News report says the salt laydown is making things worse.

[Seldom Seen Slim]

https://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2024/02/05/effort-regrow-utahs-vanishing-salt/

[kiwi belly tank]

I can't access that without paying $.
  Sid.

[WOODY@DDLLC]

My quick review of the reporter and the report! [IMO: True journalism is going away with the salt!]

Reporter summation: Turns out, groundwater extraction, including the pumping done for brine laydown, has dramatically changed the aquifer beneath the salt flats. The subterranean water that built up the salt pan over thousands of years is now flowing away from the flats, carrying the salt away with it. Researchers published their findings in the Utah Geological Association Journal on Jan. 14. [Race cars on the surface somehow affected this, too!?!?]

REPORT CONCLUSIONS:
New chemical and groundwater level measurements and past research were compiled to examine multi-decadal changes at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Brine chemistry, most notably density and δ2H and δ18 O water isotopes, has changed in response to anthropogenic activities (Figure 16). Shallow aquifer brine under and to the east of the crust declined in salinity between 1964 and 1997 and stabilized and increased in salinity afterward. Increased salinity maybe due to decreased extraction rates in the past two decades, especially as the largest increase in salinity, during the 2013-2023 period, is concurrent with the largest decrease in extraction. However, this period is also concurrent with the experimental salt restoration laydown program. The relative role of the laydown in increasing aquifer salinity remains unclear. Alluvial aquifer groundwater levels have declined over time. This decline is linked to industrial water production, including the laydown. As a result, the hydraulic gradient has reversed, causing brine to flow away from the saline pan and towards the alluvial aquifer. This flow increases alluvial fan aquifer salinity and changes its isotopic composition. If alluvial-fan extraction rates remain the same, or if they rise with increases to the laydown, more salt will be removed from the Bonneville Salt Flats halite nucleus, potentially at volumes exceeding the laydown. These multi-decadal chemical changes inform the understanding of groundwater movement and halite crust changes in this system, which informs management for the sustained use of this landscape.

https://giw.utahgeology.org/giw/index.php/geosites/issue/view/14
PDF page 246: https://giw.utahgeology.org/giw/index.php/geosites/issue/view/14/3

[kiwi belly tank]

Thanks Woody.
A lot of technical mumbo jumbo there but it basically boils down to what I've been saying for years. The tailings crap they pump back in is only diluting the salt flats & increasing their ability to move more salt to the mine. The "pumping program" was then gullibly accepted by "Save the Salt" & promoted to the racers & public as being restorative.
There is a wide spread belief by joe public that the mining company is replenishing the salt to help the racers & restore the salt to it's former glory. Misinformation over many years by the BLM, Intrepid Mining, Brenda Bowen from the UofU & Save the Salt & even racers spreading that false narrative have all contributed to where we are now. We should also look to ourselves as racers for not being more involved & thinking the intensions of Save the Salt Coalition would take care of it for us.
If you didn't already know that I don't sugar-coat anything, now you do!
  Sid.   

[manta22]

Ah, yes... "Brenda Bowen", the Smirking Scientist.

[gnomenator]

Well said Sid, they are chasing their tail at our expense  :x

[manta22]

Far too much "science" these days is simply a method used by some people to forage for grant money to support their hobby.

[John Burk]

The salt stored south of the interstate can't be dissolved and pumped with saturated brine . Only possible with fresh water .  It's all just a way for them to say well we tried .

[noboD]

If the Gov't can screw anything up they will.

[Stan Back]

I was first there in 1972.  I wondered about the freight cars carrying white stuff away were.

I don't remember that it was Intrepid then, but there is an Intrepid Salt Company.

[MAYOMAN]

I was enthralled by the Hot Rod magazine feature stories on the Bonneville Salt Flats racers in the 1960s. Loved that Shadoff Special streamliner. Still do. Got inspired by the Arfons brothers and Craig Breedlove battling in their jet cars. Dr. Nathan Ostich was also inspiring. I watched the Mickey Thompson Ford Mustang records being set, with Danny Ongais, in 1968. I was privileged to set numerous land speed records in 1970, 1971, 1972, and 1974 with cars (and motorcycle) I built. Unfortunately, it all come down to politics - and money talk$. God gave us the Bonneville Salt Flats, and corrupt politics (BLM?) took it away. It won't be getting better. Use it as well as you can. American ingenuity at its best was on display on that incredible surface for decades.

[Stan Back]

Where do I check the like button?

[MAYOMAN]

San Berdoo, eh? I was in the Igniters Auto Club of Chicago, Inc. Street drags out of Skip's Drive Inn burger joint.

[kiwi belly tank]

Even on the other end of the world we had those "You have been assisted by" cards. What to they do now? Send a text, drop a like or just don't help anymore! :naughty
  Sid.

[racergeo]

   On a positive note, Marlo is in "Straliur". Lets hope the stars align