Groups sue over BLM leases

Three environmental groups have filed suit against the Bureau of Land Management, claiming an oil and gas lease sale in 2004 violated federal protections.

The action was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court, Salt Lake City, by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, based in Salt Lake City; Natural Resources Defense Council, headquartered in New York City; and The Wilderness Society, based in Washington, D.C. Defendants are the Interior Department, BLM and acting Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett.

It challenges the leasing of 28 parcels among 219 leased at the time. The 28, largely in eastern Utah, amount to 35,000 acres. They include areas in Desolation Canyon on the Green River, the Book Cliffs southern slope, Bull Canyon south of Dinosaur National Monument, and near the White River.

"A BLM press release issued immediately after the sale identified (it) . . . as the largest in terms of acreage offered and revenue collected in Utah BLM history," says the suit.

The environmentalists argue, "In its hurry to lease public lands, the BLM has ignored important environmental and cultural laws requiring it to 'look before it leaps,' and to fully evaluate, analyze and disclose the impacts" of leasing and development.

The 28 leases were issued in September 2004 "without adequate environmental analysis, without cultural review and consultation, and without appropriate protec- tive lease applications."

Some of the areas are among "the wildest and most spectacularly beautiful public lands in the United States," it adds. They are "internationally renowned as being among America's unique treasures."

Between 1996 and 1999, the BLM compiled new information and concluded that many of these sites possess wilderness characteristics, meaning they were in natural condition with little or no evidence of the presence of man, and offered "outstanding opportunities for solitude and for primitive and unconfined recreation" in the terms of the Wilderness Act.

"The BLM has never considered the effects of oil and gas development on the wilderness values of these lands," the suit adds. "It is this and other new information that BLM must consider — but has not done so — before leasing these lands."

The action seeks a declaration that defendants violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act, as well as implementing regulations. It asks that the court order the leases to be rescinded and that the court prohibit the BLM from re-offering the leases until it has conducted additional environmental analysis.

The suit was assigned to U.S. District Judge Dale A. Kimball.

"No one's had a chance to see the lawsuit" and so the agency could not comment immediately, a BLM spokeswoman said late Tuesday.

---

E-mail: bau@desnews.com