Lease accord for lake bed pleases all parties

The upshot of the negotiations is that out of the amount challenged, about 55,000 acres will be subjected to oil and gas leases, including lake bed property near the Spiral Jetty. Some of the tract leases were signed Tuesday by the division.

This property is north of the railroad causeway across the lake and west of Promontory Point, Grierson said. Before drilling can take place, the lease-holders must go before the Division of Oil, Gas and Mining and ask for a permit.

"They still have hoops to go through," he said. The lease-holders will have to convince regulators that their operation will not have detrimental impacts on the lake's ecology.

Meanwhile, "a total of 50 tracts are not going to lease, and that constitutes about 116,000 acres," he said.

Also, the written agreement says the division "shall reconsider and reissue the Great Salt Lake Mineral Leasing Plan of June 27, 1996, as part of (its) Great Salt Lake planning effort."

The review will involve collecting suggestions and proposals from the public as well as federal and state agencies to determine the impact of and appropriateness of mineral leasing at the lake. Until the review is completed, additional leasing in the area is on hold.

"We're going to re-look the management plan in the future and see if it needs to be revised or amended," Springer said.

Phelan commented, "It's important to consider the long-term implication of oil and gas development in the bed of the Great Salt Lake, and that consideration should include how valuable it really is to the extractive industry in relation to how valuable it is to the citizens of Utah."

The review, Phelan added, will be "a real opportunity for the public to voice their concerns" about leasing or developing the lake's bed.

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