When it comes to water issues in Utah, Great Salt Lake and Colorado River get a lot of attention. But many people have never even heard of Sevier Lake and the legal battle currently playing out over the development of a fertilizer mine on its shores.
Sevier Lake is a terminal saline lake. Like Great Salt Lake, it has no outlet, which means that salts concentrate there as water evaporates out.
Hannah Larsen, an attorney at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said these salts are especially high in potassium, which is an important component of fertilizer.
In June, the Bureau of Land Management approved a plan for the mining company Peak Minerals to extract potassium from the area over the course of 50 years. Larsen said that the alliance sued over this plan “because the BLM didn't do any sort of environmental analysis, and that, [they] believe — that is in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act.”
SUWA claims the mine will have several harmful effects on the region that weren’t taken into consideration before the project was approved.
Larsen said that many migratory birds on their way to breed or nest at Great Salt Lake will stop to rest at Sevier Lake.
"If this project comes to fruition," Larsen said, "and it turns into this big evaporation pond operation there, there won't be any more water for the birds to rely on.”
Larsen said that in addition to destroying bird habitat, the mining project will also cause significant light and noise pollution and deplete scarce groundwater resources.
BLM and Peak Minerals declined to comment on this story. The BLM said in a statement that this mining project would, “support President Trump’s Executive Order; Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production," to “boost domestic mineral production and reduce U.S. reliance on foreign minerals, enhance national security, and create jobs.”
Nick Killpack is on the city council in Delta, one of the closest towns to Sevier Lake. He said that people in the area were mostly optimistic about the possibility of new economic growth in the area.
“I think we're always looking for ways to diversify our economy, increase our labor force, and have, you know, bring more and new and high paying jobs to the area," Killpack said. "So I think that was, that was something people were looking forward to.”
Killpack said that while community residents are mostly optimistic about the jobs this mining project might bring to the area, any project that threatened water resources would be met with hostility.
“Water is a huge concern that is always taken very seriously by locals in Millard County," he said. "Our economy is agricultural-based, and the water makes it all work.”
Going forward, Larsen said that while this project is likely to proceed, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance lawsuit will hold the BLM and Peak Minerals to a higher standard of review and increase public understanding of the issue.
"There have been many instances over the years," Larsen said, "where through the environmental review process, the public gets involved and they stop the project, not necessarily because the court said it can't go through, but because, the public outcry was just so much,”
Larsen said that for now, the BLM’s decision to approve the project is in place. Peak Minerals could start mining the lakebed tomorrow if they wanted to. But in the meantime, SUWA and the BLM will compile information to make their cases about whether the plan for the mine violates environmental law. Larsen said that it could take years for the courts to decide.