Dan Wright"
<daniel.wright@genetics.utah.edu>; " EllenGary Wilkinson"
<dan.w@mindspring.com>; <land-speed@autox.team.net>
Sent: Friday, December 29, 2000 9:39 AM
Subject: Re: Salt Flats are DRY
> 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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