The National Park Service is reviewing a proposal by a Denver-based oil company to drill up to 55 wells in the Circle Cliffs region of the recreation area. Chuck Einarsen, president of Viking Exploration and owner of the leases, says oil deposits in the area are potentially worth billions of dollars.

"It's one hell of an oil field," the 81-year-old Einarsen said Wednesday. "It's the biggest play of my whole career."

But environmentalists have decried the proposal, arguing that such a project would not only spoil pristine lands in Glen Canyon, but also result in damage to protected lands inside the adjoining Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

A coalition that includes the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA), the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society is calling for the park service to conduct a full-scale environmental study before making any decision on the drilling application.

“It's a mistake for the park service to be going down this path right now," said SUWA attorney Steve Bloch. "The Viking plans would require the construction of new roads, and the widening and reconstruction of roads in the monument, as well as the blading of well pads. We're talking about a lot of surface disturbance in a land where scars are slow to heal."

Barbara Wilson, an environmental specialist with Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, says it's still too early to even venture guesses about where the oil company's proposal is headed. The park service is still analyzing more than 79,000 public comments about the drilling project.

As of right now, she continued, park service officials are planning on going ahead with a less-detailed environmental assessment to analyze potential conflicts and damage that could be brought about by the drilling proposal. "But if there is substantive public comment that an environmental assessment won't suffice, we can roll right into an [environmental impact study]. We're not bound by this," Wilson said.

The four or five leases involved in the Glen Canyon proposal date back to 1969, predating the creation of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. The Sierra Club successfully blocked a similar drilling proposal in the early 1970s. The lease was suspended by the Bureau of Land Management, and there was no further activity until 1990, when Viking Exploration, which now owned the lease, applied for a drilling permit.

Einarsen says his company has invested $35,000 in surveys and an archaeological study of the area, per park service requirements. He says he is frustrated by continued delays to the project, which he claims could potentially be worth as much as $10 billion.

"That's why I've hung in with this as long as I have," he said.

Einarsen also says that environmental concerns are "way overblown." Using directional drilling techniques, the oilman says all 55 wells could be drilled from just five pads. Because of already existing roads and trails in the area, he claims infrastructure impacts would be minimal.

But SUWA'S Bloch says allowing such a project in a national recreation area would set a terrible precedent.

jbaird@sltrib.com