Possible oil drilling in Southern Utah causes heated controversy
Oil and gas exploration in Southern Utah is causing tension between The Moab Action Network and the Moab Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
The geophysical and seismic exploration project, conducted by Veritas DGC Inc. – a worldwide corporation specializing in oil and gas exploration – started mid-month near the northern entrance to Canyonlands National Park. Activists from The Moab Action Network were there to protest the exploration and plan to continue fighting against the non-recreational use of the land.
“We will use our bodies to protect this land,” Jim Steitz, a member of The Moab Action Network and a Utah State University student, said.
Steitz believes the exploration – that may lead to drilling for gas and oil – will be detrimental to the recreation and wilderness land resulting in harm to Moab’s economy which depends heavily on tourism.
“It’s economic suicide. Once the BLM starts permitting these projects, it will ruin Moab,” Steitz said.
Maggie Wyatt, field manager of the BLM, disagrees.
“There’s already been some drilling in the area. I haven’t noticed that it’s affected recreation in the area. We don’t really expect there to be an impact on recreation,” Wyatt said.
Steitz also argues the land is more valuable for animals, recreation and beauty than it is for oil.
Wyatt on the other hand ensures the project is environmentally safe. For instance, the project must be completed by Oct. 15 to protect the spotted owl and bighorn sheep in the area, Wyatt said.
“We have visual concerns with the area and want to protect it,” she said.
The operation, located 14 miles west of Moab and covering a 36-square-mile area, is using seismic methodologies and fibrosis trucks to identify sub-surface structures where oil could accumulate. Various types of rocks, thickness and structure reflect energy waves differently and these differences are recorded and analyzed.
“They can tell much better where the resources are from the seismic information they get,” Wyatt said. Wyatt also admitted to some short-term impacts on the land such as crushed vegetation from the trucks but said they won’t be noticeable for long.
Steitz however predicts the forest will be greatly harmed.
In a press release on Sept. 17, Laurel Hagen, an organizer with the Moab Action Network, called the project the “first evidence of what the new government energy policy looks like on the ground.”
The possibility of oil drilling is not a new proposition for the BLM though and depends on the findings of the seismic exploration.
Wyatt said the land has been leased to private companies for oil and gas exploration for the last 15 years and if resources are found, the companies have the right to explore. Wyatt said the BLM, as a part of the Department of the Interior, said it is doing its best to balance the uses of the land and there was no compelling reason not to lease the land.
“Energy is always a concern for this country,” Wyatt said. “What they do from here depends a lot on what they find and what the market does. We expect some level of development,” Wyatt said.
Steitz urges students to get involved and fight the Veritas project and others like it.
“If students do not stand up and defend their home against the energy corporations and the federal administration, we will not like the way our state looks in 20 to 30 years from now,” Steitz said.
“We want to send a message to our elected officials and to the energy and mining industries that Southern Utah will no longer be a national sacrifice area for nuclear waste, open pit mines, clear-cutting and drilling rigs,” Hagen said.
“Some people don’t mind seeing something in the distance for oil and others do. Many people are happy for the energy possibilities,” Wyatt said.