Letter to the Editor: Designation not right

By Sun Advocate

Editor:
I have for the last 10 months read with dismay and disgust the continuous extreme environmental assault on the development of our Nine Mile Canyon gas field.
Like every citizen of Carbon County, I have a personal stake in the revenue generated from the Stone Cabin Seismic testing and production of natural gas.
During the 1980s, I had the opportunity to walk over and work all of the concerned area seismographing land forms through the use of portable methods.
We did not find any evidence of petroglyphs and dwellings on top of the mountain, and neither have government or private archaeologists. The Native American Cultures made their homes in the bottom of Nine Mile Canyon and Range Creek, not on top of the mountain. But on top of the mountain is where the Stone Cabin seismic lines and gas wells are proposed, as this is where the bulk of the world class gas field lies.
In December of 2003, we obtained Elk Cow permits for the Nine Mile – Range Creek area.
About a dozen or so days were spent huntinq between Harmon Canyon – Cottonwood Canyon – and the Green River. This gave me a first hand look at the development of this mountain top gas field.
The Bill Barrett Corporation has done an impressive job of laying natural gas pipelines across the edge of the gas field. On the few gas wells that have been drilled, disturbance has been minimal with excellent reclamation.
Every citizen of Carbon County should be concerned about the article in the Sun Advocate on May 27 entitled “Nine Mile Placed on NTHP Endangered List.”
The article stated that a Nine Mile Canyon landowner submitted the application to the National Trust for Historic Land Preservation for listing Nine Mile Canyon as one of the top 11 endangered sites in the United States.
NTHP’s surrogate excuse of “the area is now being threatened by increased tourism, recreation and demands for domestic energy production” is hogwash, just as the surrogate excuse of “heavy industrial trucks rumbling through the narrow canyons in close proximity to fragile Native American rock art”, will somehow destroy it.
What NTHP is really saying in the article is Carbon County and BLM has failed at managing the Nine Mile Canyon Area.
This is not fact and is far from the truth.
Don’t you just love the way extreme environmentalists twist opposing facts into myths that support their agenda? Do they think we are gullible enough to accept the myth that driving on a preexistent road will somehow destroy the Native Indian sites?
Another myth is that using shot hole explosives or vibrator trucks on top of the mountain will somehow destroy cultural sites in the bottom of Nine Mile Canyon.
I believe that NTHP’s listing of Nine Mile Canyon as one of the top 11 endangered sites in the United States is based on ludicrous myths that have no merit of fact.
One important factor in this circumstance is that Carbon County has in effect a county wide master land use plan that is legally binding on all private and public lands within Carbon County.
What the master plan does is legally guarantee that Carbon County has a seat at the table and a say in all developments, designations and classifications of all land within the boarders of Carbon County.
The National Trust for Historic Land Preservation needs to be informed of the law and be held accountable for trying to circumvent the law. Carbon County should not let this designation fly in the wind as it will come back and haunt us down the road.