Examining the latest threat to Spiral Jetty

Dia Art Foundation leaders say that the latest proposed expansion of evaporation pools in the northern end of the Great Salt Lake significantly threatens the "integrity" of Robert Smithson's iconic Spiral Jetty and that the pools could change the Jetty's part of the Great Salt Lake so substantially that it would render a 'new' northern end of the lake unrecognizable.

On July 4 the Salt Lake Tribune reported that Great Salt Lake Minerals, the dominant industrial concern in the northern end of the Great Salt Lake, is hoping to expand its operations by 91,000 acres. (In 2007 GSLM proposed building 22,700 acres of evaporation ponds to the west of the Jetty. The new 91,000-acre development represents a near-tripling of GSLM's previously proposed footprint.) Eighty thousand acres of that expansion would take the form of new fertilizer-producing evaporation pools that would be on the lake and related wetlands. Most of the proposed expansion is west-by-southwest of Spiral Jetty. The plan is in the midst of a federal review process that will take until at least early 2011.

"Given the scale that they are [proposing] to do, the Jetty would be totally out of the water," Dia director Philippe Vergne told me. "I think more than that; the distance between the Jetty and Gunnison Island could be deprived of water. That would, of course, affect the water, the perception of nature and the integrity of the sculpture." [Photo: Gunnison Island is to the left of the Jetty.]

Among the ways in which the sculpture would be permanently changed would be the end of red algae blooms around the Jetty, a natural process that Smithson considered key to the work.

I asked Vergne and Dia director of external affairs Katie Sonnenborn if that meant that there is a possibility that if Great Salt Lake Minerals' plan goes through, that Spiral Jetty visitors might be able walk from the Jetty all the way out to Gunnison Island.

"One of the things we're concerned about is this: Three years ago they were talking about 27,000 acres and now they're talking about 91,000 acres," Sonnenborn said. "That would [create] a permanent reduction in lake level of 12 inches and in acre-feet that's a radical difference. The shoreline could be a mile further 'into' the lake than it currently is. We don't have a good idea of how that would effect Spiral Jetty. But yes, there's the potential that you could walk from the Jetty to Gunnison Island. The [GSLM] plan shifts the integrity of whole ecosystem of the Great Salt Lake."

[The undated Google Satellite image above shows Rozel Point at the top-right of the image and Gunnison Island at the lower left. The image shows the shallowness of the water just off Rozel Point and how the lake level appears to deepen as you get three-fifths of the way to Gunnison Island.]

In recent years the level of the Great Salt Lake has varied wildly. Today the lake's level is 4,195 feet, within a few inches of the 40-year-low established last summer. Scientists aren't sure why the lake level is so low -- is it industry? population growth around the lake? climate change? something else entirely? -- but uncertainty that has created concern. Vergne and Sonnenborn said that while Dia understands that lake levels have fluctuated for hundreds and even thousands of years, the changes that GSLM are proposing would be both dramatic and effectively permanent.

"The lake level would still fluctuate," Sonnenborn said. "This six to ten to twelve inches we're concerned about would be on top of that fluctuation."

Vergne said that another concern was the impact a drier lake environment, a permanently lowered lake-level, would have on the Jetty.

"When there's no water around the wind can blow and sand could cover the Jetty," Vergne said. "There are sand-saturated areas near the Jetty already. They're not yet really impacting it, but it's an issue."

Tomorrow: An update on how Dia is working to address these issues.

Later this afternoon: Art conservators and Spiral Jetty.

Previously on MAN: My six-part September, 2008 examination of changes to the Jetty's environment and Dia's stewardship of the sculpture. 

Related: A favorite quote from the July 4 Tribune story: "We've been here for 40 years," GSLM spokesperson Dave Hyams told the Tribune. "Birds have been adjacent to our ponds for decades. Co-existing with birds is something we know how to do."

Presumably Hyams mentioned birds in part because Gunnison Island is a major habitat for migrating birds, most famously pelicans. It's great that GSLM can co-exist with birds, but isn't the real question whether the birds can co-exist with GSLM?