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Show Lake Wasatch Rebuttal Salt Lake, All it does is provide the opportunity to control the Lake Wasatch Wa-satch level and have the water enter a more southern point." True it can't stop the water from entering the Great Salt Lake, however, when it does enter the Great Salt Lake; -there is much less of it One of the major purposes of the proposed lake is to have water to sell to the cities ardund the lake. That is how the lake is supposed to pay for itself. In addition to these sales, a great amount of fresh water will be lost through increased evaporation. Fresh water evaporates much faster than salt water. How can Mr. Johnson possibly propose that the flow of fresh water into the Great Salt Lake will not be greatly reduced. reduc-ed. I Last, but not least, there is a strange phenomenon that occurs when the lake nears salt saturation. The lake inverts itself. That is to say the heavy brines on the bottom of the lake come to the surface. I doubt Mtfiafe -is a single: person living in Davis County who has not turned up their nose when a storm blows in across the Great Salt Lake. When . this inversion takes place you will really have something to complain about If you would like a preview of this aroma, just take a trip to the south tip of Promontory when the wind is blowing across the GSL . pump station. GSL pumps the heavy brines from the bottom of the lake. If you go, I suggest either a very short visit or a clothes pin for your nose. Jerry Sanders : one has developed the lake front land north of GSL (Great Salt Lake Minerals) because the lake eleva- ' ' tion. has been so erratic. Is that also the reason no one has developed the land around Utah Lake? ',Mr. Johnson's answer about "Red algae will he in the northwest arm of the lake," "Lake Wasatch will kill the brine shrimp industry and 800,000 birds feed on the brine shrimp to sustain them in their migration," "When1 the brine shrimp are gone, the birds will be gone," is a farce. No one has stated that the proposed Lake Wasatch will fill with red algae. What will . fill with red algae is all of the Great h Salt Lake west of the proposed Lake Wasatch dike and yes the brine shrimp will be gone along .. with the birds and the tourists. How would you like to swim in red algae? How do I know? Because in 1959 and 1960 the Southern Pacific Railroad built a causeway from east to west across the lake. This causeway had two i5 foot openings"" in it to permit a free flow of water. Mr. Johnson's proposal has no openings. In less than two years that ' portion of the lake north of the causeway became a totally salt saturated body of water, red algae developed, and the brine shrimp ceased to exist! In the early 1980's a 300 foot breach was opened in the . causeway and the red algae disap-,peared disap-,peared and the brine shrimp re-. re-. turned. The article again quotes Mr. , Johnson: "Lake Wasatch can't stop the waters from entering the Great Dear Editor: Wednesday, Nov. 1 the Clipper published an article titled "Questions are answered concerning concern-ing the proposed Lake Wasatch plan." I would like to respond to some of Mr. Johnson's answers, ask ' a few questions and present some additional information. May I first say that I hope Mr. Johnson's method of building concrete con-crete dikes proves successful and is as inexpensive as he claims it will be. It would be of great financial - benefit to many people. However; regardless of whether he has the ability to build a successful dike on the Great Salt Lake has little bearing bear-ing on whether such a dike should be built for the purpose of Creating Lake Wasatch. It was stated in an earlier article that the cost of building the dike for w Lake .. Wasatch . would be $90 ' million. The cost of the dike is only a fraction of the cost of the propos-edlake! propos-edlake! A study done by the Division of . Water Resources at the Utah Water Research Lab at USU stated it would cost an additional $56 million to upgrade and maintain waste water treatment plants. At the September meeting of the Lake Wasatch Board of Directors a UDOT representative stated it . , would cost an average of $1 million per mile to put a road from 1-80 on : the south, across the proposed dike, ; to the old highway to SnowvuTe on t the north. The distance is approx- imately 80 miles or in other words $80 million. , 1 7- At the proposed 4,208 foot lake elevation level, the Divjsion of Natural Resources estimates 400,000 acres of wetland with be inundated and . destroyed, The destruction of wetlands requires a. federal permit. Before issuing that permit, federal law requires that for each acre of wetland'dcstroyed 3 acres must be , provided for replacement That means 1,200,000 acres must be purchased and made ! suitable4br wetlands before asper-! asper-! mit could be obtained. If the land I was purchased for as little as $200 per acre, it would cost $240 million 1 and that doesn't count the cost to ! develop it into wetlandsj ; : a ' x At the date of statehood a lake" elevation meander line was ''--ir.-'-i'" V."--''-?'---' surveyed around the Great Salt Lake. It took about 13 years' to complete. As a result, the meander line elevation varies. In the area of the proposed Lake Wasatch it is about 405 feet All land above the meander line is either privately owned or owned by the state of Utah or the BUM Almost all of the land in the proposed Lake Wasatch area is privately owned. To maintain main-tain the average 9 foot depth stipulated by Mr.' Johnson, the minimum lake elevation , would have- to be 4,208 fecL Does Mrr Johnson believe all of the property - owners around the lake are going to donate the land inundated by the proposed lake between 4,205 feet and 4,208 feet elevation to them? I'll say not, the cost will be horrendous. horren-dous. .i The Clipper article also fails to mention the many pockets of highly, toxic, heavy metals in the proposed lake area. Does Mr. Johnson believe they can be ignored? They must be; dealt with, and very carefully. More realistically the cost of this project will be several hundred million dollars not just - the estimated 90 million for the dike. The article also fails to tell us that if the project does not produce enough revenue to cover the cost of construction, maintenance, etc. that taxes will be raised to cover these costs. You won't get to vote on this tax increase. A simple majority of an appointed nine member board will decide for you. If only a quorum, which is five members, is present, a simple majority of those, or in other words,, three members, will decide the tax increase for you. It seems to me that a few years back America had : a tea party over taxation without representation! ; , : The article quotes Mr. Johnson as stating that the effluent from the waste treatment plants around the proposed, lake will be used to replace some of the wetlands inundated inun-dated by the lake. Have you ever been to Willard Bay anytime from about the first of July on? The algae growth is so bad no one will swim Tin it Just think of what all those nutrients seeping through those new Wetlands will do for the algae "growth in the proposed new lake. The article further states that no ... . C ' - - , ' |