Battle brews over Kennecott land purchase of Rose Canyon

HERRIMAN — A battle may be brewing over a pristine canyon just outside of Herriman. Some neighbors and environmental activists are upset about a deal by Kennecott to buy county-owned open space and possibly mine it.

"Why pollute more?" asked Bill Coon, who lives in nearby Hi-Country Estates. "Why risk the health of other people?"

Salt Lake County bought the land in Rose Canyon three years ago, specifically to preserve it as open space. But Kennecott Utah Copper has a winning trump card: mineral rights to the same property. County officials knew there was a risk it might be dug up some day, but they went through with the purchase in 2007.

"We believed that Kennecott had done research in the area before and that they hadn't found anything that was promising," said Julie Peck-Dabling, open space program manager for Salt Lake County.

Kennecott recently surveyed the property with aerial magnetic imaging and concluded there might be minerals underground that would be worth going after.

"The next phase is drilling," said Kennecott spokeswoman Jana Kettering. "After that, depending on what we find through drilling, we'll determine where we go from there."

Once Kennecott got interested in exploring the land for minerals, there wasn't really much the county could have done to stop them. "Since they have the subsurface rights, their rights really usurp the surface owner's rights," said Peck-Dabling.

"We do have the right to go after that," Kettering said. "But we did want to keep the county whole in the open space purchase. That's why we agreed to purchase the land."

Kennecott agreed to buy 832 acres for $5,345,000, about a million dollars more than the county paid for the land three years ago. That profit may help the county achieve a larger goal of finishing up land acquisition to complete the Jordan River Parkway.

"We get a million dollars more to buy more open space," Peck-Dabling said. "This property (in Rose Canyon) will stay open. So we feel it's very beneficial for the residents."

But the land will stay open only if Kennecott decides against major mining or disposal activities on the land. Some residents a couple of miles away in Hi-Country Estates worry about Kennecott's long-term plan.

"The largest concern we have here is the health concerns from dust, from pollution, groundwater pollution, our aquifer being polluted," said Coon.