By Cricket Rollins
Updated: 05/28/2010 03:41:45 PM MDT, published by the Salt Lake Tribune

I was perplexed after reading Corey Milne's op-ed ("A new approach to the Great Salt Lake," Opinion, May 15). In the piece, Milne states that critics of the Great Salt Lake Minerals Corp.'s expansion plan are using unsubstantiated claims, exaggeration and untruths. However, in his own argument he seems to be doing just that.

For example, throughout the piece, Milne uses the name of the company (GSLM) interchangeably with Great Salt Lake. Perhaps this is just an oversight on Milne's part but definitely an untruth in its purest form. He goes on to state that the company is the only American producer of potash. This is either a misconstrued statement or a deliberate exaggeration.

The world's purest potash deposit is in Lea County, N.M., and the Intrepid Potash mine in Moab produces 700 to 1,000 tons of potash daily.

A quick Google search lists Alabama as a place with a naturally occurring source of potash. So Milne's idea that the world will go without potash unless his company can expand on the Great Salt Lake is a bit of a scare tactic. Exploiting the Great Salt Lake is not the only way America can meet the future needs of farmers.

Milne also claims that it's OK to build the new solar evaporation ponds in the northwest corner of the lake because it is desolate. Although this part of the lake may appear to be barren during low lake levels, that changes when the lake goes up.

During the high water years of the 1980s, brine shrimp were being harvested in Gunnison Bay, and bird use around the lake shifted to include this more remote area. In fact, it is because of this remoteness that it is home to the third largest breeding population of the American white pelicans in North America.

The proposed expansion, even done incrementally, will bring dikes and predator access closer to this nesting colony when lake levels are low as they are now. In essence, Milne is using a selective approach in how he characterizes this delicate and less understood part of Great Salt Lake.

The expansion plan of GSLM's operations is just one of many pressures that are weighing on the sustainability of the Great Salt Lake. It is unfortunate that Milne's view is so myopic. This entire issue of the proposed expansion is very complicated and complex. Although it proposes to create 50 jobs and tax subsides for local communities, this needs to be weighed against environmental impacts on lake levels, salinity, wildlife, other industries and a variety of lake uses for all the people of Utah.

As a vital hemispheric ecosystem to millions of migratory birds and an economic generator from tourism and resource development, the lake is important, and it's important for all of us to become involved in the process ahead.

Cricket Rollins is a volunteer for the Lake Side Learning program and lives in Emigration Canyon.