Land speed races have been held at the Bonneville Salt Flats near Wendover, Utah for more than 100 years. The first timed speed record in the Flats’ history was set in 1914 when Teddy Tezlaff drove his Blitzen Benz to a speed of 141.73 mph. In the years since, non-piston-powered cars have achieved speeds exceeding 600 mph, while motorcycles have approached 400 mph. Thousands of amateur and professional land speed racers have competed there.
The Bonneville Salt Flats has long been recognized as much more than a racetrack. It is both a place of unique natural beauty and is considered an “area of critical environmental concern.”
The degradation of the Salt Flats has been going on for decades, primarily as a result of industrial mining. Some impacts have been exacerbated by periods of heavy rain, in which the salt surface can be dissolved and thinned. Although that generally does not remove the salt crust altogether, but instead results in the migration of salt to other areas of the flats. Another problem affecting the salt surface is contamination of the pristine salt crust from mud berms and surrounding mountain washes.
Screen-Shot-2014-09-25-at-11.55.29-PM-770x431Mining the salt for its halite (table salt) and potash mineral content has been a factor in both the reduction in salt surface area from its original area of more than 96,000 square acres to about 30,000 square acres, as well as reducing the thickness of the salt crust.
Escalation Of Concerns
The problem has been recognized since 1974, but in recent years has become increasingly critical. So critical in fact that on October 27, 2015, Utah Governor, Gary Herbert sent a letter to Neil Kornze, Director of the Bureau of Land Management, saying, in part, “As Governor of Utah, I would like to express our deep concern with the deteriorating conditions of the Bonneville Salt Flats and the consequent impending demise of land speed racing.”
Herbert’s letter continued, “Our alarm is amplified because the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which is responsible for the care and protection of this national historic landmark, has long identified the internationally famous speedway as an ‘area of critical environmental concern,’ and yet the Bonneville Salt Flats are not only severely damaged but are, in fact, approaching ruin.”
Herbert’s letter, which was also copied to Sally Jewell, Secretary of the Department of the Interior, called for the BLM to undertake immediate efforts to restore the Salt Flats and on-going monitored remediation.
Big as the problem is, Herbert’s demand is not outside the realm of possibility; indeed, the restoration he calls for has already been proven feasible by the BLM’s Salt Laydown project, which was conducted from 1997 to 2002.