Three Environmental Groups Sue BLM over Nine Mile Canyon

Aug 08, 2008 by Elizabeth Ziegler

(KCPW News) Now is the time for action to save a deteriorating wall of ancient American Indian rock art at Nine Mile Canyon, says Stephen Bloch of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

"The BLM has been behaving as if this is a throw away area, as if natural gas is a resource that trumps all other uses of public lands," Bloch says. "And that is just not the case."

SUWA, the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition and the Wilderness Society filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the Bureau of Land Management for approving the Denver-based Bill Barrett Corporation's request for 25 new natural gas wells near Nine Mile Canyon. The suit claims the BLM failed to consider the impact of the additional natural gas wells on the rare archaeological site, along with air quality and water quality.

The lawsuit comes at a time when natural gas production is at a record high in Utah, and oil and gas companies, including the Bill Barrett Corporation, are seeing record profits. Bloch says this shows lawsuits by environmentalists don't slow energy development and cut into profits, as some critics claim.

"Americans have every right to demand that this company develop resources in an environmentally sensitive manner," Bloch says. "That's not what's happening."

BLM officials say the agency operates in accordance to its statutory obligations and authorities.

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