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The Swell is in the top 5 of my favorite places to wander. I think BLM is doing a good job managing the area, especially considering that they barely get any money to do it.
If anything, the SRS should be designated as a National Monument and left to BLM to manage like GSENM. Or just designate the wilderness areas once and for all, though we all know the Utah Congressional delegation will never let that happen.
The SRS might make President's Obama's monument list in January, 2017 if he's reelected. But most folks I know this it's okay just like it is now. I tend to agree with them.
Kurt, thanks for a comprehensive story that obviously required a whole lot of work. But this is Utah -- and there's COAL and maybe OIL beneath that beauty.
Remember Utah's environmental motto: Multiply, multiply and pillage the earth.
Tha San Rafael Swell is magnificant and it would be a disgrace if anyone was ever allowed to ruin it's majasty.
That said, this world needs habitat for rare plants and animals set asside permenantly right now. Ancient trees and lots of them, whole forests, millions of acres, to protect species that are endangered right now, in harms way, living on land that will be exploited and divided into islands of habitat that will not function as whole forests do.
The whole Earth will benifit from protected forests and the oxygen they give us, the clean water they provide.
The San Rafael Swell is magnificant, but there's not much oxygen or water being made there.
The Tongas, the Maine Woods, the Klamath Siskiyou Forests are endangered right now, and they are as essential to life on Earth as the Amazon. Don't overlook necessity and the emmense beauty of vast forests while, by it's sheer desolation, the San Rafael desert protects itself.
www.ancientforestnationalpark.org
Lee - I recent took a trip which had me cross Utah twice - 70 to 15 to 80 going west and then Route 50 (named the Loneliest Highway in the US) going east. Some years back I also took the southern route through Four Corners. I didn't see an oil or gas rig, coal mine or "pillaging" of any kind on all three legs. Heck the only civilization was in the Provo/Salt Lake City corridor. I have traveled to nearly every state in the union and Utah is one of (if not) the least developed or exploited in the country. Your whining has no basis.
Driving through a state hardly constitutes any form of evidence of a state's development of it's land. This could mean that you are unobservant, that Utah makes new dirt roads away from highways to build oil and gas rigs, and many other possibilities. Most other states also don't have places like Zions, Canyonlands, Bryce, and Capitol Reef, whose fragile landscapes are easily destroyed but not easily mended. No basis? Think again
I've certainly been through Utah a few times. It's actually pretty hard to miss all the mining going on there. I remember going from SLC to Price (where we stayed overnight) and then to Moab. I would have thought it would have been pretty hard to miss all the open pit mines. At the Holiday Inn in Price, there were people in the lobby openly going over mine plans. We also went to a local store for supplies, and the local BLM mining office was right there.
Anon, I suggest you try living in Utah and listen to some of the nonsense that comes from our loonislature and their development buddies.
As for mining evidence visible from the Interstates, you'll only need to drive a few miles off any of them to find all you want. And if you did indeed drive through the Four Corners area off any of the main roads, you had to have been driving with your eyes closed. (How on earth do you that?)
Your claims have no basis because you simply haven't taken the time to investigate very carefully at all.
Lee, If you drive for an hour or two and don't see a single structure on the state's two major highways and you think your state is being pillaged? You are the one driving blind. Oh, that's right, you don't drive because that would use products from evil "big oil".
It has been 10-15 years since I did the Four Corners route, perhaps things have changed there but there certainly was no pillaging when I was there. Next to Nevada, Utah would appear to be one of the least developed states in the country
Appearances can be deceiving, Anon. Come out here. Spend some time. Learn more.
Remember, there are wise, sound, less harmful ways to use our resources properly. That's all any of on this side of the fence are asking.
Back to the topic at hand...It would be great if the area got Wilderness designation. But at least the WSA's help protect the land in the interim. I, for one, don't think it should be made a National Park. If the BLM is managing the area well and protecting it, then why change it?
