Kanab rally targets Divine Strake

About 30 residents of Kanab rallied on Saturday to express their concerns over the federal government's plan to detonate 700-tons of non-nuclear explosives in the Nevada desert, about 130 miles northwest of St. George.

"Some of the people who came had just moved to the area and had no idea this was going on," said Karen Tobin, who organized the meeting about the proposed blast called Divine Strake. "We also had a lot of locals who have lived here for decades come out to support us."

Residents listened to St. George downwinder Michele Thomas and Mike Empey, who represents Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, in southern Utah. A petition against the proposed test was also signed by those who attended, Tobin said.

The federal Defense Threat Reduction Agency postponed the massive blas, first scheduled June 2 and then June 23 — after the public and political representatives in Utah, Nevada and Arizona raised numerous health and safety concerns.

DTRA officials recently cited concerns that summer lightning could detonate the explosive mix of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil slurry. The agency plans to gather data about ground motion and shock waves in hardened and deeply buried targets from the experiment. Critics say the explosion would loosen and release contaminants from previous nuclear tests conducted near the proposed blast site