Sunday, August 10, 2008

Protection Efforts on Two Major Utah Rock Art Sites

COALITION TO PRESERVE ROCK ARTJon Gum 1234 West Red Butte Washington, UT 84780435-627-1086 exploringrockart@gmail.com

August 8, 2008

This is just a short note to keep you informed of the status of potential damaging actions to two extremely important Utah Rock Art sites.These sites have been lighted in Southwest Utah as very important issues regarding our preservation efforts.Regarding Parowan Gap, the following was printed in the URARA’s August Vestiges. As you might guess, we must work hard to gain momentum. From the start, most of us were surprised that the government actions were in process, and yet they did not provide sufficient time to present any meaningful arguments to the actions. Any help or advice would be appreciated, since we will probably fail if we do not receive your support and your communications with the BLM.Parowan Gap DevelopmentsJon Gum, Coalition to Preserve Rock Art, http://www.exploringrockart.com/Can anybody perform miracles? We might need some help.Citizens were given until June 30, 2008 to answer the EA on oil and gas leasing and potential drilling around The Parowan Gap area, west of Cedar City. We want to protect the Parowan Gap from damage and prevent a Nine-Mile Canyon debacle from occurring in SW Utah.On July 2, 2008, the public notification of parcels for lease was issued. The government did not give the input from concerned citizens (several letters went in from Coalition to Preserve Rock Art members) a careful reading or perform a thorough management review of the comments received. Some person might have read them, but to my knowledge, they were not categorized and submitted to staff for a serious review. Therefore, we lost to the bureaucracy and the lack of concern regarding cultural resources. In the Parowan Gap case, they gave the interested citizens almost 30 days to respond, noted their responses, and then did what they set out to do, regardless of the input received. We are fortunate that the BLM was stopped at Parowan Gap in January 2007, since it gave us another 18 months to enjoy these cultural resources before the BLM dictated that Parowan Gap would be inflicted with the “Nine-Mile Canyon disease”.We will request a meeting with the BLM staff in Cedar City. We are also checking the Native American tribes to see if they want a coordinated effort in responding. I hope that other concerned organizations will be involved.Regarding Nine-Mile Canyon, two articles are attached that discuss a recent lawsuit filed (yesterday) attempting to stop the drilling of 25 wells on which adequate data has not been collected and potential damage to Cultural Resource sites could occur.Throughout the 2008 RMP process, the failure of BLM to understand in detail the public areas that BLM manages has been highlighted. Anybody who wants to understand the process and the rebuttals offered to concerned citizen and organization RMP responses should request a copy of the CD “Proposed Resource Management Plan and Final Environmental Impact Statement dated August 2008. Many decisions are being made without serious study and without knowledge of the areas being managed. In most cases, you (the citizens who hike, who explore, and spend time in the wilderness areas) are much more informed that the BLM personnel. That’s unfortunate, since BLM should learn from those who have experienced the “land”. Without that knowledge base, they will continue to make irrational decisions.Please review the two attachments. Several organizations are working together to impact a recent BLM decision that could effect some of our Cultural Resources and their efforts should be supported.Thanks, next time I will catch up on some other activities in SW Utah,Jon

Lawsuit to Protect Rock Art in Nine Mile Canyon Utah

Eco groups sue to stop drilling in Nine Mile Canyon
By Patty HenetzThe Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 08/07/2008 12:52:53 PM MDT


Posted: 12:39 PM- Three conservation groups are suing the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in a bid to halt gas drilling in eastern Utah's scenic Nine Mile Canyon. The Nine Mile Canyon Coalition, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and The Wilderness Society filed the federal lawsuit this week in Salt Lake City, alleging the BLM acted illegally when it approved Bill Barrett Corp.'s request to drill 25 new natural-gas wells on the West Tavaputs Plateau. The lawsuit argues the BLM's Price field office failed to properly analyze the harm big-rig traffic is doing to ancient Puebloan rock art and other artifacts, failed to include the public in its decision and didn't consult Indian tribes before the action, as mandated by environmental-protection law. The Price field office used a loophole in the 2005 Energy Policy Act that says one broad environmental-impact statement on one drilling application can serve for all subsequent requests. In February, Brad Higdon, planning and environmental coordinator in the BLM's Price field office, said that before drilling can begin, each well location, pipeline and road will get a separate evaluation based on "ground truth" culled from on-site surveys involving biologists, archaeologists and other resource specialists. "Nine Mile Canyon is an unusual place full of rock art, prehistoric ruins and historic
reminders of Utah's military, farming and ranching history," said Pam Miller, chairwoman of the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition's board of directors. "By using a loophole to issue drilling permits, BLM is avoiding considering the importance of these resources and the impacts of industrial development on our past." Mike Stiewig, the Price field office associate director, also named in the lawsuit, wasn't immediately available Thursday for comment. With about 100 wells already developed, big rigs serving the Denver-based Bill Barrett's gas fields make hundreds of trips up and down the steep, narrow dirt road. Chemicals used to suppress dust, strong enough to corrode concrete, have stuck to rock-art panels. The fugitive dust further degrades air quality and affects water quality, riparian areas and visibility, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants BLM to study further. phenetz@sltrib.com

