Thanks for spreading the word about this issue. I grew up near the Great Salt Lake and far too many locals overlook the impacts the Wasatch Front has on our ecosystem. While we don't have a good solution to the problem yet, I believe making the issue more well known is a good step forward.

One thing about the Bonneville Salt flats is the racing done there uses only a small part of it near wendover. The racers are just the only ones who seem to notice the changes.

Culverts under the highway and tracks to allow water to enter the system would be a good start...so long as the water's not interacting directly with the substructure or ground immediately surrounding them they shouldn't experience washout. I'm honestly surprised they didn't put them in during the construction, as you'd think the water building up and running along them would be worse.

Back in the 1980's the Great Salt Lake levels were so high they had to pump water out to spread it over a larger area to get it to evaporate more, and the railroad had to raise the height of their causeway. I've talked to a guy who did his master's thesis on the deposit of brine underneath the mine's evaporation ponds. It's full of all sorts of chemicals, but they are mostly just harvesting the potassium chloride along with magnesium chloride, and pumping the sodium chloride brine (same as common table salt) over to the racetrack area to restore it.

I have lived in Salt Lake for 10 years and been out there twice, with a friend in 2011, and then last year. It is a mess. It looks nothing like it did 10 years ago. Kennecott is also one of the largest copper mines in the world, and I think it is the biggest open-pit mine in the world. That mine is an hour from salt lake as well, and pulls out a lot of water. Also driving on it makes no sense with your commercial car, you destroy your tires. Don't do it, speaking from experience lol.

There will always be a company willing to destroy something beautiful and there will always be people ready to take it for $10 an hour

Everyone is too chicken to say "Remove that factory which is draining the salt water basin", because that is the 99.999% reason for the depletion. 5 billion gallons of water removed from just 45 square miles each year multiplied by several decades is no joke. I didn't even know 45 square miles could even hold that much water even just for 1 year.

OMG Jalika is amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fresh water is drying up. Some day it will be like these old sci fi movies people will be killing each other over fresh water.

I jumped on a greyhound when I was 19 about 20 yrs ago and road from Indiana to California. I traveled on the bus for about 3 months. On my way back we were on a road that went right through the middle of the great salt flats. It was a magical landscape. It's the closest thing on earth I could imagine to what heaven would look like.

humans: hey... I've got a great idea! let's take the place that keeps us alive and destroy it!

Everything is summed up in the end by them saying that it needs to be in the best interest of the stakeholders

I knew the GSL was shrinking, but I didn't know the salt flats themselves were also in this much danger.

Thanks for all the uptalk

Lol guys the title isn't typo'd - it's intentional. The video is about racing

Restore Lake Bonneville!!

"Why the Fastest Place on Earth Is Disappearing" It's not disappearing. it's just too fast for us to see

This needs more engagement

Love you pbs! I'm sad the salt flats might not be a thing in the future. Never knew how it was made

Make the railroad tracks and road have bridges/culverts to allow some water to get into the flats area. Or, if it is too cost prohibitive, use pumps to add water from one side to the other.

What is something on Earth that isn't getting ruined?

Intrepid is the current name on the slurry mining operation that has been removing salt from Bonneville for over 100 years. For a number of years now they have been pumping from their tailing ponds back on to Bonneville to enhance their removal process. This year the salt crust was better than we had seen in some time but that was only due to the failure their pumping system & no salt had been removed in the last two years but that is about to change in the spring when the new system comes online. The study carried out by Brenda Bowen from the U of U was funded by Intrepid Mining who also pay millions to the BLM for mining rights on public land so any information coming from any of those sources should be taken with a grain of salt. Pun intended.

Well it's obviously because it's running away too fast.

Utah has effectively destroyed it with capitalistic ventures that were short sighted

Gee, where's all the water that brought this salt? [camera pans over to massive potassium mine water collection ponds]

3:34 the basin doesn't extend that far into Idaho. That would make it apart of the snake river/columbia river basin which it hasn't been since the last ice age (the bonneville floods)

Good spot for drones.

Comments for the Algorithm God

U of U geology team 🤙 I’m an undergrad there. Camping in the salt flats is rad, my dog loves running on the fresh salt in the morning.

such a spectacular place, even the disappearing great salt lake

That is a very fascinating place.

The potassium mine pulled $1billion into the local economy. I'm going out on a limb to say that the amount that actually went into the local economy was far less than $1billion. I would love to know the monetary value of the actual opportunity cost of the potassium mine. In the long term, it could cost the salt flats, and contribute towards costing the earth.

