Agencies reviewing Glen Canyon drill request

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jun 21, 2005 | by Joe Bauman Deseret Morning News

Will an oil and gas exploration well be drilled inside southern Utah's Glen Canyon National Recreation Area?

Two federal agencies have begun a scoping process to consider a 15-year-old request to drill an exploratory well for oil and gas in the Circle Cliffs region in Garfield County. The cliffs are a large geologic structure in the national recreation area near the Escalante River, southeast of Boulder.

Public comments on the scoping process, which is intended to lead to a draft environmental assessment, will be accepted until July 7.

According to the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management, the well would be on a lease owned by Viking Oil Exploration Inc. The agencies, which issued a press release on the project, did not list a home base for Viking.

On Oct. 1, 1969, Viking Oil was granted mineral rights to explore for petroleum deposits on 9,730 acres of federal land in southern Utah, areas which are now part of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Capitol Reef National Park, and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monu- ment.

"At that time, all the land covered under the lease was administered by the BLM," says the press release.

On June 29, 1990, Viking Oil asked for permission to drill an oil and gas exploration well in the Circle Cliffs area, part of Glen Canyon, says the National Park Service site on the Internet concerning the project. The well site would take up two acres, and to reach it, Viking would use "several miles of new or reconstructed roads" in the recreation area and existing routes in Grand Staircase- Escalante National Monument.

The agencies are planning to prepare an environmental assessment to evaluate the proposal, and they want public comments and suggestions.

"This is the time when any interested individual, organization or agency can provide thoughtful, relevant information or suggestions for consideration by NPS and BLM managers before the Draft Environmental Assessment is written and made available for public review," says a written press release. The assessment should be available for public review some- time next winter.

The agencies are providing two ways to make comments, and are reminding that names and addresses of those who comment ordinarily become part of the public record. People who wish to withhold names or addresses should state that prominently at the beginning of their comments.

To comment, mail a note to: Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Viking Exploration EA, 691 Science View Drive, P.O. Box 1507, Page, AZ 86040.

Also, comments may be submitted over the Internet through the NPS Web site at parkplanning.nps.gov. In order to find out about the project, go to that location on the Internet and choose the drop- down menu for Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

A Glen Canyon NRA Internet site notes that "Viking holds a valid existing right in the form of a federal oil and gas lease." It does not explain why the agencies are now considering a drilling request made 15 years ago.

Before drilling can be allowed, it adds, the director of the National Park Service would have to "find that the development will not result in a significant adverse effect on the resources or administration of the park units. "

Should the exploration well be successful and Viking wish to conduct further exploration and development of its lease, "Viking must submit additional proposals for further environment analysis."

The NPS Internet site added, "The outcome of this exploratory well is highly speculative."

E-mail: bau@desnews.com