Another article submitted by coldrum, dealing with the gas drilling problem and the pulling of the leases for new expansion:
The rock carving is a crude but evocative image. Chipped out of sandstone at least 800 years ago, the scene depicts bow hunters moving in on a herd of longhorn sheep, a poignant tableau of survival and ritual.
This fascinating petroglyph has endured the elements for centuries in what is now eastern Utah, but its future is less certain.
Every day scores of industrial trucks chug through Nine Mile Canyon. They kick up plumes of dust that archaeologists say are damaging thousands of prehistoric carvings and paintings crafted by some of North America’s earliest inhabitants -- the Fremont culture, the Utes and others who lived here more than 1,000 years ago.
“When industry came in, it just beat that road to death,” says Miller. The dust can rise 100 feet or more above the valley floor, but a light snowfall the previous night has made this day mostly dust-free. The industry in question is natural-gas extraction. While salient environmental impact appears to be restricted to the unsightly drilling sites, dust clouds kicked up by trucks are fouling the entire area.
The canyon is a patchwork of private and public lands, much of the latter under the aegis of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which has to balance the needs of often conflicting interests, such as energy developers and anthropologists.
Not all needs are equal: The bureau’s mineral-leasing activities generate about $5 billion a year, making it one of the most lucrative agencies in the U.S. government.
“Our group doesn’t oppose the gas development, we just oppose what’s happening to the canyon,” says Miller. “We think they can get everything they want out of there without destroying the place.” She recommends a thorough repair of the access road, and a more rigorous assessment of the environmental consequences of energy extraction.
The principal villain here is Denver-based Bill Barrett Corp., which has gobbled up 47,000 acres of the canyon, and is vying to drill some 800 wells on more than 500 sites, a project that may take at least 25 years.
The energy company does take umbrage at the suggestion that it ignores environmental impact. “We have spent literally millions on mitigation and protection measures,” says spokesman Jim Felton.
Environmentalists and rock-art lovers won one battle in February: U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar halted gas leases on 77 parcels of land covering 132,000 acres in the area, perhaps presaging a new paradigm in Washington. However, the leases, which the Bush administration had tried to squeak through in December, could be revived yet.
On another front, Miller’s coalition is currently suing the land-management agency to block what it says are loopholes allowing commercial interests to benefit from activities on federal lands without fully owning up to the environmental impact.
For more, see the article by Mike Di Paola at bloomberg.com.
Something is not right. This message is just to keep things from messing up down the road