The white, treeless landscape rimmed by purple mountains has served as a backdrop for films like “Independence Day,” countless car commercials, TV shows and photo shoots. “The main international racetrack used to be 13 miles in length,” said Stuart Gosswein with Save the Salt, a group of race aficionados that has raised the alarm. Bonneville Salt Flats Rapidly Decliningįederal land managers who oversee the flats say they don’t have any evidence that the salt is being depleted and point to the anomaly of heavy rains around the time of the event this year and last year. Racers say they have worried for decades that mining is draining an aquifer that helps replenish the flats each year, leaving smaller amounts of the smooth, hard salt that makes for a nearly glass-like surface for cars hurtling across the landscape. A small city of tents, trailers and thousands of visitors appears almost every August in the Utah desert to watch cars, motorcycles and anything with wheels rocket across gleaming white sheets of salt at speeds of 400 mph.īut wet weather has forced the cancellation of Speed Week for the second straight year and revived a debate about whether nearby mining is depleting the Bonneville Salt Flats of their precious resource.
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