The camera on the salt flats

[WOODY@DDLLC]

From the other angle! 

[Calkins]

Let the healing begin...

[kiwi belly tank]

Let the healing begin...

Healing!? What is it you people don't understand about what's happening to Bonneville?   That's slurry mining in the making!!
  Sid.

[Dodge Brother]

Captain Obvious here, but we seem to be in a no win situation, years where the lake bed floods we get salt redistribution that levels things out but is prime for mining and the dry years the salt holds the previous year's wear and we end up with pot holed courses that don't groom. 

[kiwi belly tank]

Captain Obvious here, but we seem to be in a no win situation, years where the lake bed floods we get salt redistribution that levels things out but is prime for mining and the dry years the salt holds the previous year's wear and we end up with pot holed courses that don't groom. 

No $hit!! When is every racer going to turn their brain on & understand what the hill is going on here! Right now that fresh water is saturating with salt & the only place that salt will be deposited is where that water is allowed to evaporate & that's on the south side of the freeway.
  Sid.    

[JAL AKA JL222]

  Sid every racer except you?

   Was it you that sued to get the salt lay down?

    Are you saying no rain is better?


                JL222

[kiwi belly tank]

 There actually is no "better" only worse & if worser was actually a word it would fit here too.
 We are racing on an active salt mining collection sight where the salt only goes to the mine evaporation ponds. When the water level is low, the only way they can move it is with the pumping system that is pulling from under the flats. When the water level is high like now, they will leave it until the saturation content & level are optimum then pull the plug & flow it to their ponds. In order to build up the salt crust on Bonneville the water would have to stay there & be allowed to evaporate & we all know that's not happening!
 Now lets talk about "the pumping program" & I bet I'm going to step on some toes here!
 So the reports say over the years they've pumped (laid down) a squillion-gazillion tons of salt back on to the flats & that's where that statement stops. But that's not the whole story because it doesn't get to stay there, that solution is only left there long enough to soak up more pure salt then it's flowed & pumped back to their settling ponds.
 When that pumping program was first talked about, on the surface it sounded promising but arriving at the salt for the next event I saw the salt color change from brilliant white to a more cream color, it was a stark difference. Before this we used to bend shade tent stakes driving them into the salt & after a week it would take two men & a boy to get them back out again but now they went in easy & were falling out before the week was up. To me the salt had lost it's binder that had made it like white concrete & now it seemed more like damp sugar. Back in the one course days we would spend hours in line waiting to get a run, we didn't have A/C so the coolest place to be was under the truck lying on the salt because it was cold. Once the pumping started the salt got a lot warmer & I never did that again. The old guys will remember getting sunburnt under the bridge of the nose & under the ears from the sun reflection off the salt, that went away.
 I'm just some uneducated country bumpkin who likes to build & race cars & over the last 38yrs I seen the changes, explored the flats when no one was there & even core drilled it to show up the lies so if there's somebody out there who wants to convince me I'm wrong, have at it!!
  Sid.   

[desotoman]

Sid,

Great post. Just one question? If the pumping of salt back onto the flats helped the mining company, why don't they continue to pump it? Cost vs. Reward? There must be some logical reason and that is all I can think of.

Another problem we have concerning the Bonneville surface, is that potash has been declared a "critical mineral" and called for an increase in domestic production to reduce import dependence and strengthen national security (EO 14241). In March and April 2025.

I would think that until Potash is taken off the Critical Mineral list, we don't have any chance of the BLM helping us. JMO

[kiwi belly tank]

 I would assume pumping or not pumping would come down to their profit margin or maybe the salt crust is already lose enough where they don't need to. I don't have a contact at the mine like I did years ago so I can only best guess it now.
 I've said many times, mining will only stop when the profit goes away but Bonneville is still dying.
  Sid.

[Stainless1]

They will stop strip mining as soon as all the salt it gone, there won't be anything but a larger El Mirage with salt bumps left to race on.  Pay attention to the first couple of miles when you leave the boat ramp.