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Show Many reasons to be opposed to Lake Wasatch proposal Dear Editor, A recent editorial in your paper about the proposed Lake Wasatch asked the question: Why would anyone be opposed to such a lake? I would like to respond to that. On the surface, Lake Wasatch sounds like a great idea, but if you have spent much time on the lake, as I have (39 years), the idea of building Lake Wasatch exhibits an extreme lack of knowledge of the lake. The proposal is to build a solid dike from the south tip of Promontory, Promon-tory, to Fremont Island, then to Antelope Island, and then to the south shore, making everything east of that dike fresh water. This means . about 95 percent of all fresh water flowing into the lake would be flowing into the proposed Lake Wasatch. East shore development is then to take, place, land values are to greatly increase and everyone is to have easy, close access to summer fun: boating, swimming and sun bathing. Sounds great! Or does it? Did you know that the proposed lake is so shallow that you can wade for blocks and only be in water up to your knees? In some areas you can wade all the way to Antelope Island! Did you know that raw sewage flowed directly into the lake for years and years before sewer districts were formed and that due to the lake's high salinity that sewage is still there just waiting for fresh water so it can decompose? What about the current "treated" sewage still flowing into the lake? Everything from Salt Lake City to Brigham City finds its way there. If you don't like the smell of the lake now when thewind blows, just wait until it is fresh water! Did you know that most areas of the lake bottom have a layer of "muck" several feet thick? This layer is undecomposed bodies of brine shrimp. Like the sewage, they will decompose in fresh water. Did you know that Great Salt Lake Minerals Company built dikes for their mineral evaporation ponds ' from the lake shore west Of 12th Street in Ogden to the south end of Promontory more, than 15 years ago? This makes about 35 miles of the lake, from . Brigham City to Ogden on the east, to Promontory on the wesu a fresh water lake. Since that time not one single development de-velopment has taken place, and land values are next to nothing! Ask - yourself, why. - Did you know that when the i Southern Pacific Railroad put in the causeway it split the Great Salt Lake into a south arm and a north arm? With 95 percent of the fresh water flowing into the south arm, just like the proposed Wasatch Lake. It took less than two years for the north arm to become a fully salt and mineral saturated body of water with no visible life except red algae. Do you remember flying over the lake and seeing the distinct color difference between north and 'south? Can you imagine how disappointing disap-pointing it would be if you came to Utah as a tourist to float in the Great Salt Lake, and find ugly murky reddish water with a disgusting aroma! Goodbye tourism pn the Great Salt Lake! Did you know that the brine shrimp keep the lake clean and clear by filtering the water as they eat? Brine shrimp cannot survive when the salinity becomes greater than about 22 percent. Lake Wasatch would cause this to occur just like the railroad causeway did with the north arm of the lake. A Did you know that there is a multi-million dollar brine shrimp industry in Utah that supplies 90 percent of the world market? It would be lost if Lake Wasatch were . to exist. Did you know "that approximately 800,000 birds migrate to the Great Salt Lake each fall to feed on the lake's brine shrimp for energy to complete their journey south for the winter? When the brine shrimp are gone, the birds will have nothing to eat, and they too will be gone! Did you know that the Southern Pacific Railroad maintains large crews of men and equipment 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to try to keep the causeway in place and "Operable and in spiteof this it has major wash outs and sustains millions of dollars of damage each year? Repairs to Lake Wasatch dikes would be at taxpayer expense! Did you know that the proposed new design dikes for Lake Wasatch are to be tested below Syracuse where the water is extremely shallow and the wave action is very minor, rather than out in the main body of the lake where the dike is actually proposed to be built? The test will be totally invalid! Did you know that the proposed dike has no openings? It will be a ' dam not a dike, and just like the railroad causeway, during high water years, a head will form and it ' will have to be breached or the pressure will be too great for it to .. stand. Did you know that if openings are put in the proposed dike that even though surface water will flow out into the main body of the lake there win be a bottom reverse flow" : of heavy brines from the main body Of the lake back into the supposed fresh water lake? To-this,date nothing has ever been built in or on the shore of the Great Salt Lake without either being be-ing destroyed or greatly damaged by the lake. If it is ever built, and I pray it is not, the proposed Lake' , Wasatch will come to the same fate, ; and we, the taxpayers, will be the losers. " Jerry Sanders ' Partner Sanders Brine Shrimp Co. " . |