The Park Service is stretched thin as it is. They also tend to over-develop their lands to make them accessible to everyone. A surprising portion of National Park visitors only come to get their stamp or drive through. They spend an hour, simply so they can check ‘seeing’ another National Park off their to-do list. Would increasing this type of visitation to the San Rafael Swell help it at all?
This is a special place, however, the National Park Service aren’t the only ones who can care for it properly.
All one needs to do is read the history of Utah towns or even look at the names of two counties to get a better idea. Would there be a "Carbon County" without extensive coal mining? Or "Iron County" without iron mining. Moab and Park City are historic mining towns.
Yeah - there are wide swaths of nothingness, but the state does have lots and lots of open pit mines throughout.
So in your opinion, Moab and Park City are "pillaged"?
It would be too much to say either were pillaged -- and indeed, you're twisting words a bit -- but Park City came close to having a Superfund designation due to mine tailings, and Moab has a Superfund site due to mine tailings.
I'm pretty sure that Lee's use of "pillage" was tongue and cheek.
However, there are some rather long term implications whenever there is mining - especially uranium mining like there was in the Moab area. I understand the cleanup of the Atlas Uranium Mill (now known as the Moab Tailings) is going to be upwards of $700 million. I'm thinking there could be some closed mines that can have their cleanup delayed because there are higher priority sites, but this one is urgent because of the potential for the radioactive materials to leach into the Colorado River. That would be absolutely disastrous if there was a wholesale leach which included uranium. And yes - that water you see right next [about 800 ft] to the pile (with all its leaching radon and other radioactive materials) is the Colorado River.
Here's a different angle, where the height of the pile is more readily noticed:
Here's the site on Google Maps. Just play around with the settings - especially satellite and/or zooming out to see how close this is to Moab and Arches NP. It's maybe a mile from the entrance to Arches NP.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=38.599727N,109.597612W&hl=en&sll=38.599183...
Park City has issues too, as Kurt said.
http://www.epa.gov/region8/superfund/ut/richardsonflat/index.html
No doubt there were isolated examples of non-envionmentally friendly practices in the past - mostly out of ignorance. But your example of a uranium mine that was closed nearly 30 years ago is hardly supportive of Lee's contention that the current mindset in Utah is to "multiply, multiply and pillage" In fact, turning the mine over to the DOE and working on moving the tailings to a safer place suggests just the opposite.
The fact is that Utah is one of the least developed states in the nation.
Park City residents have been cautioned not to allow children to play in the dirt in some neighborhoods due to the presence of concentrations of various heavy metals from mine tailings. There has been some controversy over just how dangerous those levels might be to children and others. When the Utah Geological Survey tried to publish a hazards map, the developers in that particular area rose up and the state's legislature pressured the survey into filing the map without publication. (About 80%+ of our legislators are involved in land development, construction, or real estate in some way.)
The same tactic was used to kill a map showing unsafe areas to build homes due to the danger of landslides where homes were proposed for construction on hillsides composed of alluvium from ancient Lake Bonneville. As a result, more than a few homes built in those places have slid downhill. (Somewhat to the dismay of their owners, by the way.) But they are left high and dry because two or three years ago our legislators slapped a one-sentence amendment into an old law that prohibits anyone who experiences loss from filing suit against any developer, builder, or realtor due to any problems caused by "siting, construction or design" of the person's home.
To find a good Google Maps view of some of the oil and gas mine pads near Vernal, Utah, enter this location [39.896568,-109.466243] in the "finder box" (or whatever it's called) of Google Maps and then zoom in if necessary. All those little white pockmarks are drill pads. I have no objection to drilling like this. We need the oil and gas these wells produce. But let's be sure it is being done properly. Because if it's not done right, it's "pillaging." And whether or not a land will be "pillaged" or managed properly is a matter of attitude. Utah's environmental motto simply reflects the apparent attitude of an unfortunate number of people who hold power in this state.
