It would be the first Utah land exchange since a proposed swap in the San Rafael Swell prompted a series of investigations that found the deal to be a federal government giveaway. That attempt led to an overhaul of land appraisal functions in the Interior Department.
Lt. Gov. Gayle McKeachnie was in Washington on Wednesday to brief the Utah congressional delegation on the new proposal, which is being negotiated between state and county officials and representatives from environmental groups.
John Andrews, associate director of the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, said later Wednesday after returning to Salt Lake City, "At this point, this is a proposal that is really in the early stages," adding that his agency hopes to avoid the pitfalls of the San Rafael swap.
"We believe that we need to have a transparent, independent appraisal process to make sure the public feels confident that the valuation is fair."
At statehood, Utah set aside small, scattered parcels of land with the proceeds dedicated to Utah schools. However, many of the parcels are remote or isolated inside wilderness areas or national parks, forests or other preserves, so there has been an ongoing effort to trade out the otherwise useless parcels and consolidate the lands so they can be developed to benefit schoolchildren.
Under the latest proposal, the state would give up patches of land on the south side of the Colorado River, running from the Utah-Colorado border, down through Moab and into the area near Canyonlands National Park.
In exchange, they would get two or three concentrated sections adjacent to other school trust lands in the Uinta Basin that have potential for oil and gas development which would generate additional school revenue.
Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, said he plans to have a bill to implement the exchange drafted by the end of the month so he can introduce it when Congress returns in September from its summer recess.
That would leave it little time to make its way through Congress before the body adjourns for the year, but Cannon says he hopes widespread support would make it possible for it to breeze through and potentially chart a course for more trust land exchanges to follow.
Bill Hedden, executive director of the Grand Canyon Trust, said environmental groups were brought into consultations early on and support the effort. Hedden said the deal would protect lands in wilderness study areas and important Colorado River watersheds and wildlife habitat.
It's very beneficial from our point of view and we think there's also a lot of merit in trying to work through the valuation questions that caused the San Rafael land exchange to founder, Hedden said. This is a pretty serious effort to make it so both sides come out with equal value and you protect some important lands.
In 2002, Cannon sponsored a 108,000-acre exchange in the San Rafael Swell that Bureau of Land Management whistle-blowers claimed could have cost federal taxpayers $117 million in land and mineral rights.
The exchange was scuttled after the Interior Department's inspector general backed up the claims and found that BLM officials sought to conceal the true value of the land exchange from Congress. The findings also prompted the Interior Department to do a complete overhaul of its land appraisal process to try to insulate appraisers from political pressure.
Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson, whose district includes lands in the proposal, said he is supportive of the concept and encouraged by the collaboration between the stakeholders, but wants to see the details before he jumps on board.
All signs are positive for me on this one, he said. Any Utah land exchange is going to receive a lot of scrutiny, and if an appropriate proposal is put together, it should withstand the scrutiny.
