Most violations have been fixed — especially after Marion Energy replaced drilling equipment on Jan. 23 and the drill supervisors on March 8, Springer said.

Both the equipment and workers are contracted by Marion.

The camp is on 600 acres in the Clear Creek area of the Manti Mountains, two miles south of the resort town of Scofield.

Marion leases mineral rights from Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration and other owners of subsurface rights in the area.

Marion is drilling diagonally to an underground reserve of natural gas, and will pay SITLA and other subsurface owners 12.5 percent of the revenue it receives selling natural gas to a pipeline company, said LaVonne Garrison, SITLA's assistant director for oil and gas.

In 2005, the school district denied Marion's request to begin drilling but later hammered out an agreement with the energy company after learning of a provision in state law that would allow Marion to work with SITLA to begin drilling.

The agreement allowed the district to maintain some control of the drilling. Specifically, the district was able to prevent drilling in an environmentally sensitive canyon.

The district steered Marion to the current site, which is less harmful to the environment, said Rob Smith, Alpine School District business administrator.

While the state regulates the fenced, 2-acre drilling site, it appears that state law does not specifically address safety issues for the area around the site.

As the school district and energy company discussed an agreement for the drilling, "safety of children was evident in all discussions but not referenced in the agreement, only that the operator was liable for all items resulting from negligence," Smith said.

In the land-use agreement, Marion Energy is allowed to drill two holes from its rig and continue drilling until it finds gas.

The school district negotiated to receive from Marion Energy $4,000 for any damages to the land, Smith said.

The agreement also states that Marion is to clear several areas of the district's property for future expansion of the camp, and construct and maintain a secondary access road to the drilling site, Smith said

Marion Energy also is to provide Clear Creek students with educational materials about oil and gas drilling and host a field trip for students in the summer program to nearby wells.

The educational materials and field trip have not yet been provided.

However, in a Jan. 29 letter to the school district from Keri Clarke, a Marion vice president, the company stated it was preparing an educational brochure that will be easy for children to understand. The company also proposed field trips after the winter season.

"We're not tree huggers," said camp principal Boyd McAffee said. "We're not the Sierra Club. We visit the (nearby coal) mine. But what this is is an embarrassment to what we're trying to teach (students)."

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com