The Wasatch Front has a big stake in what, if anything, happens to the recommendations this week of a federal panel that is calling for a new system to give advance warnings of earthquakes.

So big a stake, in fact, that Utah should start lobbying now to get the next such warning system after the prototype the prestigious National Research Council wants to be first set up in California.Salt Lake City, after all, is the nation's third most dangerous seismic area, lagging behind only Los Angeles and San Francisco. If a major earthquake hit the Salt Lake Valley, a 1989 study estimates it could kill 4,000 people and injure another 9,700 just in the schools alone. Multiply those figures by the thousands of office workers and home residents around the valley, and the toll along the most populated part of the Wasatch Front would be staggering.

Despite the potential threat, Utah's seismograph equipment is often old and in short supply. Consequently, the information it provides is not always adequate.

Though the early warning system being suggested by the National Research Council sounds like something out of science fiction, the highly respected panel is confident that existing technology makes it possible.

The council is talking about a warning of perhaps only tens of seconds. But that would be enough time to save lives and reduce property damage by enabling automated equipment to shut down computers, gas lines, power plants, and manufacturing operations before the quake hit.

What about the problems that could be created if such automatic shutdowns were triggered not by an actual earthquake but by some false alarm? That possibility can't be ruled out - but it can be minimized. In Japan, such a system has been used for 20 years to protect the famous bullet train. During that period, the system has stopped the train more than 100 times but there has been fewer than one false alarm a year.

One final point: Salt Lake City is considered almost as likely to have a severe earthquake in the foreseeable future as is California. Consequently, Utah had better make sure it gets in on the cutting edge of the latest seismic technology.

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