Show THE GREAT SALT LAKE shall famous great salt lake lose its A news report says a plan to convert part of this inland sea into a freshwater fresh water lake is being pushed by the utah society of engineers and other organizations the project had its origin with count ferdinand de lesseps the energetic french engineer who built the suez canal and started the one in panama by building dikes across the huge saline pond in the ute country a portion of the lake into which the principal tributaries tributa ries flow could be walled off and would become fresh the count calculated subsequent investigation ti points to two possible locations for the dike when one contemplates such projects the dikes that keep holland dry the ditches that drained the everglades the dredging and dumping that field the chicago lake front the levee building that disciplines the mississippi river the construction of harbor works such as those of the new port gdynia in poland and the piling up of concrete that is to make boulder dam he cannot but be impressed with what a large volume of human activity is concerned with removing portions of the earths crust from where they are to somewhere else lately there has been more inclination than formerly to ques lion each such project and especially many smaller ones to determine whether their usefulness justifies the expenditure in the western united states certain lakes have been drained for reclamation only to find the original lake with its wild life was more valuable than swampy farm land no doubt the great salt lake project will be carefully scrutinized presumably such a reser voir would provide a water supply for city uses or irrigation not now available the builder of the long railroad trestle across great salt lake which is quite an engineering marvel is related to have said to a younger engineer there is practically nothing that is impossible from an engineering standpoint the question is whether a project is economically feasible in other words will the return justify the outlay with the conveniences of modern anven at their hands men are asking this question about man other interests besides construction in recreation transportation production education and so forth of the many things that men know how to do which are most worth the doing christian science monitor |