Lawsuit to Protect Nine-Mile Canyon Rock Art

News Release

BLM’s Approval of 25 Natural Gas Wells in Utah’s Nine Mile Canyon Region Sparks LawsuitGroups challenge BLM’s illegal “act first, think later” practice


SALT LAKE CITY (August 7, 2008) – A coalition of historic preservation and conservation groups yesterday challenged a recent spate of decisions issued by the Bureau of Land Management to fast-track natural gas drilling in Utah’s remarkable Nine Mile Canyon region. BLM’s decisions approved Bill Barrett Corporation’s requests to drill 25 new natural gas wells without any analysis or consideration of the impacts that drilling and maintaining those wells will have to the area’s unique rock art and renowned collection of cultural sites. BLM approved these 25 new wells under a loophole in the Republican-controlled Congress’s Energy Policy Act of 2005.
“Nine Mile Canyon is an unusual place full of rock art, prehistoric ruins, and historic reminders of Utah's military, farming, and ranching history,” said Pam Miller, chair of the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition’s board of directors. “By using a loophole to issue drilling permits, BLM is avoiding considering the importance of these resources and the impacts of industrial development on our past.”
Nine Mile Canyon has been increasingly threatened by unchecked drilling and development activities that threaten the area’s integrity. The approval of these 25 wells is in addition to the proposed drilling of more than 800 new natural gas wells by Bill Barrett Corporation in the “West Tavaputs natural gas full field development project,” which is being planned for archaeologically rich West Tavaputs plateau in the northeast portion of Carbon County.
“The Bill Barrett Corporation announced on Monday another record quarter of profits and has many other non-controversial areas that it could target for drilling, but it has chosen to focus on an area that is truly one of the West’s ancient treasures,” says Stephen Bloch of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. “BLM is also complicit because the agency has chosen to ignore environmental safeguards, which could result in irreversible damage to the cultural artifacts of the Nine Mile Canyon region.”
In addition, the West Tavaputs project has been widely and universally panned. The BLM received more than 53,000 comments in opposition to the project from citizens across the country, and also received letters criticizing the project from the state of Utah, the Hopi Tribe, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. The Environmental Protection Agency rated the draft environmental impact statement as “inadequate” and required BLM to prepare a supplemental analysis for public review to consider impacts to air quality. Copies of these comment letters are available on-line at www.suwa.org/WestTavaputs.
The lawsuit filed yesterday asserts that BLM’s rapid approval of 25 new natural gas wells violated federal laws that require the agency to “think first, then act.” 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 loopholes known as “statutory categorical exclusions” BLM is not considering these potentially significant impacts.
“Over the past seven years, as the administration has relentlessly pushed oil and gas projects into iconic Western landscapes, BLM has repeatedly and embarrassingly been forced to rescind ill-considered leasing decisions,” said Suzanne Jones, regional director of The Wilderness Society’s Central Rockies Office. “When it comes to BLM’s illegal practice of acting before thinking, the West Tavaputs project is certainly one of the most egregious examples.”
The groups participating in the legal challenge do not oppose drilling on public lands—and indeed do not challenge the vast majority of leasing and development proposed for BLM lands—but are concerned about the damage to important public values when drilling is located in proposed wilderness or areas with rich cultural resources such as Nine Mile Canyon, and/or adequate safeguards are not required to ensure that the impacts of drilling are minimized on these other important public land uses.
Background on West Tavaputs Full Field Development Project
The West Tavaputs project is by far the largest of several Barrett projects that are rapidly changing the face of the Nine Mile Canyon region, an area that the state of Utah describes in its website as an “outdoor museum” that “should be shown the respect due to one of the West’s ancient treasures.” According to the BLM’s website, the Nine Mile Canyon region contains the “the greatest concentration of rock art sites in the U.S.A.” More than 1,000 of these sites have been identified, along with centuries-old standing structures such as cliff dwellings and pit houses.
The West Tavaputs project would industrialize an area that has received global recognition for its cultural resources and would permanently alter its unspoiled and wild nature. The proposed drilling would effectively eliminate large swaths of the Jack Canyon and Desolation Canyon BLM wilderness study areas, as well as two adjacent areas that BLM recognizes as having wilderness character. Under BLM and Bill Barrett Corp.’s “preferred” alternative, 230 wells – more than a quarter of the total number of project wells – would be drilled in these wild areas. The Desolation Canyon portion of the Green River, one of the West’s most iconic and remote stretches of river, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1969. Because of that designation, the BLM is required to manage the canyon to retain its remote and natural setting.
The West Tavaputs project “preferred alternative” would authorize approximately 800 new natural gas wells over a 20 year period over a 137,000 acre project area in a largely remote and wild corner of east-central Utah. Though the project area has seen limited oil and gas drilling over the past 50 years, the level of development proposed by Bill Barrett Corp. would exponentially exceed the number of wells previously drilled in the area. The vast majority of the project is located on public lands managed on behalf of all Americans by the BLM.
Photographs of the types of cultural resources at risk from the West Tavaputs project can be viewed at SUWA’s website. Also available are electronic copies of comments submitted by various groups and organizations

