Will the Salt Valley Drill Rig Topple Landscape Arch - A Symbol of Moab, Utah? - 2011

 

Will the Salt Valley Drill Rig Topple Landscape Arch - A Symbol of Moab, Utah?

   

In July 1965, my father and I visited the old Arches National Monument. Dutifully, we drove the newly paved road, which ended in a circle at the Devil’s Garden. My DeLorme Utah Atlas & Gazetteer says of the place, “Area containing most of the park’s rock formations. Landscape Arch, at over 300 feet, one of the world’s longest known natural spans…” Although there are plenty of other rock formations in the park, including the grand Courthouse area, the Devil’s Garden does have a high concentration of the rock fins and arches that visitors like to see.

Saving his valuable Ektachrome film for the important vistas, that day my father splurged and took three shots of Landscape Arch. With an reflex camera, judging the light was always an issue. After development, only one of three slides “came out”. Since it predates massive rock falls in 1991 and 1995, that 35-MM slide is now an historical artifact. Viewing the first image of the arch on this page, you will see the famed arch in 1965. In the second image, you will see evidence of water seepage on the fresh rock face. This may be an indication that the freeze-thaw cycle had loosened a layer of stone, which fell from the right-underside of the arch.

Forty-three years later, in May 2008, I made my second pilgrimage to Landscape Arch. Ironically, the afternoon light that day again made it difficult to get a good picture of the arch. The western sky was so bright, that that it overwhelmed the contrast ratios available to my Sony digital camera. Of my many Landscape Arch photos that day, only one “came out”.

Until the 1991 rock fall, access for hikers below the arch was unfettered. During the rock fall itself, an amateur videographer caught scenes of picnickers scrambling to avoid burial under tons of rock. Since that time, we have learned that sound waves generated by normal human activity may contribute to spontaneous destruction of both natural arches and ancient Indian structures. Anywhere that there is a stone amphitheater large enough to concentrate sound waves, there is potential for destruction. According to the Old Testament, during the Israelites’ conquest of Canaan, the trumpeters in Joshua’s army alone brought down the walls of Jericho.

In the waning days of 2008, the George W. Bush administrations announced the largest ever auction of oil and gas leases on federal government land. Around Moab, Utah, many people were incensed. Through a series of gaffs and blunders, the land above the Spanish Valley Aquifer was included in the proposed sale. Residents just outside the city limits discovered that the federal government owned their mineral rights and was about to sell them to the highest bidder.

For several years, the G.W. Bush Administration had granted near-unrestricted drilling rights throughout the West. However, their inclusion of BLM land within view of Arches National Park was the Coup de Grace. Doing so put every remaining arch at Devil’s Garden in jeopardy. Disturbed by the administration’s cavalier proposal, I created a YouTube video titled, “Drilling Rigs Could Topple Landscape Arch”.

Soon after the November 2008 elections, President Obama appointed Ken Salazar, formerly a Senator from Colorado to be his Secretary of Interior. Initially, environmentalists were skeptical of Salazar. Almost immediately, he blocked the most egregious of the Bush oil and gas leases, including any within sight of Arches National Park.  “Case closed”, I thought. The arches at Arches were safe.

In October 2011, I again visited Arches National Park, accessing the Devil’s Garden area via the dirt and gravel of the Salt Valley Road. From U.S. Highway 191, north of Canyonlands Field, I exited on to the unmarked “Valley City Road”. Although there is no "Valley City", I soon saw an industrial drilling rig big enough to qualify. Although the drilling location is not within view of Arches National Park, it is clearly visible from U.S. 191. According to my map, the new drilling operation is less than twelve miles from Landscape Arch. Upon seeing the rig, its size and scale reminded me of huge exploration rigs used on the North Slope in Alaska. Standing alone near the entrance to the Salt Valley, the rig dominated the view of the Book Cliffs to the north. Immediately, I felt the implied threat to Landscape Arch.

Upon returning home from Moab, I was amazed to read about a swarm of earthquakes in Oklahoma. After the devastating Long Beach Earthquake of 1933, California outlawed unreinforced masonry buildings. During the intervening years, Oklahoma was so geologically stable that new brick buildings were common. In November 2011, with twenty-three earthquakes occurring over a two-day period, it looked like more than a swarm. After thirty years without any significant seismic activity, why was Oklahoma fracturing like a dry biscuit? It may be instructive to remember that in 1933, the Signal Hill oilfield, near Long Beach was at the height of an oil boom.

As of this writing, there is no definitive answer to the earthquake issue in Oklahoma. Anecdotal evidence points at increased exploration and production of oil and gas throughout the state. Oil and gas companies immediately issued denials that their activity could or had caused the series of seismic events. It would be nice if there was scientific evidence to corroborate their claims, but such evidence is lacking. In the search for new deposits of oil and gas, the extractors have perfected the art of hydraulic fracturing (fracking), or so they say. A recent documentary showed fracking-caused water well contamination in Pennsylvania. In some places, it was so bad that that affected residents could ignite the gas emanating from their water taps.

