Mining oil sand may hurt protected land

Oil companies and landowners are looking at whether there's money to be made from Utah's oil sands, while environmentalists are more focused on the potential impacts of an oil chase in and around some of the state's wilderness areas.

As part of a daylong Western U.S. Oil Sands Conference on Thursday, several groups spoke about the technical, legal and financial issues connected to mining oil sands, or tar sands, for the production of petroleum products.

The meeting at the University of Utah began with discussion about the environment where potential oil-sands development could occur. Those areas include portions of Canyonlands, Arches and Capitol Reef national parks and two national monuments.

"These are some of the crown jewels of America's public lands," said Stephen Bloch, an attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

Bloch demonstrated what open-pit mining of oil sands and on-site refining of the resulting oil would look like, using blown-up photos of current operations in Alberta, Canada, as his backdrop. He contrasted those photos with pictures of Utah's red rock country and unique geologic formations, and he implied that areas like those could sustain "significant" environmental damage.

When Bloch questioned whether Utah's oil sands contained enough oil to economically justify mining and refining, one audience member shouted, "That's non- sense."

Even so, it's up for debate just how much oil there is for the taking. One estimate puts the amount between 12 billion and 20 billion barrels, of which only a certain percentage may be recoverable, Bloch said.

He also highlighted the possible negative socioeconomic impacts of mining oil sands on a large scale, which he said could result in a large influx of workers that could create shortages in housing, education and law enforcement.

Advocates of oil-sands mining said new technologies may impact how much oil could be recovered, and more environmentally-friendly extraction processes exist today.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service biologist Diana Whittington said the mining was at least "doable." Several resources are available to help those with oil-sands interests make sure they are complying with federal and state laws that govern protection of endangered or threatened plant and animal species.

"We're going to have to work closely together to figure out how to do it," she said. "Get in touch with us early."

When one audience member asked if open-pit mining of oil sands was possible in Utah, Whittington replied, "It depends on where you want to put it."

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E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com