Superfund contamination site at the ~4,500 acre USMag facility on the western shore of Great Salt Lake. (SL Tribune)

The sludge monster-- conceived in Utah

The EPA Superfund toxic waste site at the USMag site on the western shore of GSL represents a hazard waiting to tarnish all efforts to refill the lake, by spreading its contamination into surface and sub-surface waters. 'Nobody' knows what to do.

You don't bring a Walther PPK to the scene when a bunker needs to be busted. You don't bring a kitchen extinguisher to a raging forest fire. You don't clean a diaper blowout with a Kleenex. The Superfund site needs solids cleaned up by a Sludge Monster, capable of chewing up 100 tons/day contaminated dirt, destroying the carcinogenic PCB's and HCB's and spitting out something as inert as glass... while also harvesting residual value from entrained Li and Mg. This is what we know how to do in Utah, because we care and because we live here, and because we think about these things all the time.

There is great value to be obtained from the USMag superfund site while cleaning up the damned mess, and without using any GSL water.

The Great Salt River Initiative needs visionary philanthropic investors to facilitate these solutions.

Following data and images from U.S. EPA. (April 2022). BHHRA, US Magnesium LLC Superfund Site, Tooele County, Utah. Region Final OU-1 Baseline Human Health Risk Assessment Operable Unit 1, Rowley, Utah, Project No.: 0508502

The USMag superfund site is a large and complex mix of brine evaporation ponds (wet and dry) and waste piles. The EPA report lists water, air and soil contamination, as well as an incomplete burm. Cleanup requires addressing both brine and contaminated sludge.

Utah has prioritized cleanup without using GSL water, and trying to make some money in the process.

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