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Letter: I can’t wait for the mining to start when Bears Ears and Grand Staircase monuments are reduced

Utah regulators are seeking to plug several idled wells operated by Gordon Creek Energy in a gas field west of Price, pictured here in 2012. For the past few years, the company has not paid local property taxes and has ignored regulators requests to increase its bond and reclaim long-dormant wells. The Utah Board of Oil, Gas and Mining is weighing regulators' proposal Wednesday to forfeit Gorden Creek reclamation bond and use the money to plug the wells themselves, and shut-in the producing wells until the company has increased its bond. Photo courtesy of Gordon Creek Energy.

By Mark Miller | The Public Forum
  | Oct. 17, 2017, 5:27 p.m.

The Oct. 1 Tribune carried an article on Gordon Creek Energy, a company drilling for gas west of Price. The company buried some electrical cables without permission and without following basic safeguards, causing substantial erosion.

The division of Oil, Gas and Mining has made numerous requests for Gordon Creek to rework or plug its nonproducing wells. The bond it has posted to ensure reclamation is about half of what is required.

I have to believe that this situation is a microcosm of what we can expect to see when the Bears Ears and the Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments are reduced to a fraction of their current size. I can’t wait for the strip mining to begin inside the current monument area.

Gov. Gary Herbert, Rep. Mike Noel and the rest of their friends in the Utah Legislature will be very proud.

Mark Miller

Holladay

By Mark Miller | The Public Forum