Protection Efforts on Two Major Rock Art Sites

COALITION TO PRESERVE ROCK ART

Jon Gum 1234 West Red Butte Washington, UT 84780

435-627-1086 exploringrockart@gmail.com

August 8, 2008


This is just a short note to keep you informed of the status of potential damaging actions to two extremely important Utah Rock Art sites.

These sites have been lighted in Southwest Utah as very important issues regarding our preservation efforts.

Regarding Parowan Gap, the following was printed in the URARA’s August Vestiges. As you might guess, we must work hard to gain momentum. From the start, most of us were surprised that the government actions were in process, and yet they did not provide sufficient time to present any meaningful arguments to the actions. Any help or advice would be appreciated, since we will probably fail if we do not receive your support and your communications with the BLM.

Parowan Gap Developments
Jon Gum, Coalition to Preserve Rock Art, http://www.exploringrockart.com/

Can anybody perform miracles? We might need some help.

Citizens were given until June 30, 2008 to answer the EA on oil and gas leasing and potential drilling around The Parowan Gap area, west of Cedar City. We want to protect the Parowan Gap from damage and prevent a Nine-Mile Canyon debacle from occurring in SW Utah.

On July 2, 2008, the public notification of parcels for lease was issued. The government did not give the input from concerned citizens (several letters went in from Coalition to Preserve Rock Art members) a careful reading or perform a thorough management review of the comments received. Some person might have read them, but to my knowledge, they were not categorized and submitted to staff for a serious review. Therefore, we lost to the bureaucracy and the lack of concern regarding cultural resources. In the Parowan Gap case, they gave the interested citizens almost 30 days to respond, noted their responses, and then did what they set out to do, regardless of the input received. We are fortunate that the BLM was stopped at Parowan Gap in January 2007, since it gave us another 18 months to enjoy these cultural resources before the BLM dictated that Parowan Gap would be inflicted with the “Nine-Mile Canyon disease”.
We will request a meeting with the BLM staff in Cedar City. We are also checking the Native American tribes to see if they want a coordinated effort in responding. I hope that other concerned organizations will be involved.

Regarding Nine-Mile Canyon, two articles are attached that discuss a recent lawsuit filed (yesterday) attempting to stop the drilling of 25 wells on which adequate data has not been collected and potential damage to Cultural Resource sites could occur.
Throughout the 2008 RMP process, the failure of BLM to understand in detail the public areas that BLM manages has been highlighted. Anybody who wants to understand the process and the rebuttals offered to concerned citizen and organization RMP responses should request a copy of the CD “Proposed Resource Management Plan and Final Environmental Impact Statement dated August 2008. Many decisions are being made without serious study and without knowledge of the areas being managed. In most cases, you (the citizens who hike, who explore, and spend time in the wilderness areas) are much more informed that the BLM personnel. That’s unfortunate, since BLM should learn from those who have experienced the “land”. Without that knowledge base, they will continue to make irrational decisions.

Please review the two attachments. Several organizations are working together to impact a recent BLM decision that could effect some of our Cultural Resources and their efforts should be supported.

Thanks, next time I will catch up on some other activities in SW Utah,

Jon