Now that the Legislature has approved $3 million to study a possible Utah Lake causeway, local opposition is mounting a challenge to the idea.

If built, the causeway would be "the definition of poor planning" and another in a list of "huge environmental threats to the lake," said Mark Heileson of the Utah Sierra Club.

The causeway is simply "a land-development scheme" that "would continue an L.A. growth pattern," Heileson said. "All positive efforts to restore the lake would be greatly hindered if not irreversibly set back."

Supporters of the causeway idea say it's a necessity because of growth in Utah County.

The Sierra Club has already collected hundreds of signatures on a petition opposing any causeway, Heileson said.

"The future of the lake is now at an important crossroads and the path that will be chosen is up to us," said Matt Clark of the Utah Waterfowl Association, "a voice for the 20,000 duck hunters in the state."

The group opposes the causeway, he said.

"We can either put the lake on the road to recovery or continue to make short-sighted decisions that foreclose its future," he said in an e-mail statement. "These decisions will have consequences as tragic for the lake and the generations that now enjoy it and the future generations that could enjoy it as the once seemingly good idea¬ of growing Asian carp in the lake."

He said repercussions from a causeway could be dramatic, negative and far-reaching.¬ 

"One need only need look north to the Great Salt Lake to see what causeways do," he said. "Water flow is cut off with resultant effects on water chemistry, salinity and productivity."

One side of the Great Salt Lake causeway, at Farmington Bay, becomes more prone to massive algae blooms while the Northern Arm becomes all but barren, he said.¬ 

"The wildlife consequences can be as massive and¬ permanent," he said.¬ "Causeways of this magnitude are not removed and rarely even undergo significant modification.¬ In other words, once the decision is made, the consequences will be permanent and [affect] future generations."

Clay Chivers represents a Utah Lake sailing club that is also speaking out against even studying a causeway.

"I grew up in Lehi, so I have seen that lake every day, and it really did not mean a lot to me," he said. "I was an avid outdoorsman and I hunted, but I always kind of took it for granted."

All that changed four years ago when he and his wife bought a sailboat, he said.

"I'll bet we spend 20 nights a year out in the lake, and we use it as our therapy," he said. "In those four years, I've seen what a treasure this lake is out in the middle of so much sprawl. To see it cut in two would really be a loss."

He called the lake a "treasure of 96,000 acres of sailable water," saying that allowing a causeway would be as sad as seeing Mount Timpanogos cut in two.

While economic development is important, it should not come at the cost of the lake, he said.

"I think we would regret it, and our kids would regret it," he said.