Scientists, racers and more people want to save the thinning Bonneville Salt Flats. Different groups are trying to find solutions.
The salt is thinning as climate change drags the West into its third decade of drought, yet it's unclear how that affects the seasonal flood patterns the landscape relies on to maintain its size and footprint.
“In the world I came from, you study something, you figure out what changes you need to make, you make the changes and then you go back and study it again to see if your changes had an effect on it,” said Sullivan. “It’s ludicrous to just keep studying it until you do something.” Sullivan doesn't blame Intrepid Potash; it has a leasing agreement with the federal government. He says land managers haven’t invested in preserving the landscape or replenishing the salt taken off of it.Jeremiah Bernau, a geologist working on the study with the Utah Geological Survey, said the mining company has already been pouring salt and it’s unclear if that’s the answer.
“My work is trying to understand how is that working and what are the actions that we can do in terms of helping to preserve this landscape,” he said. In 2019, when Utah lawmakers greenlit the initiative, they allocated $5 million, on the condition that the federal government would also provide funding, to return the briny water needed to preserve the salt crust.
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