Canyon watchdogs defend art and air

NINE MILE CANYON — They're a little like doting fathers, fussing over human and animal forms that exist as pictographs and petroglyphs on rock faces near the sides of dirt roads that snake through this canyon in Carbon and Duchesne counties.

During a trip this week into the canyon, Steve Tanner and Ivan White speculated on the latest form of dust suppressant being laid down on the road as they checked on the health of Indian rock-art panels that are hundreds of years old. The suppressant is the current solution to keeping down the dust from industrial traffic in the canyon.

Tanner and White are both retired and live in Price. As members of the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition, they are avid watchdogs of the canyon, and they are well-known by the Bureau of Land Management and local, county and state officials. During the past few years, most of the two men's attention has been focused on the BLM, which has a big say in Colorado-based Bill Barrett Corp.'s current proposal to drill 800 natural-gas wells over the next eight years on the west Tavaputs Plateau above the canyon.

Barrett Corp. has ceased trying to maintain a relationship with the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition, due to ongoing lawsuits. And Tanner is proud of being thought of as an "obstructionist" by the company.

When it comes to Barrett's ongoing dust-control efforts, Tanner and White are worried about how ingredients in the suppressants will impact the art and environment. The problem is the road through the canyon, Tanner said as he and White drove the route this week.

"This is the demon, right here," Tanner said.

Tanner describes it as a good demon for its path to viewing the canyon's stunning art collection. But aggravate the demon with more and more truck traffic, which is the case these days, and the road for Tanner becomes a bad demon, a means to what he fears is a possible end to some of the art panels.

Tourists and trucks from the oil and gas industry, which has found the surrounding area above the canyon to be rich in resources, now share the road.

Tanner likes to bring a radar gun into the canyon and record vehicle speeds, which gets him in the occasional dust up with drivers. The posted speed limit in many places is 25 mph, which people appeared to ignore as the two men drove on Monday. White takes pictures of any car or truck that rumbles down the road during one of their frequent canyon visits.

If Tanner and White are not in the canyon, they're reading about it or looking at pictures of its famed outdoor museum of etchings and paintings left behind centuries ago by different groups of American Indians that inhabited the canyon and eventually disappeared.