While I was living in Denver in the late 1980s, the Rocky Mountain Arsenal used water-injection to dispose of plutonium-contaminated fluids. After a few years, earthquakes in and around the nearby city of Broomfield showed a marked increase. Whether it was spontaneous nuclear fission or simple lubrication of the underlying rock structures, no one knows. Suffice to say that when large-scale water injection at that site ended, so too did the earthquakes. Since hydraulic fracturing includes both injection and extraction of various fluids, it is audacious for extractors to deny any responsibility for the consequences of their actions.

Here is what I do not know. I do not know the owner of the Salt Valley rig. I do not know if their slant drilling extends to the border of Arches National Park or beyond. I do not know if vibrations from exploratory drilling will affect the national park. I do not know if any future hydraulic fracturing or gas extraction could cause earthquakes within Arches National Park.

Here is what I do know. Scientists usually discount any hypothesis until it is proven, one way or the other. Therefore, proof that my “drilling, fracking and earthquake hypothesis” is true will have to wait until the arches start to fall. On the other hand, maybe they already have. On August 5, 2008, Wall Arch fell at Devil’s Garden. At the time, smaller, mobile exploration rigs were at work in the Salt Valley.  Until we know all of the facts, I shall rest my case on the evidence at hand.

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By James McGillis at 11:06 PM | Environment | Comments (0) | Link

Nov. 2008 Oil & Gas Leases Threaten Arches National Park - 2008

Nov. 2008 Oil & Gas Leases Threaten Arches National Park

Watch the Video Here

On May 27, 2008, we jumped in the truck and drove north from Moab, Utah on Highway 191.  About four miles short of Crescent Junction, we departed the highway on the right and took the dirt road that heads of on a diagonal "Valley City Road" towards Thompson Springs, a small town where the steam trains of old found a reliable source of water for their boilers.  Although there are few descriptive road signs in the area, we had a Utah Atlas & Gazetteer which indicated that "Valley City Road" connects to the Salt Valley Road, in turn leading to the little-used northeast entrance to Arches National Park.  Since as of this writing, there is no Google entry for the "Valley City Road, Grand County, Utah", perhaps this article will help create a search result for that road

 

 

As we drove from the parched bottom lands at the beginning of the road to its junction with the Arches main road, our elevation and the apparent water table rose steadily.  Soon, the temperature cooled and we saw grassland and wild flowers in bloom. 

 

Once inside Arches National Park, the first thing we saw was the road to Klondike Bluffs.  Having taken that road part way the previous autumn, I knew that our Nissan Titan did not have sufficient ground clearance for that trip.

 

From end to end, the trip from Highway 191 to the Arches main road is about eighteen miles of well-graded dirt or gravel road.  On the Salt Valley Road, we saw only one motorcycle and one other four-wheel drive vehicle.  If you like to visit out-of-the-way places with unique and expansive views, Salt Valley is another “must see” while in the Moab area.  With no development or litter along the road, you will find a near-wilderness experience that is accessible by truck or SUV.

 

Edward Abbey spent six months at Arches in the mid 1950s, when it was a remote and little-visited national monument.  Residing in a trailer near the campground at the end of the Arches main road, Abbey studied and wrote extensively about the fauna, flora and geology of the Salt Valley in his classic book, “Desert Solitaire”, first published in 1967.  Over forty years later, essentially nothing has changed in Salt Valley.  Let us hope that the BLM keeps possible mineral and oil exploration at bay for at least another forty years.

 

Once we were back on the paved road, we proceeded to the “Devils Garden” area at the end of the road.  Devils Garden, a mixed juniper and piñon forest, contains most of the red rock formations in the park.  It features an easy and well-maintained trail that leads to many of the park’s spectacular natural arches, including Landscape Arch, with a span of almost 300 feet.

 

If you like to see animals in clouds or rock formations, there is no place like Devils Garden to find your rock-bound spirit friends.  Some are in plain sight and others show up only when you review your pictures, back at camp.  Either way, this area that Abbey referred to as the hoodoos offers great views in all directions, including the Book Cliffs to the North and the La Sal Mountains to the east.

 

Most visitors to Arches National Park enter at the Main Entrance on Highway 191, just north of Moab.  After stopping at every natural wonder along the road, by the time they reach Devils Garden, often they have “seen enough” of the Arches.  If so, they tend to use the return trip as an opportunity to speed back to the entrance as fast as possible.  In “Desert Solitaire”, Abbey tells a story about a visitor who asks:

 

“Well how the hell do we get out of here?”

“You just got here, sir.”

“I know, but how do we get out?”

“Same way you came in.  It’s a dead-end road.”

“So we see the same scenery twice?”

“It looks better going out”.

 

For many, it is all about the destination, not the journey.

Email James McGillis

 

By James McGillis at 08:49 PM | Environment | Comments (1) | Link