Air quality problems plague Uintah Basin

"Air pollution monitors recently installed in the Uintah Basin measured ozone concentrations exceeding federal health standards more than 68 times in the first three months of 2010, according to U.S. EPA data. On one day in January and two days in February, recorded ozone levels were nearly twice the federal health standard of 75 parts per billion.

'We think these ozone issues in the Uintah Basin call into question the justification for the BLM moving ahead to analyze or approve these sorts of projects,' said Steve Bloch, conservation director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance."  Read more – NYTimes

Living in two Utah worlds

"I keep looking for common ground in both my homes—and one place that I’ve found it has been the “Faith and the Land” initiative brilliantly facilitated by Terri Martin and Deeda Seed at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.  That conversation about the spiritual importance of wilderness in 11 faith communities led to an interfaith statement on wilderness delivered to the Utah congressional delegation on the eve of Earth Day in 2009.  The interfaith statement became part of the hearing record last fall when the House Resource Committee turned its attention to America’s Redrock Wilderness Act for the first time ever in the United States Congress."  Commentary by Stephen Trimble

Second legal challenge over tar sands mine

"Living Rivers, a Moab-based water quality group has appealed the approval of Earth Energy Resources' 62-acre mine by the Utah Department of Oil, Gas and Mining. Attorneys with Western Resource Advocates are representing Living Rivers in the appeal, scheduled for hearing December 8. This appeal follows an earlier challenge to the mine from the Sierra Club and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, which resulted in a second permitting process."  Read more – High Country News