Old Grand County Council Drives Moab & Greater Canyonlands Over an Environmental Cliff - 2014

 

Old Grand County Council Drives Moab & Greater Canyonlands Over an Environmental Cliff

In mid-October 2014, I had the pleasure of visiting Moab, Utah once again. While in Moab, I planned to visit some of my favorite haunts, see old friends and perhaps meet some new ones. I also planned to document some of the changes that are rapidly overtaking Grand County and Greater Canyonlands.

As some readers will recall, in the latter days of the second George W. Bush administration, there was an all-out push to lease every square inch of public lands for oil, gas and mineral extraction. The effort was so slipshod that lands near the Moab Golf Club and some directly over the well fields that supply Moab with its precious culinary water were included in the original auction proposals.

Through the good work of many in the community and with a change in presidential administrations, the most egregious examples of mineral exploitation were removed from the final auction process. Still, the opening of Grand County to mineral exploitation soon went into full swing. Grand plans like the Utah Recreational Land Exchange of 2009 (URLEA) expanded the template for oil and gas exploration in Grand County. The federal government, through its Bureau of Land Management, divided Grand County into two categories. Some public lands were to be protected, but the majority was up for grabs as oil and gas fields.

Throughout this process, the Grand County Council took every opportunity it could to tell the federal government to keep out of what the council considered to be local issues. In October 2014, the council voted six to one to join six other Utah counties (Emery, Duchesne, Uintah, Daggett, Carbon and San Juan) in what they call the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition (SCIC). Infrastructure, in this case will include roads, pipelines and a rail network designed to accelerate oil, gas and mineral extraction from the member counties.

To add insult to the injury of the mineral extraction projects that the SCIC supports, the group plans to divert millions of dollars from “community impact funds" to pursue their goals. Rather than helping heal the land and the health of those affected by unbridled extraction of chemicals and hydrocarbons, the coalition plans to use the community impact funds to help build haul-roads, pipeline access and rail facilities. All of their efforts will now go full speed ahead to scrape, drill, pump and haul as much raw hydrocarbon as they can from the affected lands.

When asked why the Grand County Council could not wait until after the November 2014 election to join the SCIC or to put the matter to a public vote, council member Lynn Jackson retorted, "The people voted when the seven of us were elected up here". Despite the overwhelming number of written protests and the overwhelming number of citizens voicing their opposition at the final Grand County Council meeting on the subject, the Gang of Six extractionist boosters on the council voted to join the anti-environmental cabal of counties. Jackson was subsequently elected as Grand County's representative to the SCIC.

In the past, I have written about the “sense of entitlement” that many residents of Southeastern Utah feel about the public lands in the area. Some feel entitled to grow alfalfa with water diverted from Ken’s Lake (Puddle). Others feel it is acceptable to sell Moab’s culinary water to gas well drillers at bargain prices. Still others feel it is their right to search and remove artifacts of ancient cultures that once lived in the area. For many residents of the area, the predominant feeling seems to be, “This is our land and we can do whatever we want with it”.

In the past several years, arches, spires and even dinosaur tracks have crumbled, disappeared or been stolen by local residents. Still, there has never been a study completed to determine the health or even the size of the aquifer that supports all human and other life in the Spanish Valley and Moab. To my knowledge, no one has ever studied the potential seismic effects of oil, gas, potash or tar sands exploration and extraction in Greater Canyonlands. Through ignorance, greed or willful disregard for the greater good, will the “entitled few” spoil the wonders that took nature eons to create?

On Tuesday, November 4, 2014, the registered voters of Grand County have a choice between continuing to stack the Grand County Council with extractionist sympathizers or to go in a new direction and bring environmental sanity back to that elected body. Soon enough, we shall see the results.

Author's Note: November 6, 2014 - Moab Times-Independent - "Grand County voters buck national trend by electing moderates, progressives to county council". By sizeable margins, Jaylyn Hawks, Mary Mullen McGann and Chris Baird defeated their more conservative-leaning opponents in an election in which 74.15 percent of active Grand County voters cast ballots.

