Utah State Legislature may put up $5M to saving Bonneville Salt Flats

Next time you think emailing your legislators and representatives to make your voice heard is a waste of time, imagine the vast beauty of the

Bonneville

Salt Flats. Newly passed legislation proves those emails are heard, and they do work. After receiving a barrage of supportive outcries, the state of Utah agreed to give $5,000,000 toward restoring the Slat Flats, so long as $45,000,000 can be secured from other sources.

Due to destructive mining and in part due to its popularity among the

motorsport

and automotive enthusiast community, the Salt Flats have been eroding toward an uncertain future. Reports say the popular 13-mile racing strip has been cut down to eight miles, and the situation is only getting worse. For years, efforts lead by a nonprofit organization called

Save the Salt

have aimed at the restoring landmark, which is on the National Registry of Historic Places and considered an Area of Critical Environmental Concern. Finally, after more than 1,000 emails sent to legislators, it seems all the hard work is breaking through toward a brighter outlook.

Written about by

Road & Track

and

SEMA

, the Salt Flats scored a major victory for

a plan to rebuild the salty surface

. As part of the Utah’s 2019 General Session,

Senate Bill 2

, or the New and Current Fiscal Year Supplemental Appropriations Act, included assigning $5,000,000 to be used for the 10-year project. It reads:

The Legislature intends that the Department of Natural Resources expend the $5,000,000 one-time General Fund appropriation for the Bonneville Salt Flats Restoration Project only after the department has received commitments of $45,000,000 from non-state funds for the same project. Under 63J-1-603 of the Utah Code, the Legislature intends that these funds not lapse at the close of FY 2019.

According to Save the Salt Foundation Vice Chairman Tom Burkland, this is the first time public dollars have been appropriated toward saving the flats. But as detailed in the bill, it’s not entirely certain. The funds will become available starting July 1, 2019, but only if $45,000,000 more can be raised from other sources such as the federal government and the automotive community. Save the Salt says the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management will be targeted for securing these funds.

If everything falls into place, the plan will expand on a procedure that is already in place. Since 1997

Intrepid

Potash Inc. has been pumping salt brine onto the flats in an attempt to replace the destruction done by the mining procedures, but it’s not enough. The new plan would increase the volume of pumped salt from 0.6 million tons per year to as much as 1.5 million tons per year, according to

SEMA

.

For more information on the situation and the plan, visit Save the Salt.