At stake is spring water for the relatively rare Bonneville cutthroat trout, shrub cover for the potentially endangered sage grouse, even food for elk, Mrowka said. And if plant roots are left dry, he said, the BLM's analysis indicates pumping from these valleys and Snake Valley could send 35,000 tons of new dust swirling toward the Wasatch Front. Some of that dust would include radionuclides from old nuclear weapons tests, he warned.