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ARRWA Archives - Page 7 of 13
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April 11th, 2014Read More »
We expected bad, but this is far worse.
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November 8th, 2013
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH—The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) and IACX Energy, Dallas, TX, announced today that they have reached an agreement regarding IACX’s planned helium development in Emery County, Utah. The agreement was reached in advance of any appeals or litigation and resolves concerns raised by SUWA regarding the impacts of development of the potential helium resource on the Lost Spring Wash proposed wilderness area.
“This agreement gives SUWA certainty about the impacts that helium development may have to the Lost Spring Wash proposed wilderness area,” said Stephen Bloch, Legal Director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. “We appreciate that IACX was willing to sit down with us and negotiate an agreement that protects an important public landscape.”
“We are pleased to have reached an agreement with SUWA that allows IACX to proceed with this strategically important helium project. IACX appreciates that while the U.S. urgently needs more helium, developers must earn the social license to operate on federal lands. It made good business sense to listen to the many stakeholders who care about the management of these lands and find a middle ground that allows for the timely development of helium,” said Scott Sears, the company president. IACX uses proprietary processes to capture and purify helium at lower pressures and ambient temperatures. The company recently commenced operations on another helium project at Harley Dome, Utah.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is analyzing IACX’s proposal to drill a helium test well on a location previously disturbed by natural gas development. If successful, IACX hopes to drill two additional test wells in the vicinity. IACX’s activities are located in the Woodside Dome field and in an area that was classified as United States Helium Reserve #1 by President Calvin Coolidge in 1924.
Helium is an indispensable commodity for many high tech uses including MRI machines, semiconductor manufacturing, the NASA program and fiber optics.
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July 30th, 2013Read More »
Here’s what is happening this month with the redrock:
1. The Utah state legislature’s anti-federal government campaign hits a brick wall called the U.S. Constitution.
2. Take action for wild Utah this summer!
3. SUWA’s annual Backyard Bash celebrates our community of citizen activists.
4. The BLM has a lot of bad ideas for Utah public lands.
5. Our challenge to a Bush-era land use plan is finally heard in court. -
July 1st, 2013
The BLM’s Monticello Field Office recently capitulated to pressure from San Juan County and ceded control and management of public lands for four rights-of-way for new off-road vehicle (ORV) trails on Cedar Mesa.
Lower Grand Gulch, copyright Robert Fillmore.
Recall that in 2008 the BLM designated routes across public lands in southern Utah, effectively ending the out-dated and ridiculous policy of unrestricted cross-country travel. Although the BLM’s travel plan for public lands in San Juan County isn’t perfect (SUWA has a pending legal challenge to the travel plan in federal court), it is a big improvement over the unmitigated chaos of cross-country travel.
However, even though the BLM designated more than 3,000 miles of routes and trails in San Juan County, it was nevertheless too few for the fanatical road cultists there. And, inexplicably, the BLM rolled over, giving the county rights-of-way to build new ORV trails on Cedar Mesa. The new trails will connect ORV routes on the east side of Cedar Mesa with routes on the west side of Cedar Mesa, thereby allowing ORV riders to “travel back and forth” between the two areas more conveniently!
Wrongheaded
Two of the new rights-of-way bisect lands in America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, places even the BLM agrees are of wilderness caliber. The BLM’s decision to allow new ORV routes in these areas effectively negates the wilderness and roadless character of large tracts of land. It would have been bad enough for the BLM to merely designate and add these new ORV trails on Cedar Mesa to the agency’s travel plan. But it defies logic why the BLM would hand over management and control of public lands to the county by granting rights-of-way for these ORV trails. What’s more, these rights-of-way can be renewed after 20 years, ad infinitum, effectively giving the county ownership of these routes in perpetuity.
It boils down to this: The BLM is legally responsible for protecting archaeology and natural resources on our public lands; beyond argument, ORV use results in increased vandalism and looting of archaeological sites, degrades water quality and stream functioning, increases soil erosion and fragments wildlife. With this in mind, it makes little sense to allow San Juan County to chainsaw old-growth juniper trees to bulldoze new routes across roadless wildlands in areas with some of the richest archaeology on the planet. Yet that’s exactly what the BLM has done.
There’s more
San Juan County has additional ORV rights-of-way requests in the queue – one in Indian Creek and the other in Recapture Canyon. Please ask the Utah State BLM Director to stand up to the pressure from San Juan County and deny the county’s request for ORV rights-of-way in Indian Creek and Recapture Canyon.
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June 27th, 2013Read More »
Here’s what is happening this month with the redrock:
1. Don’t let the BLM sacrifice Labyrinth Canyon for fertilizer!
2. Support in the Senate for protecting Utah wilderness is on the rise.
3. Educators tell Utah legislators they are chasing imaginary unicorns.
4. Moab residents discuss the Greater Canyonlands National Monument proposal.
5. Join us for SUWA’s annual Backyard Bash this July!