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By James McGillis at 10:31 PM | | Comments (0) | Link

Potash Salt Tailings Threaten Colorado River Water Resources - 2011

 

Potash Salt Tailings Threaten Colorado River Water Resources 

 

In October 2010, I had an opportunity to view the Intrepid Potash Cane Creek Facility from the air. After a Redtail Aviation scenic flight over Canyonlands National Park, we turned back towards the Moab airport at Canyonlands Field. As we flew north along the Colorado River, our pilot banked the airplane around the place called Potash. Since the sky was hazy, my near-vertical shots turned out the best. If my earlier ground-level views had been disturbing, they did not prepare me for what I saw from the air.

 

Disclaimer - Aerial photos are often difficult to interpret. From the distortion of the window glass, to the interplay of light and shadow, the viewer might mistake one thing for another. The following conclusions are mine alone, and are based on the various visits and perspective views that I have experienced at Potash. If Intrepid Potash, Inc., the State of Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining or the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (Moab Field Office) disagrees with my conclusions, they might still want to verify the facts for themselves.

 

When viewed as a unit, an in-situ recovery (ISR) potash mine, the evaporation ponds and the processing and storage structures comprise the Cane Creek Facility. Sitting on what looks like the central bulge of the ancient Cane Creek Anticline, the facility encompasses hundreds of acres. At its highest elevation are the injection sites. While many in-situ mines require both injection and pumping, the salt structures beneath Potash appear to spontaneously eject brine at the surface. From there, wet potash salt tailings run freely to the evaporation ponds. Terraced across the bench land is a set of eighteen large ponds. A smaller set of six ponds extends almost to the edge of a precipice. Surrounding those ponds on both sides are side canyons that empty into the Colorado River.

 

If all goes well, the produced water and fine tailings are retained by the evaporation ponds. A plastic lining on the bottom of each pond is designed to prevent groundwater seepage. However, several of my photos showed what appeared to be brine running down from the evaporation ponds. It was most clearly visible in the stream beds leading to the Colorado River. My first thought was that concentrated brine was somehow leaking from the evaporation ponds. As likely as that scenario might be, I quickly thought of an alternative. Perhaps forty years of hydraulic injection mining in this complex of fractured rock had created springs that flow with brine-laden water. If water has interpenetrated subsurface rock formations, it could undermine the ponds or cause a sinkhole. If the underlying structure of the rock is compromised, a large seismic or weather event could destroy the integrity of the earthen dikes that retain the concentrated brine within the ponds. Could the current seepage of brine re-manifest as a salt and fertilizer flood? Directly below that mesa, unprotected by any catch basin lies the Colorado River.

 

Looking down at the processing and storage structures from the airplane, I saw potash spilled around it like recent snowfall. Along the roadways surrounding the structures and at the loading area, finished potash and salt spill freely. From there, wind, water and gravity move it down toward the river. When properly applied, potash is an excellent fertilizer. If millions of gallons of concentrated salt and potash were to enter the Colorado river, it could threaten the agricultural and drinking water supply for over fourteen million people.

 

If the Intrepid Potash Cane Creek Facility represents the current state of the art in potash mining, what can we expect from the upcoming Passport Potash, Inc. mine in Arizona's Holbrook Basin? If the proposed Holbrook Basin ISR potash mine goes into operation, it would immediately become one of the top ten water users within the Little Colorado River Basin. Today, it is rare to find wind-powered water wells anywhere in the Four Corners. Historical use of wind-driven pumps for cattle watering and cattle fodder was pumping enough to dry out most Four Corners aquifers. With regional water tables at historical lows, most water sources are now too deep to tap with wind power. No one knows exactly how much the Holbrook Basin aquifer may hold. One can only hope that it is enough.

 

Most of the water used at the Cane Creek Facility soaks into the ground as brine-laden slurry or evaporates from the settling ponds. In this desert-style solution mining, there appears to be little recycling or reuse of produced water. If not for a steady supply of Colorado River water, the Cane Creek Facility would not be sustainable. If the proposed Passport Potash Holbrook, Arizona Project utilizes solar energy to dry fine tailings, there will be little remaining surface water there to recycle. A gallon pumped from the Holbrook Basin aquifers could be a gallon gone forever.

