Environment: Preserving the Great Salt Lake

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The lake's expansion was disastrous for the region's wildlife. Forty years ago, Utah and the Federal Government created a series of vital state refuges, 400,000 acres of fresh-water marshes fed by mountain streams and protected from the saline lake by small dikes. Now three-quarters of all the marshlands have been flooded with salt water, which has killed the fish and driven away nesting birds. Some 300,000 of the 400,000 ducks that normally hatch each year have been lost, and the reproduction rate of Canadian geese has been cut in half. Officials also fear for the habitats of endangered bald eagles and peregrine falcons. Says Sam Manes, a biologist with the Utah State Division of Wildlife Resources: "I wish this hadn't happened in my lifetime. I may never see the lake go down again."

Despite the threatened disappearance of this natural paradise, some quarters staunchly oppose the breach idea. Before the flooding, the causeway had unbalanced the salinity of the lake, giving the north end a salt content of about 28%, in contrast to the south's 12%. That discrepancy has been a particular boon to the Great Salt Lake Minerals & Chemicals Corp., the largest company to mine the northern waters for salt and potassium. Because the causeway breach will eliminate the disparity and further reduce mining efficiency, GSL fears that its $85 million plant and 300 employees will be put out of business. It sued unsuccessfully in federal court to stop the project. Says GSL President Peter Behrens: "It's amazing that the Government can expropriate our livelihood without giving us any compensation."

The most nagging problem of all, however, is the unpredictability of the region's weather. The new channel in the causeway will certainly help if flooding continues next year, a condition the weather service now predicts. But the Great Salt Lake is a kind of watery manic-depressive: it has undergone four major up-and-down cycles in the past century. The lake's fitful behavior makes it difficult to justify huge sums of remedial money for what may be temporary ills. Says Governor Matheson: "It's hard to make long-range solutions for too much water when several years from now, we may not even have that problem." —By Natalie Angier.

Reported by Robert C. Wurmstedt/Salt Lake City