Bonneville Salt Flats during the summer. In the winter, the Salt Flats have about an inch of water covering the surface. Photos from wikipedia.org

For the second time in as many years, the Bonneville Speed Week has been cancelled. The cause? Not enough salt. Too little salt in your diet will probably make your doctor happy, but when your life revolves around chasing land speed records, too little salt is a bad thing.

According to a press release from SEMA, “Deteriorating conditions and wet weather at the Bonneville Salt Flats forced the Southern California Timing Association/Bonneville Nationals Inc. to cancel Speed Week, which was scheduled to start on August 8.

Image: www.myrideisme.com

The problem came when the event organizers were not able to find 2 1/4 miles of salt for a safe course. Cancellations have been rare since the annual event began in 1949. Once measuring over 13-miles long, the current track area has steadily been reduced to less than 8 miles as the salt brine has been channeled away from the area.

While the area is managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, SEMA, along with other organizations, have been working for decades to help save the Salt Flats. The racing community began raising concerns about salt deterioration as early as the 1960s.

Aerial View of the Bonneville Salt Flats in 2015, the race track is located in the upper left.

Local mining is blamed for the reduction of the salt brine, as the brine is used for mineral production at a nearby potash mine. Racers and environmentalists believe the only way to save the salt is to ban mining altogether, and require the mining company to replace what it has stripped. In July of this year, a second mining company has filed for a permit with the Bureau of Land Management to also mine the salt, which raises more concerns.