Sportsmen, birders and environmentalists alike are also on record questioning if the lake's already fragile ecosystem might be irreversibly damaged by the expansion.

GSL Minerals reportedly wants to withdraw up to 353,000 acre-feet of water from the lake for use in its evaporation ponds, according to de Freitas. That, in and of itself, has the potential of dropping the lake 2-3 additional feet from current levels.

How can that be justified, she said, looking at climate change trends predicting periods of sustained drought for the West.

"(DFFSL) didn't do its homework, de Freitas complains. "It didn't do proper analysis."

War of rhetoric

Both sides of the issue appear to be digging in in preparation for a long battle of words and legal briefs.

Says de Freitas, "This is make or break for the sustainability of the ecosystem." She calls it "unconscionable" that a state agency, acting on behalf of the public trust, is supporting industrialization of the lake; that the interests of one mineral company are being put ahead of the state's interests.

"The public needs to understand that creating more jobs and more fertilizer isn't the best answer for the state," de Freitas said. "Rather give the lake its due and we'll be ahead in the long run."

GSL Minerals spokesman Dave Hyams said the doomsayers are entitled to their opinions, but the process is being correctly followed and the leases granted by the state to the company are suitable for mineral activity as prescribed in the Great Salt Lake master plan.

"The (pending) environmental impact process," Hyams said, "will be the proper place to weigh concerns about the environmental impacts of the proposed evaporation ponds."

He said it's also important for the public to understand that the expansion, which upon completion, will bring a total of 75,000 new acres into production. Implementation, however, will come in stages, not all at once.

GSL Minerals press materials indicate the expansion could eventually double the current $5 million GSL Minerals now pays in property taxes and mineral royalties to the state and add 70 full-time jobs. The company currently has 330 employees.Atwood has also raised constitutional concerns over DFFSL's role in an unrelated proposed public/private swap of Division of Wildlife Resources land in the southern end of the Salt Lake Valley for a UTA/FrontRunner train station.

Buehler says Atwood is mistaken. "Everything this division has done has been by statute," he said. The lands she is questioning are not sovereign lands but lands DFFSL is managing. Nearby lands along the Jordan River are sovereign lands, however.