OCR Text |
Show 97 pond are required to produce 100,000 tons of salt annually. The approximate total acreage of concentration ponds plus harvest ponds required to produce 100,000 tons of salt with unsaturated feed brines is given in Figure 18. This graph assumes average weather conditions and average brine compositions. Five states- Louisiana, Texas, New York, Ohio, and Michigan- supply 88 percent of the total U. S. demand for salt. Although salt has many uses, some offering greater potential for growth than others, the average rate of growth in demand has been forecast at four percent per year, through the year 2000. High grade reserves of salt are abundant in the U. S. Salt is sold in geographically small markets because it is both universally available and of low value per ton. Recent developments, however, indicate a good potential for the market for Utah salt to expand. Vacuum pan salt producers in the eastern part of the country are experiencing large increases in fuel costs, and, in the west, the costs of imported salt and of salt produced in the San Francisco Bay area are increasing. Table 17 shows sales of sodium chloride from the Great Salt Lake by company, the fees paid and acres leased, from 1963 to 1973. Tables 18 and 19 show the distribution of sales and annual changes in sales by firm. Sodium Sulphate Sodium sulphate or mirabilite ( commonly called glauber salt) can be precipitated from the Lake in two ways, by concentrating through evaporation or by cooling. The solubility of sodium sulphate decreases so much with decreasing temperature that significant amounts of glauber salt |