(Rick Egan | Tribune file photo)
The Book Cliffs area south of Vernal is proposed for the nation's first commercial tar sands mine.
Utah board OKs the nation’s first commercial tar sands project
Environment »
Opponents claim the
mine would pollute groundwater in the Book Cliffs area of eastern Utah;
proponents say it is risk-free.
By Judy Fahys
| The Salt Lake Tribune
A state panel gave a key approval Wednesday to start a tar sands mine in Utah’s wild Book Cliffs in eastern Utah.
After hearing from the company behind the
project, Alberta-based U.S. Oil Sands, as well as the group that
appealed the initial project approval, Moab-based Living Rivers, board
members voted 9-2 to uphold the state’s previous OK of the project, the nation’s first fuel producing tar-sands mine.
Rob Dubuc, Living Rivers attorney, said: "We’re likely to appeal" in court.
Water Quality Division Director Walt Baker
signed off on the proposal last year without requiring a
groundwater-pollution permit. Basically, he concluded that there is no
groundwater to pollute in the project site, around 213 acres in the arid
high country between Vernal and Moab.
In August, Administrative Law Judge Sandra
Allen agreed with Baker, and the water-quality board reviewed that
conclusion on Wednesday. Darrell H. Mensel, representing recreation, and
Merritt K. Frey, representing wildlife and the environment, both
expressed concern about whether the permit met the strict definition of
state law on groundwater, and they both voted against the administrative
law judge’s finding.
But other members agreed that Living Rivers had not offered proof that the project poses any threat to groundwater.
Paul McConkie, an assistant attorney general
representing the water-quality division, said the judge’s review had
been painstaking and that the company would be required to begin
monitoring if contamination was discovered in the future.
"If they ever do run into groundwater," he told the board, "they’ll test it."
Meanwhile, Dubuc urged caution, given that the
project is the first of its kind here. "What we’re asking for is a more
rigorous oversight of this mine."
Members of Utah Tar Sands Resistance attended
the hearing. But, as members of the public, they were not permitted to
provide input.
Raphael Cordray, a member of the group, vowed
afterward to continue the fight. She said state surveys of the area show
there are aquifers below the area that will be strip mined, and they
should be protected.
"We knew this was going to happen," she said. "But we’re ashamed they made such an absurd ruling."
Meanwhile, the company said it hopes to be mining aroundthis time next year. Barclay E. Cuthbert, vice
president of operations for U.S. Oil Sands, said his company hopes to
finalize its Utah Division of Oil Gas and Mining permit in coming weeks.
That state permit application, originally
submitted two years ago, also has been approved — and later appealed by
Living Rivers. The mining board was waiting to see the water-quality
board’s decision.
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