 

Before potash mining is approved at the Holbrook Basin play, the public deserves straightforward, honest and complete answers regarding the intentions of Passport Potash and its partners. Here are my questions:

• Is Passport Potash proposing a conventional mine or an in-situ recovery (ISR) mine in the Holbrook Basin?
• If it is to be a solution mine, what water sources do they plan to tap?
• How much water will their one-to-two million tons per year (1-2 mtpy) mine require?
• If produced brine is injected back into rock strata below, could it raise the salinity of the aquifer?
• Is there sufficient seasonal inflow to the aquifer, or will the mine require a net annual withdrawal from the aquifer?
• If there will be a water deficit, what environmental impact will there be on the Holbrook Basin and the Little Colorado River Basin at large?
• Is the economic development created by ISR potash mines in the Holbrook Basin worth the risk of environmental degradation?

 

Before full-scale ISR mining accelerates all over the Four Corners, we need an honest and independent appraisal of its environmental impact. Not bothering to conduct an environmental impact study, the Utah BLM Office recently downplayed the impact of potash mining in the Sevier Valley, Utah. In fact, they published a statement that mining there would have "no impact". With solution mining in the Four Corners, there is always an impact, not the least of which is a trade-off between mineral yield and water usage. Plans are currently underway by both Ringbolt Ventures and Mesa Exploration for ISR potash mines in the Lisbon Valley, Utah. Uranium Resources, Inc. has approval for an ISR uranium mine on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. Although still contested in court, plans go forward for extraction of oil sands from the Uintah Basin, Utah. With so many plans underway to divert or pump water into mineral processing, we can no longer ignore the issue of regional water usage. There is not, after all, an unlimited supply. 

 

As a child, I would often share a milkshake with a friend. From the word, “Go”, we would each suck on our straw as fast as we could until the glass was empty. Shall we now stand by and watch as the quest for oil sands, uranium and potash production dries every aquifer in the Colorado River Basin? Continuing on our current heedless path guarantees a future with water shortages for all.

Author's Note: Article updated 9/2/2017.

 

Read Chapter One – The Little Colorado River Basin

Read Chapter Two – Holbrook, Arizona Basin - Potash

Read Chapter Three - Holbrook Basin Water Crisis

Read a conversation with a Potash Investor

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By James McGillis at 01:16 PM | Colorado River | Comments (1) | Link 

The Best View of Moab? Take Potash Road to Canyonlands, on the Shafer Trail - 2009

 

The Best View of Moab? Take Potash Road to Canyonlands, on the Shafer Trail

 

Where the pavement ends in Potash, Utah, so too does the Potash Road (Utah Route 279). There, a gravel and dirt road continues up and around the potash settling ponds. Beginning at that point, a hodgepodge of county, federal and social names prevail along various segments of the road. The two most popular names associated with the upper reaches of that track are, “South Fork Road” and the “Shafer Trail”. Before proposing our candidate for the official road name, we shall describe both its dangers and its beauty.

 

Starting at the Intrepid Potash, LLC settling ponds in Shafer Basin, the road takes a meandering course, up-slope past hoodoos, towers and buttes. As we drove the track, it roughly paralleled the flow of the Colorado River. As we climbed, the river descended until there was a 2000-foot difference in elevation between the river and our location atop the sandstone canyon rim. Along this section, are the best views of the Colorado River Gorge.

 

Prior to reaching the high point above the gorge, we came upon a large, shallow pothole. Dependent for their existence on rainfall and local runoff, wet and dry potholes dot the Canyonlands landscape. After a summer shower, they shine like so many silver coins in the sunlight. Each pool of retained water has its own unique life-cycle. Some support ancient aquatic life forms, while others are drinking water sources for wild horses or other mammals. In any given pool, a wide variety of insects and other organisms might sustain themselves through their entire life-cycle. Although our selected pothole was within yards of the main track, no wheel marks had disturbed or desecrated its pristine beauty.

