Breaching the Great Salt Lake Causeway: An Addendum

Abstract

An analysis (Interfaces, Vol. 10, No. 2) led to a recommendation that the state of Utah not pay for breaching the causeway across the Great Salt Lake because the estimate of maximum benefits to the state was significantly less than the minimum cost. However, between 1982 and late 1984, the lake level increased an unprecedented 9.45 feet, and lakeside mineral industries, transportation, wildlife areas, recreation, and public utilities were severely affected. On August 3, 1984, the causeway was breached by a 300-foot cut; unfortunately, the full benefits of the breach were not realized because the water level had already reached 4,209.25 feet. The only savings will be the incremental difference between losses already incurred and those of future year's if the lake continues to rise.

Water and Business: A Taxonomy and Review of the Research

“…Based on Wilson (1977), Wood (1990) coined the SEPTember mnemonic to help business identify the environments it encounters: social, economic, political, and technological. 12 Water-Related Articles Found (1959 Academy of Management Journal (Clark, Jeffrey, & Stephenson, 2000) Technological assessment of palm oil production and the concomitant waste water in Nigeria (Taiwo et al, 2000) Third World needs high-tech science (Pitroda, 1993) Historical, modern water pollution technology (McKee, 1972) Water quantity (resource development) Environmental Overuse of water resources None Undesirable allocation Modeling to determine future county water supply (B. V. Dean et al, 1994) Predicting when to initiate water resource development projects (Erlenkotter et al, 1989) Feasibility of 300-foot breach in lake to prevent flooding (Chesteen & Baird, 1985) Flood and low water problems (Parker & Farley, 1980) Sustainable resource allocation (Burt, 1964) Time dimension Modeling to determine future county water supply (B. V. Dean et al, 1994)…”

“…We found five related academic articles. Two focused on flooding or low water problems (Chesteen & Baird, 1985;Parker & Farley, 1980), and two modeled anticipated water demand and supply (B. V. Dean, Salstrom, Fiedler, Molnar, & Haake, 1994;Erlenkotter, Sethi, & Okada, 1989). Only one, written more than 40 years ago, considered the question of sustainable resource allocation, pointing to the need for more research here.…”

Using Smeed's Law to Estimate Number of Bird Strikes in Utah

“…Populations have tended to hover between 9 and 10 million since 1979, except for several peak years during the early and mid-1980s. The author did not examine the bird population trends in depth, but it is well known that the Great Salt Lake hit record high levels during the 1980s (up to 9.5 ft or 2.9 m above normal) (30). It is likely that the high volume of water attracted an extraordinary number of waterbirds; the relationship is discussed by Manning and Paul (31).…”