That means members of the public who expressed written or verbal opinions on the proposed corridors laid out on a statewide map weren't fully informed by the end of the comment period, which was Tuesday, said Steve Bloch, staff attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

Worse, Bloch said, representatives from the energy industry were treated to a private preview of the detailed Moab map on May 18, more than seven weeks before the comment deadline.

"It's not quite clear why industry gets [access] while the public doesn't have the opportunity," he said. "How many other such meetings are being held in the 11 Western states?"

The BLM strongly denies any intent at secrecy.

In June, federal agencies led by the Department of Energy released maps showing possible routes for new oil, natural gas and hydrogen pipelines and electrical towers across 11 western states. Under a mandate of the federal Energy Act of 2005, the agencies are preparing an overarching environmental study for the corridors.

The draft maps showed the corridors generally following existing highways, electric transmission lines and pipelines that already cross federal land. The maps, including the more detailed Moab map, omitted details of roadless areas, wilderness study areas, designated species habitat and even national parks.

BLM district field offices were recently asked to develop detailed maps showing the specific routes to help determine the best possible locations for smaller trunk-line corridors connecting the major energy corridors, said Maggie Wyatt, manager for the Moab office.

Diane Drobka, spokeswoman for the state BLM office, said the smaller maps were supposed to help field offices better understand the corridor proposal from a local perspective.

"What this first round of public comment was supposed to generate was, what things might the public tell us that we don't already know?" Drobka said. "What if someone knew of some cool dinosaur tracks they've been keeping secret? . . . If you keep it a secret, there might be a pipeline going through it."

The maps weren't posted on the Web or offered to the public. Drobka said that decision "boils down to a time issue." Now, though, any citizen can go to BLM field offices to request the maps, she said.

Drobka defended the May 18 private meeting that included the BLM, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife and Forest Service.

"I wouldn't classify it as a necessarily secret meeting," she said. Rather, industry representatives were asked whether the map's proposed corridors were feasible from an engineering and technical standpoint.

Wyatt said it is not unusual for the BLM to meet with interested parties about concerns and issues affecting public lands.

"We have meetings all the time to talk about technical issues," she said. "We've had meetings with SUWA before without inviting everybody else."

Wyatt said the BLM in Moab is concerned about a route that could cross lands included in proposals for wilderness areas made by environmental groups and adjacent to a wilderness study area on the west side of Grand County. The route also raises some technical problems because it crosses the Colorado River, and includes areas where utilities would have to be located on steep cliff sides.

The federal agencies' final environmental impact study will identify preferred routes for corridors up to 3,500 feet wide, according to DOE officials. However, a PacifiCorp representative at the May 18 meeting said the company would prefer power lines be farther apart.

The final decision also would automatically rewrite BLM's regional management plans to accommodate the findings.

That angered members of the Grand County Council, who on Tuesday said corridors outlined on the Moab BLM map were not acceptable.

For the past two years, the Moab BLM has worked with the public and government agencies to update its area management plan, and had already identified an energy corridor through the valley near an existing one. Earlier this year, the Grand County Council voiced approval for the BLM plan.

"We went through this [regional management plan] process for two years and now this is being shoved down our throats," said Council Chairwoman Joette Langianese. "It has circumvented the whole RMP process."

Langianese and other council members said the route, which passes through scenic vistas near Dead Horse Point and traverses some remote areas of southeastern Utah canyon country, threatens the rural character of the region.

"Our biggest concern is the negative impacts to our backcountry and the potential to mar the landscape so that it would no longer be attractive to our visitors or to local residents," Langianese said. "We can't allow this to happen." She said BLM was "very accommodating" when she inquired about the routes, and she does not believe officials were attempting to conceal information.

lchurch@citlink.net

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Reporter Patty Henetz contributed to this story.