Utah Division of Water Quality director Walt Baker said officials "don't have a smoking gun" for the foaming, which was spotted March 12 by a visitor at the Ouray National Wildlife Refuge in the Uinta Basin and reported to the BLM.

"We don't know if it was man-caused or a naturally occurring phenomenon," Baker said.

A breakdown in communication between state agencies kept DWQ out of the loop until Monday, which made collecting samples and testing less effective, he said.

The tests conducted at the Utah Division of Laboratory Services showed no elevated concentrations of substances or chemicals that would be harmful to the ecosystem or to the public, Baker said.

"We're continuing to study things and taking samples," he said.

State water-quality officials originally suspected that fluids from drilling operations in the area may have been discharged in the river, Baker said.

"There are foaming agents in some of the drilling fluids they use," he said. "It would be illegal to discharge those compounds into the waters of the state. They contain diesel fuel or other harmful compounds that would be bad for the environment."

Baker said there's no evidence suggesting drilling fluid was the cause of the foaming, "but we haven't categorically ruled that out."

It's common for foaming to occur on the river in spring when increased runoff transports decomposing plants, leaves and algae — and the fatty acids they contain — to streams and rivers, Baker said.

"Because we weren't able to be there on site, see (the foaming), capture it and test it in the field under a microscope, we may never know what caused it," he said.

Court overturns approvals for logging in southern Utah

Associated Press

A federal appeals court reversed plans for big timber sales on national forest land in southern Utah.

The logging would have produced enough timber to fill a line of logging trucks bumper-to-bumper from Salt Lake City to Provo, according to the Utah Environmental Congress, a coalition of conservation groups that sued to block the sales.

The U.S. Forest Service had approved the logging in a decision upheld by U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell, but it was overturned Wednesday by the Denver-based 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

"We've stopped the most destructive logging here, and protected thousands of acres of forest for the critters," said Sarah Tal, attorney for the Utah Environmental Congress.