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3 groups are suing to protect petroglyphs
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Maybe this is why the Democrats think drilling won't help--because even if it's legal, it won't actually be allowed because of the (broken) court system.
How old does graffiti have to be before it's considered "art". And how long before it's considered "valuable prehistoric art treasures"?
How do we tell the difference between "significant art" and graffiti?
I'm quite sure this "rock art" could be protected with the amount of money this group is spending to stir up trouble. And we could still drill for the gas.
Meanwhile, I'm going to suggest to our community that they are covering up potential historic art treasures and they better stop!
I also wonder how many of these complainers ride their bikes to observe all of these treasures ... or do they just dive their carbon emitting vehicles like the rest of us.
Environmentalist are the biggest group of hypocrites ... if they were really dedicated they wouldn't use any natural resources ... then there would be more for the rest of us.
What's the definition of an environmentalist ... someone who built their cabin last year.
I think the company wanting the permit is Questar but if you wan to make some investments in these companies look at GSX or ROYL. They are both going to make some UT NG money.
Don't know that will ever happen but this country must have the sense to sensibly and carefully develop our natural resources. Otherwise we're doomed to be forever held hostage by foreign energy producers.
Let's get a pool among us and sue the sue'ers.
I'm tired of the eco-nuts getting in the way of progress.
What's more important here? Humans or rock art??
All these groups are asking for is RESPONSIBLE energy development within the law.
Also rereading your comment, I sense a touch of envy with a side of arrogance, i.e.: "...Utah seem even more stupid...", it should be "...Utah seem even more stupidier..."
But Justin, you may have just inadvertently uncovered part of the problem with industry in the canyon. If you've been in Nine Mile for more than ten years and still think that all of the rock art is more than a 100 feet from the road you're sadly mistaken as a significant number of rock art panels are within a couple of yards of it - with some being quite literally on it - especially at the mouth of Harmon Canyon where the road was recently widened.
Like I said before, the dust would quite literally settle on this issue once and for all if an alternative route is taken.
What people call graffiti is some of the last remnants of a once great people, a people that could survive on the resources available to them. Many sites are sacred and a way to connect to ancestral ways. Some are or were burial sites. I�m sure if we trampled so carelessly over our graveyards, history, and spiritual sites it would not be tolerated. This is a treasure worth fussing over.
2-Nine Mile Road was built by Buffalo Soldiers in the 1860's and soon became the most highly travelled road in the state. 100's of Buffalo Soldiers and freighters wrote their names in axle grease on the canyon walls to document their passing.
3-The canyon contains more than 10,000 rockart images of which less than 10% have been recorded.
National Geographic calls it the "World's Longest Art Gallery"
4-People have lived in the canyon and documented their lives on its walls for at least 8,000 years.
5-9Mile and the Tavaputs Plateau have some of the largest elk, black bear and cougar populations in the state.
6-9Mile Canyon is a sister canyon to Range Creek (famous for its well preserved archaeology) but actually contains a significantly higher number of rock art panels
7-Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch frequented the Canyon.
8-Preston Nutter - one of the West's most powerful cattle barrons - was centered in the Canyon
9-Utah's newest license plate features a petroglyph from Nine Mile
Can you eat an artifact?
So what makes 9 mile so special?
Should we all go out and Paint on the walls, is that it?
The place could become a landfill, and it would not affect me.
Rock art is merely old graffity, the U.S. flag just an over exposed piece of fabric and the Star Spangled Banner just another old melodramtic song that no one care really sing. Don't you people get it? It's what these things represent that make them important to us - human pain, suffering, sacrifice and the spirit and determination to triumph. Each society simply has a different way of expressing themselves and it's foolish, selfish and short-sighted to lose respect for the accomplishments made by those who came before us and made our way of life possible.
Well, that's about as good of an idea as we have here with drilling in Nile Mile. The only difference is that Nine Mile Canyon should have been made a national monument... and there wouldn't be any of this discussion.
You should really go see it before all the rock art by the road is covered and obscured by dust.
For the record it will affect electiciity and heating and transportation fuel cost. Demand for CNG is on the rise as we get more CNG vehicles and more coal fired power plants switch to it. That will make it less attractive to pay the extra to purchase a CNG or electric vehicle. Current Utah price is about 98 cents per gasoline gallon equivalent while it is @2.89 gge in Colorado and $5.40 in North Carolina. Currently there is enough demand that the existing stations have trouble keeping up with it. They have to compress it to about 3,400 psi and that takes awhile between customers so even with as few CNG vehicles as there are on the road now, often you can only get a quarter to a half tank when you stop in.
You can buy small compressors for home use for an additional $6,000 and it can fill it if you can wait 18 hrs for 8 gge on a Honda but that adds an additional 20 cents for electricity and $2.38 depreciation on the pump per gallon.
On the up side, Google methane hydrate. Maybe some good things coming down the road. ;-)
Does anyone know what the additional distance is on this proposed alternate route?
Does anyone know if that would stop all the legal battles or would it just shift to some other topic to maintain this moronatorium?
The Sunnyside route has also been offred. It is an existing industrial (mining) road that heads east from Sunnyside to the Tavaputs. The citizens of Sunnyside and East Carbon want this route to be used because it will help their struggling economies, but Carbon County won't push it. So as it is, ALL of the drilling is in Carbon County, but MOST of the workers go home to Duchesne County. If the Carbon County commissioners were smart they'd force the issue and infuse their community with more jobs/money.
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Someone needs to just get off their behinds and get parts of the canyon paved. Until then, I have to agree with the 9 Mile Coalition. The traffic in the canyon can only double or triple, with the number of new wells that are being proposed.