Current Events: |
In the News BIG NEWS!!! Oil & Gas Leases in 9 Mile Pulled by Interior Secretary Greetings, Nine Mile Canyon Enthusiasts: Today was a GREAT DAY for Nine Mile Canyon and other special places in Utah. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that the government is dropping the lease of 77 parcels of federal land that were offered at a BLM-administered oil & gas lease sale on December 19th. Some of those leases were located in and around Nine Mile Canyon. While this does not affect the current industrial activity or mode of operation in Nine Mile Canyon, there is hope that the new Administration will move soon to protect the Canyon's unique and irreplaceable cultural treasures and landscapes. The Nine Mile Canyon Coalition thanks Secretary Salazar and President Obama for this important decision regarding our public lands. It's great to know that Nine Mile Canyon's plight is in the new Administration's sight and conscience. A Google search on the terms "secretary Salazar 77 oil" will return hundreds of media, press and web coverage links regarding the announcement. Here are a few links to keep you busy reading: THE NEW YORK TIMES: Associated Press (AP): KSL TV - Salt Lake City: THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Editorial 02/04/2009: THE DESERET NEWS: MSNBC:
In the News Deseret News, December 9, 2008 The Salt Lake Tribune, December 4, 2008 Sun Advocate, December 4, 2008 Deseret News, December 3, 2008 Deseret News, November 26, 2008
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Action Alert This is an excerpt from a report put out by Congressman Grijalva of Arizona, Chair of the federal Public Lands Committee. The full document can be found at: http://grijalva.house.gov/uploads/Grijalva_Public_Lands_Report_10_22_2008.pdf Nine Mile Canyon Utah's Nine Mile Canyon is significant for its remarkable and expansive prehistoric rock art. According to the National Trust for Historic preservation, more than 10,000 rock art images exist in Nine Mile Canyon, and although only a small portion of the canyon has been systematically surveyed for cultural resources, at least 830 prehistoric sites have been formally recorded by archaeologists. The threat to these cultural sites comes from dust and chemicals from vehicle traffic which services the 800-well natural gas development known as the West Tavaputs Project, located on the plateau immediately south of Nine Mile Canyon. In February of 2008, the BLM released a proposal to increase vehicle traffic in Nine Mile Canyon by an astonishing 416 percent from the current average of 106 vehicles per day to 441. According to the project's draft environmental impact statement (EIS), semi-trucks, drill rigs and other industrial vehicles would use the dirt road along the bottom of Nine Mile Canyon to access the project site, and would continue to surpass the current level throughout the life of the project, which may exceed forty years. Before the comment period closed in May of 2008, the BLM received more than 53,000 comments in opposition to the project, including the letters from the state of Utah, the Hopi Tribe, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. Further, the EPA deemed the draft environmental impact statement to be inadequate and required BLM to prepare a supplemental analysis for public review to consider impacts to air quality. There are many other interesting sections, the report is only about 25 pages long if you want to read more. Pam Miller
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In the News The Salt Lake Tribune: Deseret News: Forum Journal, Summer 2008, Vol 22 No. 04:
In the News The Salt Lake Tribune: Deseret News:
In the News The Salt Lake Tribune: Deseret News:
In the News The Salt Lake Tribune: Deseret News:
Action Alert We wanted to let you know that the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition (Coalition) has recently joined the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) and The Wilderness Society (TWS) in a complaint filed against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in federal district court in Salt Lake City. The lawsuit is narrowly focused on a particular issue of concern. That issue is the Price BLM Field Office's approval of 25 new gas wells for Bill Barrett Corporation on the West Tavaputs Plateau using categorical exclusions (CX) under a loophole in Section 390 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Although these wells are not in Nine Mile Canyon, activities related to exploiting the wells will affect the cultural resources in the canyon through increased heavy vehicle traffic and other activities related to developing and exploiting the wells. The National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act require BLM to analyze the full range of environmental impacts caused by the natural gas drilling and development before it gives the green light to new activities. By approving these activities under the CX loophole, BLM is not considering these potentially significant impacts. As a group dedicated to historic preservation in Nine Mile Canyon, it has consistently been the practice of the Coalition to seek cooperation with the BLM rather than consider litigation and that is what was done in this circumstance as well. After realizing how the CX process was being utilized, the Coalition and others held several unproductive meetings with Price BLM and state office staff and ultimately submitted to the BLM a Request for State Director Review, which is available under the federal administrative process. We wanted the Utah BLM State Director to review the propriety of the CX approval process which ignores its required prior review of impacts to rock art and other cultural sites in an area where BLM has already acknowledge the potential for significant impacts. It acknowledged this in its recent draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for the West Tavaputs Plateau. Despite our efforts, the Utah BLM State Director denied our request for review, leaving us little other option than a lawsuit to obtain a review of the CX process which, we believe, has great potential for causing further significant harmful impacts to invaluable rock art and other irreplaceable resources in Nine Mile Canyon. We decided to work with SUWA and TWS because they share our concern for the approval of wells under CXs and the potential for harmful impacts. They shared in our Request for State Director Review and will carry much of the litigation burden in the lawsuit. Also, we want to reiterate that the Coalition is not against drilling. The lawsuit focuses on the BLM's responsibility to consider potentially significant impacts on the resources of Nine Mile Canyon. While participation in the lawsuit is not something we wished for, the CX process appears to be too important an issue for the future of the canyon to simply let pass without a further attempt to resolve. The Nine Mile Canyon Coalition exists to preserve and protect Nine Mile Canyon, in partnership with land holders, user groups, federal, state and local agencies, and Native American organizations. To that end, the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition will foster educational and interpretive programs which include but are not limited to: assisting in the coordination of canyon interests; promoting programs of scientific research in the canyon; helping with inventory of cultural and natural resources; raising funds, from earnings or gifts, for research, education, interpretive or preservation programs, as such funds become available. Questions??? Contact us at 9mcc@xmission.com |
