Development plan raises concern about GSL waterfowl

BOUNTIFUL — Because the ducks couldn't speak for themselves, concerned residents spoke on their behalf against a possible development taking away feeding areas near the Great Salt Lake.

Davis and Salt Lake county residents expressed unease about the proposed Great Salt Lake Minerals Corp.'s 91,000-acre expansion project on areas around the lake. The company extracts minerals from the lake typically used as fertilizer and wants to expand to meet the growing demand for potassium sulfate. The first of four public meetings on the proposal was held Thursday.

"If you take these waters and wetlands away, you're going to disrupt the ecosystem," said Jeff Pace of West Valley City. "It's not that it would destroy the area more, but it disrupts it. And we're already in a drought right now."

Members of Utah Air Boats, Ducks Unlimited and Friends of the Great Salt Lake said that the new solar evaporation ponds would also take away necessary feeding areas for waterfowl and other migratory birds that use some of the lakes flowing from the Bear River.

But Dave Hymas, a spokesman for the mineral company, said the claim is false.

"Thousands of birds migrate to the Great Salt Lake, but they go to southern parts of the area," Hymas said. "Most of the water is saline-concentrated."

Before any development could begin, the company needs approval by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is currently seeking information about the impact that proposed developments would have on the wildlife, water and surrounding areas.

The natural-resources consulting firm Bio-West Inc., is gathering data and assessing impacts, but project manager Blaise Chanson said it's too early to tell how waterfowl would be affected.

The firm conducted two years of sampling along the northern arm of the Bear River bay from April 2007 to January 2008. The water birds typically stayed in parts of the proposed development area in April, but mostly left by May and June, with numbers dropping from 142,000 to 13,000.

"But we don't know if there were heavy winds that day or any other factor affecting those numbers," Chanson said. "We need more time to analyze."

Jason Gipson, chief of the Utah Regulatory office of the U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers that administers the Clean Water Act, said his office wants to consider all valid points of view.

"We want to try and avoid at all possible costs any impact, or at least minimize impact," he said.