I firmly believe that attitude is shown clearly in some of the rhetoric and actions of our state's lawmakers.
To help with the argument of mines in Utah. Lets just look at active mines only, you can just go to a handy site that pulls data from the USGS. http://active-mines.findthedata.org/d/d/Utah I think it listed 131 active mines, For Inactive mines its only estimates but
Approximately 10,697 abandoned hardrock mines exist in Utah according
to the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service estimates. For more information visit: State of Utah, Department of Natural Resources/Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining
I would say there is plenty of mining in Utah or has been. The only other states that look to be in the same league are Arizona, Nevada, California and possibly Idaho. http://www.abandonedmines.gov/mapdata.html
These just cover counts and dont' discuss impacts of mining like tailings, potential water pollution etc. If you wander any of those states listed above and make the claim there hasn't been much resource exploitation, you just aren't paying attention.
In addition here is the link on oil/gas wells in utah http://mapserv.utah.gov/oilgasmining/
Least Developed in nation.... In terms of what?... what facts? Maybe in terms of Putt Putt golf courses but hardly in terms of mineral extraction.
Paul - good sources. Now lets analyse the numbers.
With 131 active mines, Utah has one mine for every 663 sq miles. Lets look at some other states.
Ohio one mine every 146 acres
TX one per 569
Cal one per 414
Col one per 680
PA one per 154
WV one per 516
Rhode Island 1 per 118
Tennessee 1 per 211
North Carolina 1 per 283
NY 1 per 206
Missouri 1 per 301
Minnesota 1 per 603
Michigan 1 per 379
Compared to many other states Utah is virtually untouched.
Habitat is the biggest thing missing from the national park system; habitat. Clean water, oxygen.
Klamath River, Ancient Forest National Park Proposal
<<span class="start-tag">img src="http://www.ancientforestnationalpark.org/images/Klamath_River.jpg" alt="Klamath River" class="bb-image" />
Statistics are only a small part of it, and you can twist them any way you want to suit your purposes.
The issue with mining in Utah isn't strictly the number of active mines (and the number of closed mines is staggering) but with the scale. The Bingham Canyon Mine near Salt Lake City is the largest open-pit mine in the history of the world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceB78tEE_vg
They even charge for tours.
http://www.utah.com/attractions/kennecott.htm
I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad thing. We have needs for the minerals from these mines. However, it's not accurate to imply that Utah is "relatively untouched".
Re: the mining stats for other states compared to Utah.
First question, is that second column of numbers per acre or square mile?
Next question, some of those sure don't look right. Can you provide the source so it can be checked?
Last question, are those all active mines in other states, and if so, what kinds of mines? (Some states include gravel pits as mines and some don't.)
Good catch Lee - that is per square mile not per acre. I used the mine count from the source provided by Paul and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_area for the square mileage of each state.
From there it was simple division.
And yes, I am concetrating on active mines since your comment was on the current state of Utah thinking. What was done 30, 40 , 100 years ago is moot in this context.
Just for clarification, if the "GUIDE" section had been read, it states quite clearly what is an active mine per this statistic. It is not all inclusive it states that energy materials(coal) are not included in these statistics and the size of the mine must produce a certain amt or it will not be counted(only larger pits are counted) What it does allow is an Apples to Apples comparison if wanted. For more detailed information on mining by state and commodity try http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/mapdata/#valuefig.
The issue was not is Utah more or less exploited than other states like Ohio but whether Utah was a heavily mineral exploited state. The answer is obviously yes based on active/inactive mine count. As Lee did point out size of mine does matter and mining of low density minerals(copper, bauxite, gold etc) require large if not massive mines to make them economically viable. Mining of items like Dimension Stone(marble,granite), Sand/Gravel tend to be much smaller mines.
The mining site does list values of mined materials which Utah is the 4th highest value which indicates that either Utah is mining the most expensive items or its mines are large and mine alot of material or some combination in between but it still is indicative of large mines.