This environmental dilemma is a case-study in how existing rules, market-drivers, politics, community engagement, bureaucracy and the hidden nature of health impacts and costs, all fail us. Someone, anyone in power, must put their big-boy/girl pants on, set aside their aspirations for bigger political things, and do what is right for our delicate, at-risk Salt Lake Valley.
You do not have to be a scientist (just believe in science) to see that we cannot keep disturbing large tracts of land, liberating dust into the air, and burning more fossil fuel in this basin.
People, we are at a tipping point where all that we have reaped from our priceless Utah environment and our appreciating real estate values is now at risk. I am not alone in contemplating leaving this area whilst my property value is peaking, and go find some cleaner air. Surely there must be a way to have our gravel cake and breathe it too.
Now, is this missive suggesting we say no to the gravel pit? No. Is it to suggest that we must find a creative way to both have the pit, and produce no new particulates into the Salt Lake Valley? Yes.
We need the gravel. We need to honor the rights of that pit owner. But one million sets of lungs in this metro area also have a few needs. And rights.
Michael Brehm, Salt Lake City
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