Ever-optimistic backers of the Living Planet Aquarium are asking the Salt Lake County Council to put a $34 million bond proposal on the November ballot that, if passed, would add about $5 to each county homeowner's property tax bill so they can bring sea creatures to Salt Lake City. But the concept of a million-gallon fish tank in the nation's second-most-arid state just doesn't hold water.

Proponents have been trying for six years to get public funding. They convinced Salt Lake City's Redevelopment Agency to acquire four acres and lease it to them until they could come up with the cash. The latest deadline is June 2008. Supporters have pledged to raise $12 million, but they've fallen short of those promises in the past.

In 2004 the County Council refused to OK a bond election for the project because there were too many other, more pressing, issues for voters to consider funding.

As it turns out, this year is no better, and perhaps even a worse time to go fishing for tax funds, especially for such a questionable project. County residents this November could be asked to decide on several important bond issues, including $895 million for four much-needed TRAX spurs, the extension of the Zoo, Arts and Parks tax, more fire stations and $20 million to $30 million to secure vital and dwindling open space.

Promoters like to point out that an aquarium would be a great educational experience, especially for kids who might never get to take a trip to the coasts. But judging from the fees charged by successful aquariums, mostly in port or coastal cities, a visit might be as out-of-reach for those kids as a vacation in Monterey. The New England Aquarium charges $17.95 and $9.95 for kids; the National Aquarium in Baltimore charges $17.50.

The best aquariums are located near oceans and inland seas, where tourists expect them. Bringing an aquatic menagerie to land-locked and bone-dry Salt Lake City is too risky a deal for taxpayers.