Click here to read this OpEd from the Editorial Board of the Salt Lake Tribune
Click here to read this story by Amy Joi O'Donoghue of the Desert News
Click here to read this story by Brian Maffly of the Salt Lake Tribune
Click here to read this story by Brady McCoombs of the Associated Press
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For Immediate Release
Colorado River Connected Member Organizations Urging Public Attendance
CONTACT: John Weisheit, Conservation Director, Living Rivers & Colorado Riverkeeper - 435.260.2590
Salt Lake City, UT - A public hearing on U.S. Oil Sands’ proposed expansion of their tar sands strip mining operations near PR Springs in the Book Cliffs is scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday, June 30. The hearing is being held by Utah's Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining. Member organizations of Colorado River Connected are urging citizens to attend the meeting and share their concerns.
If approved, the total surface disturbance of this revised strip mine would increase 33% from the original large mining application, which was approved previously with little public participation. The new plan proposes to strip mine 235 acres within the corporation's 32,005-acre leased area. Missing from the new operation plan is an acknowledgment of existing springs and seeps in the mining area, which provide drinking water for campers, wildlife, stock animals and nearby local ranchers. The permit application also ignores increasing concerns over air quality within the region.
“The approval of this mining operation is a sham,” says John Weisheit, conservation director of Living Rivers and Colorado Riverkeeper. “Ignoring the presence of spring water flowing adjacent to the mining and processing area essentially means U.S. Oil Sands has no regard for public health and safety, and they are taking advantage of the fact that Utah's regulatory agencies did not mandate them to monitor water pollution in their previously approved large-scale strip mining plan.”
“The degraded air quality in the oil and gas patches of Uintah County is already taking its toll on human health,” says Tim Wagner of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment. “This new application by U.S. Oil Sands fails to demonstrate what the total emissions will be from their fuel-intensive operations and fails to explain how their emissions will be mitigated, if at all. How many more infant mortalities and poor birth outcomes in Uintah County have to occur before regulatory officials take action to address this serious and existing air pollution problem?”
“Our staff has to follow agency regulations every day to make sure our operations do not make our guests sick,” says Lauren Wood of Holiday River Expeditions. “In fact, our company has to explain in writing how we will safeguard public health and safety. We want to know why Utah agencies are less strident about regulating a very dangerous tar sands mine.”
“U.S. Oil Sands' claim of 'environmental leadership' is utter nonsense,” said Jennifer Ekstrom, producer of the documentary 'Last Rush for the Wild West: Tar Sands, Oil Shale and the American Frontier.’ "I made the film to alert the American public about the magnitude of destruction on the horizon if these practices gain momentum in Utah. The massive proposed tar sands and oil shale strip mines are unprecedented in America, and out of step with the needs of humanity.”
Precipitation and snow melt would percolate through the strip mined open pits of waste sand and rubble, which include hundreds of compounds including known carcinogens. These compounds will be liberated by mixing hot solvents and water with raw bitumen ore, and will leach out into the springs and canyon bottoms. Eventually these compounds will reach the Colorado River system, which is drinking water for nearly 35 million people.
LOCATION: Department of Natural Resources, Auditorium,1594 West North Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah.
TIME: Tuesday, June 30, 2015, 9:00 to 11:00 A.M. in the auditorium of the
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Colorado River Connected is the coordinating body for organizations committed to protecting the headwaters of the Colorado River system for the benefit of the 35 million people and thousands of species and natural communities that rely on it. We provide a collective voice for the preservation of the headwaters of the Colorado watershed. Colorado River Connected