Well, it turned out it wasn't the sports people's fault. This has to be one of the only situations where the impact to a local climate *isn't* being driven by the destructive idiots playing on it.

0:43 it a BELLY TANKER. A go kart type thing made from a military surplus airplane drop tank from World War II

I was curious why they named it fastest places

Thanks

Cool!

Millions of years to form? What about lake Bonneville that was there until the end of the last Ice Age? The whole area was completely under hundreds of feet of water!!! I think whoever put this documentary together should go back and learn some geologic history!

No one: People who live in Mad Max: you guys have dissapearing salt flats?

Why not use the whitest white paint and have a really big long road so they don't need to go here.

Yeah. Let's trash everything

I’ve wondered why there isn’t a plan to bring salt brine left overs from desalination plants to Bonneville. There are a few desalination plants in California and the Middle East is building them as fast as possible. If we can ship trash to China for recycling we can ship salt brine to Bonneville from Saudi Arabia.

JOE HANSON

Cool

Well right when I was expecting to hear about the scientists' solutions the video ended. Very depressing! But it's consistent with climate change in general in that future generations will only be able to wonder about our environment today.

Yes one is going. But a new one at the salton sea is next place to race.

I love being among the first, but I also love having been to places your... over-viewing(?)

Holy cow

Oh no without the salt flats we will not be able to go fast

This makes me... salty

*Fastest place on earth What a title

Well shit how are we supposed to catch up to it?

Change is the only inevitability.

Jesus! Is there anything that isn’t disappearing?!

PBS with another great video. All hail the algorithm

Where is the salt going? How would water help? Is the water brackish?

The powers that be people 100%

There's ways to divert the water back maybe under the highways or maybe we should invest into infrastructure that is below ground

need water to fall from the sky?

🤔 First you say they artificially flaten it every year for racing and then you say they can't figure out what is causing the erosion? 🤨

China just lost a major fresh water lake too.

We need to reduce the population of earth thats the only way we will survive and stop fighting and work together all as one united planet we can do great things but we must put are differences aside and get ride of all the corruption

oh, I though it said Disappointing

i only found this channel through the pbs survey!! :(

"the dead sea in jordan"?

Good luck, though you'll need to force compliance, don't expect cooperation.

Crew chief lool

I know of a family that has a standard of going over 400mph in your own vehicle to be considered a man, this is sad for their future.

Rain is washing the salt away. This isn’t rocket scientist But apparently it is…

Ur driving on in cracking it then wind blows.

Around the great lake may one day be inhabitable. Like the Aral sea towns.

Engagement engagement engagement

And Utah continues to allow waste full water intensives subdivisions with golf courses and lawns. Because they haven't used their "allotment" from the Colorado.

raise the roads?

I think y’all misspelled the title. Did y’all mean flattest or fastest

SL,UT

As usual, human greed and negligence is to blame

Joe

Is it possible that #Fracking, breaking up the bedrock, is causing water to go deeper? I notice fracking on the map to the east of these flats. While it’s at least 100 miles away, the possibility for the fracking to have opened up a crack for water to drain doesn’t seem out of the question.

Alright, who keeps licking the salt flats?

Coming from someone who lives in salt lake county. Theres no way that mine produced 1 billion to the economy.

Oh humans we get mad when oceans and lakes dry up and then we are mad when the salt waste land disappears 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

dont you worry, America has enough concrete to pave it feet thick and desalinate enough sea water to put the brine on it and let it evaporate into thick crystaline salt floor the whole valley full, because for America, holding the landspeed record and testing the coolest custom vehicles is essential...

They should use hydrogen power vehicles to bring water back

Because it's just time for the passenger drone. Traveling on the ground is for the animals.

look at Joe now.

Algorithm 💙

So if no new salt finds its way there, leave the flats alone. Racers and visitors are responsible.

Haters gonna hate Officials gonna officiate #yayForDeadMeme

We look at nature only in terms of how it serves us. Even in saving natural places we feel the need to manage and study rather than leave it be. This will be our downfall.

I'm sure ripping up the delicate salt flats with tires from racing vehicles is helping the problem.

More like... how do we live with what we've DONE

Fossil fuel this was said in early 70's to be detrimental to earth

Did u actually not mean "Fastest" in the title?

Globetards hate salt flats

Why the Fastest Place on Earth Is Disappearing

@PBS Terra Heads up, the voice over track has some weird timbre issues with the audio quality. Sounds like bad microphone placement or track EQ excessively coloring the sound. It sounds stuffy and un-natural.

Where is this Place?

The Dead Sea is mostly in Israel, not Jordan

But racing on the salt flats has been around for decades. It's the ONLY thing I expect out there.