| OCR Text |
Show Davis officials discuss GSIL flood proposals By Gary R. BLODGETT News Editor i WEST BOUNTIFUL - Everyone Every-one knows that something must be done soon to control the rise of the Great Salt Lake - or the consequences consequ-ences to nearby homes, farmland, public utilities and industries will be devestating. WITH THIS in mind, several local legislators, candidates for legislature, leg-islature, city and county officials,, and concerned residents met Thursday night at West Bountiful City Hall. Mayor Jerry Thompson, who conducted the meeting, emphasized empha-sized that there are many solutions but no known answers to the critical critic-al stage of the rising Great Salt Lake. "ALL I know is that something has got to be done, and done soon," he said. "It's past time for talking and stalling. Mother Nature has her own way of doing things and we had better come up with a way of controlling the rise of the lake or we'll all be in serious trouble." Representives of Amax Magnesium Magne-sium Company of Grantsville who operate the largest dredging equipment in the state - were the first to address the group. TOM TRIPP, formerly of Bountiful, Boun-tiful, noted that the Great Salt Lake . is a rte.rminal lake" - a body of water with several major inlets but no outlet. The only reduction of the lake level comes through evaporation. evapora-tion. He told the group that the most rapid rate of increase of the lake level has occurred in the past four years - nearly 10 feet - and that this spring has been the wettest on record. HE PREDICTED that the next foot the lake level rises will expand the lake to a point that water will cause an estimated $100 million damage to farms, homes, industry, recreation areas, and utilities. "The railroads, Interstate Highway High-way 80, lakeside industries - including in-cluding their own - BARD landfill. South Davis Sewer Plant, and many other utilities will be underwater under-water and severely damaged or destroyed," he said. DAL WAYMENT, director of the South Davis Sewer Improve-ment Improve-ment District, said the existing dike around the plant west of 1 100 West . on 1200 North, West Bountiful, has ', suffered serious erosion and the road to the plant has been raised to prevent being washed out. "But we've been lucky so far and we can't expect to stay dry much longer," he told the group. "We might make it through the spring, but we can't count on it." HE SAID that to raise the existing ex-isting dike around the plant just two more feet would cost more than $1 million. "And if we don't get state assistance, that money will come from local property taxes." He said that if the lake continues to rise and overflows into the plant area, the plant would have to be shutdown and relocated to higher land. A new plant, he noted, would cost "at least $15 million." MEANWHILE, the Wasatch Front from south of Provo to the northern Utah border face serious problems and untold millions of dollars damage - if the lake continues con-tinues to rise. Gov. Norman Bangerter said "the only solution is to pump the lake water into the western desert." de-sert." He announced publicly that he will ro to the State Legislature in a special session and ask for $60 million for pumping equipment. HOWEVER, Stan Johnson, of Amax Magnesium, who has dredged and diked the Great Salt Lake for several years, disagrees with the solution. "Pumping will allow some evaporation eva-poration - up to 18 inches the first year and nine inches each additional addition-al year - but this will be effective , only if less water than that amount enters the lake the preceeding year. The lake level must be lowered lo-wered to an elevation below 4,205 feet (above sea level) if the lake is to maintain a suitable level," he noted. HE ALSO emphasized that diking dik-ing can be effective only to a certain cer-tain height, depending on materials used, and that most of the dikes -both railroads, 1-80, etc., - have nearly reached their peak. Mr. Tripp suggested that diking be done only where needed with the idea in mind that it is only a temporary solution at best. "BUT WE can't just sit back and hope it (lake level and potential problems) will go away because they won't. Something must be done, and soon." Mr. Tripp explained different types of diking, depending on the Continued on pag 2 Officials air GSL proposals Continued from page 1 immediate need and materials available. The best diking is with rip-rap that is hauled to the site. Dredging and using lakeside materials mate-rials for diking is not the best solution, solu-tion, he said. HE NOTED that dredging is very slow - only about 300 feet a day, at best. Com. Harold Tippetts told the group that in 1969 when the causeway cause-way to Antelope Island was dedicated dedi-cated there was a lot of criticism because people said the lake was drying up and the money for a road was "a waste of taxpayers dollars." dol-lars." "NOW THERE is no road, it's underwater," he said, noting that the Davis County Commission does not favor wholeheartedly the pumping proposal if there is any other alternative. "But if there isn't, we have no choice." |