 

Near the highest point along the Colorado River Gorge, Thelma & Louise met their fate in the 1991 movie by the same name. For us, a close approach to the unmarked and unguarded canyon rim made our heart skip a beat.

 

Having previously stood at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, we knew its depth to be about one mile. There, the scene is one of grandeur. Although at least fifty-three individuals fell to their death there over the past eighty years, most landed on various ledges, not more than five hundred feet below their point of departure. Although the Colorado Gorge is only two-fifths as deep, there are no intermediate ledges or outcroppings to break one’s fall. Unless it has wings, whatever goes over the edge here will not stop until it strikes the surface of the Colorado River. As we stood close to the rim here, our predominant feeling was one of queasiness.

 

Mistaking our truck’s accelerator for the brake pedal at his spot would set in motion a slow motion disaster. After going over the edge, brakes and steering would no longer matter. The mass of our body and the pickup truck surrounding it would feel weightless for the ten seconds it took to reach the bottom. There, the freefall would end abruptly at the surface of the Colorado River. Since water is quite unyielding when impacted at high speeds, it might as well be solid concrete. Knowing that such was the fate of characters Thelma & Louise, we stepped carefully back from our closest vantage point, about eight feet from the brink. After a deep breath or two, we were ready to go back to the truck and motor slowly up the trail.

 

To our way of thinking, the best natural light in the desert appears near sunup or sundown. Having taken our time along the way, we took our final look back towards the river at almost 7:00 PM. Looking forward and upward, we noted a small wooden sign, which marked our entrance into Canyonlands National Park.

 

 

Watch the Video, "Mudflaps & Helicopters"

 

 

 

Moab Utah - Best View

Shifting our Nissan Titan V-8 into four-wheel drive, we traveled up a long, otherwise undisturbed valley. Where that valley abruptly ended, the road began an equally long upward traverse of a talus slope. After that climb, we looked up at what seemed to be a sheer cliff. Hidden from our view in the fading light, was a famous set of switchbacks. Ascending the trail slowly was the prudent thing to do. Just beyond the top of the switchbacks is a mesa top, still within Canyonlands National Park.

 

During various excursions in Canyonlands, we had experienced a phenomenon that is alien to urban drivers. Often, we had perceived that a particular road would next turn in one direction, only to find it turn the other way. While climbing this set of switchbacks, we often could not determine if the road went on at all. In the failing light of dusk, the steep canyon wall hid all the switchbacks above and below us. As we continued our ascent, we wonder if the spirit of the Ancients might be riding along with us, having a good laugh about the optical illusions of the trail.

 

After viewing unique pillars of stone and other rock tableau, we crested the Mesa top, and then paused to look back from whence we came. Many miles to the east, the alpenglow crept up the sides of the La Sal Mountains. Day turned to night in the canyon below. Near our junction with State Route 313, we stopped at the Canyonlands self-pay box and did our part to support maintenance and upkeep of this unique road.

 

The stretch of road we just described starts as Potash, by the Colorado River and ends on the mesa top in Canyonlands. On many maps, including our 2005 Edition of the Delorme Utah Atlas & Gazetteer it appears as “South Fork Road”. Recently, Google Maps began showing both "South Fork Road" and the more common, "Shafer Trail" along this section of road. According to our research, “South Fork Road” is a social-road name, not used by any official agency in the area. When we questioned several Moab local residents, each said that the road has always been the “Shafer Trail”. On most locally produced maps, there is no other name associated with the road,  the road.

 

The track has its origin in Shafer Basin, adjacent to the potash settling ponds. Just below its mesa-top crest, stands Shafer Campground. Before extensive grading allowed its use as a haul-road for uranium ore in the late 1940s, a local rancher named Shafer used the trail each year to herd cattle from what we now call Shafer Basin to the mesa top and back again. In the interest of public safety and standardization among mapmakers, the road from the Cane Creek Potash Plant, up to Canyonlands National Park, should bear the name of its originators, and his brother Frank Shafer. Since the track is as much a trail as it is a road, henceforth its name should be, “The Shafer Trail”.

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By James McGillis at 05:09 PM | | Comments (0) | Link