Deseret News | Canyon watchdogs defend art and air

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Canyon watchdogs defend art and air

liberal Larry | 6:42 a.m. Sept. 18, 2008

The drillers are destroying the canyon road, scaring off tourists, creating air pollution, and when all this is done they are going to transport the natural gas out of state. Has any one done an analysis of the net benefit, to the citizens of Utah from all this drilling?

I hope Tanner, and White, keep up the good work, it's nice to see people in Utah who really love this beautiful state.

Geezer | 7:32 a.m. Sept. 18, 2008

Keep up the good work, Steve and Ivan and everybody in the coalition. Nine Mile is another of Utah's great assets that was not appreciated when decisions were made to hand it over to development.

Paul | 8:02 a.m. Sept. 18, 2008

As they said in a report today on another paper's site, drilling the gas and building the new pipelines to ship it out of Utah just means higher prices for us. The State and Carbon County get their chunk of change. The rest of us? The bill.

Build the loop or pave parts of the road. Get the traffic out of the Canyon.

Comments continue below

You guys | 8:06 a.m. Sept. 18, 2008

You guys don't know squat!! Get a life, before you
decide to become an expert on something you know
nothing about.

NO more BS | 8:25 a.m. Sept. 18, 2008

Bill Barrett Corp is running TV ads that scare people into supporting their project by making them think that their project will keep natural gas prices low here in Utah. Duane Zavadil, a Bill Barret Corp rep has now admitted that nearly all of the gas from the Tavaputs will be sent out of state and while it may help lower prices elsewhere we should expect prices to rise here (check the other local paper for details). Meanwhile we're sacrificing a priceless treasure to make a private corporation rich and as we've learned recently we can't even rely on the government agencies in charge of tracking royalties to know what they're doing. Just another example of Corporate Greed trumping what's good for the public!

Anonymous | 8:33 a.m. Sept. 18, 2008

Maybe with the recent reports of the Interior Department literally being in bed with the Oil & Gas industry and now their inability to track royalties owed to US citizens like you and me, some light may shine of how the Price BLM Office is catering to the Bill Barrett Corp in Nine Mile Canyon. When did the people of Utah stop taking pride in our state and our natural resources and be willing to sell out to private interests for a buck or two? Wake up Utah - Nine Mile Canyon can be preserved AND we can extract natural gas from the area in a safe and responsible manner - we just need our government to assure that all sides of the issue are taken into account.

Danielle | 8:51 a.m. Sept. 18, 2008

Instead of complaining about dust damaging the rock art how about stopping the people that destroy it. I have been to nine mile canyon and there is so much graffiti that stupid people done. They have carved their own "rock art" over the original historic rock art. These people need to be caught and punished to the full extent of the law. I don't believe for a second that a little or a lot of dust is going to destroy something that has been there for hundreds of years. What happens when the wind blows? It creates dust, imagine that. I'm pretty sure that wind has been around since the creation of the rock art. It's going to take a substantial amount of dust to even make the slightest dent.

Chad | 9:19 a.m. Sept. 18, 2008

Here is a question...why is graffiti from indians hundreds of years ago worth protecting, but graffiti from today is vile garbage that requires the punishment of the perpetrator?

Food for thought...

@Danielle | 9:24 a.m. Sept. 18, 2008

Recent archaeological re-evaluations of rock art sites in Nine Mile Canyon show that there has actually been very little "graffiti" added since earlier surveys were done in the early 1990's and 1970's. What has been documented (through photos) is a much thicker coating of dust, corrosive enough on its own but even more so now that it also contains the dust suppressant magnesium chloride. A recent study by Constance Silver - a rock art conservator hired by the BLM - shows that the increased dust and mag-chloride are indeed hastening the destruction of these thousand year old sites. And sure, the wind has always blown and stirred up dust, but, sorry, you're foolish to argue that the additional dust created by 200 daily round trips by 18 wheelers (over many many years)is not significant. AGAIN, the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition isn't against BBC's drilling - only the use of the this National Scenic Back Country Byway being used as their access route.

Paul | 12:29 p.m. Sept. 18, 2008

Another thing to consider is that graffiti from as long as 100 years ago documented travel and life of people who had to really work to get places. Nowadays, any idiot can travel the whole State of Utah in a matter of days. Graffiti today has absolutely no significance. Graffiti from the past had cultural meaning as well as showing who passed by.

Silly Billy | 2:42 p.m. Sept. 18, 2008

65% of the economy in the area is from oil & gas activity. How can you say there is no economic positives for the State of Utah when thousands of people living in the state feed their families because of it? Utah collects on the production taxes and all of the income taxes of the thousands of employees working in the area. Bill Barrett paid the BLM millions to lease the mineral rights, and will pay the federal government 12.5-20% royalties for the production life of each well. The only reason that it is shipped out of state is because there is an abundance of natural gas in the rocky mountains and they can earn the federal government, state government, county government, and all of those thousands of employees more money by shipping it to places that need more natural gas.

I can't believe that you would want thousands of unemployed people just to save some rock pictures.

DR Don | 4:14 p.m. Sept. 18, 2008

All the more reason to pave the road through the canyon.

@Silly Billy | 5:10 p.m. Sept. 18, 2008

Thank you Steve and Ivan - I'm glad someone's watching over the BLM considering all of the other mishaps with the Dept of the Interior. Great work!

And to Silly Billy - who says anyone wants to take away jobs? Bill Barrett Corp has already build nearly 200 miles of new roads on the plateau so why not finish the job and use an alternative route? And Silly Billy, that would actually involve employe even MORE people.

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Mike Terry, Deseret News

A dirt road in Nine Mile Canyon has recently been treated with Pennzsuppress, a dust suppressant and soil stabilizer. The Nine Mile Canyon Coalition, a watchdog group, believes dust from truck traffic will harm the American Indian rock art found in dozens of locations in the canyon. The coalition is also suspicious of the dust-suppressant treatment, fearing it can harm the environment.

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