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(Keith Johnson | Tribune File Photo) Stericycle's North Salt Lake medical-waste incinerator shut down Friday after years of controversy over the plant's emissions in a growing part of Davis County. Regulators slapped the waste processor with $5 million in fines for exceeding emission limits and conducting invalid stack tests. Photographed January 21, 2014.

Stericycle shutters its North Salt Lake plant after 33 years of incinerating medical waste

By Brian Maffly | July 6, 2022, 6:05 p.m.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) An aggregate producer proposes operating a limestone quarry on a 634-acre parcel at this spot in Parleys Canyon, on Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021, sparking pushback from Salt Lake County and municipal officials who view the project as a threat to public health and the watershed.

Under pressure from lawmakers, Utah mine regulators consider permit for Parleys Canyon quarry

By Brian Maffly | July 2, 2022, 12:00 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Previously drilled public land on the Green River's Horseshoe Bend, south of Vernal, on Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021, was to auctioned for oil and gas leasing Thursday. But the Bureau of Land Management nixed the sale at the last minute after discovering a mistake in its environmental analysis. Overflight provided by LightHawk.

Federal government cancels yet another oil and gas lease sale in Utah

By Brian Maffly | June 30, 2022, 6:12 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Bricks that fell from the facade of Red Rooster Records in Magna a week after an earthquake in March 2020.

Is Utah ready for a major quake?

By Brian Maffly | June 29, 2022, 3:03 p.m.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) A proposed limestone quarry in Parleys Canyon would be accessed by this road above Interstate 80, photographed Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021.

Quarry proponents seek to begin mining Parleys in July, setting up a showdown with Salt Lake County

By Brian Maffly | June 25, 2022, 12:00 p.m.

(Jacob Scholl | The Salt Lake Tribune) Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson voices her opposition to a proposed gondola through Little Cottonwood Canyon during an event on Wednesday, June 22, 2022, in Sandy.

Officials blast Little Cottonwood gondola as ‘boondoggle,’ call on UDOT to start over with canyon plan

By Brian Maffly | Jacob Scholl | June 23, 2022, 7:09 p.m.

(Photo courtesy of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition) Tribal and federal officials met last week at White Mesa, Utah, to sign an historic cooperative agreement for the management of Bears Ears National Monument. Flanked by Undersecretary of Agriculture Homer Wilkes, left, and BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning, right, members of the Bears Ears Commission gathered at the newly unveiled monument sign on State Road 261. Pictured left to right are Commissioners Christopher Tabbee and son (Ute), Malcolm Lehi (Ute Mountain Ute), Carleton Bowekaty (Zuni Pueblo), Timothy Nuvangyaoma (Hopi) and Davis Filfred (Navajo).

Utah tribes secure co-management role for Bears Ears National Monument

By Brian Maffly | June 22, 2022, 12:00 p.m.

(Utah Geological Survey) An earth fissure caused by flooding in 2005 near Beryl Junction, in the Escalante Valley in Iron County.

Iron County growers propose 115 new wells into Escalante Valley groundwater

By Brian Maffly | June 28, 2022, 11:05 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Boulger Reservoir on Saturday, June 4, 2022. The popular fishing destination on Utah's Wasatch Plateau is to be drained while a coal seam beneath it is mined.

Wasatch Plateau lake to be drained ahead of coal mine expansion

By Brian Maffly | June 13, 2022, 6:08 p.m.

(Courtesy photo) The Bureau of Land Management is planning to allow ranchers to drill numerous wells inside Bears Ears National Monument, like this existing one in the Red House area on the Lake Canyon allotment, pictured in August 2020.

Why are so many new water wells to be drilled in Bears Ears?

By Brian Maffly | June 12, 2022, 7:49 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Ben Abbott, Assistant Professor of Ecosystem Ecology at BYU, takes a water sample from Utah Lake's Benjamin Slough on Thursday April 25, 2019. The scientist is facing a $3 million defamation lawsuit arising from criticism he has directed at a proposal to dredge Utah Lake.

Facing $3 million lawsuit, dredging foe files ‘anti-SLAPP’ action

By Brian Maffly | June 8, 2022, 5:34 p.m.

(San Francisco Baykeeper) An aerial photo of the Levin-Richmond Terminal in Richmond, California. The shipping of coal and petcoke dust from the Richmond terminal will phased out of by the end of 2026. At a proposed terminal in Oakland, shipments of the materials have been nixed, according to a settlement framework announced by the City of Oakland on Feb. 2, 2022. The agreement would mean coal from Utah could not be shipped out of the port.

Deal resolves lawsuits over Bay Area coal exports, but future of Utah’s coal industry remains in doubt

By Brian Maffly | June 6, 2022, 12:00 p.m.

(National Park Service) Feral cows have been roaming around parts of the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area that are closed to livestock grazing. These animals were photographed near the Escalante River this year with a trail camera rigged by park rangers.

How a few feral cows are creating big headaches in Utah

By Brian Maffly | June 1, 2022, 12:00 p.m.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) A female mountain lion after being captured by scientists in the Oquirrh Mountains in 2011. Wade Lemon, a Utah hunting guide based in Holden, faces felony poaching charges in an alleged fraud perpetrated on Donald Trump Jr. and another client in which the hunters were allegedly duped into thinking their kills were legitimate.

Utah hunting guide charged in Donald Trump Jr. hunt faces new criminal allegations

By Brian Maffly | May 28, 2022, 12:00 p.m.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Looking south from Interstate 80 near 7800 West, on Friday, May 20, 2022. The Utah Inland Port Authority is seeking to buy land, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the area to develop future rail facilities for the port.

Utah Inland Port fast-tracks bid to acquire LDS Church land for rail operations

By Brian Maffly | May 21, 2022, 12:53 p.m.

(Zak Podmore | The Salt Lake Tribune) Trash outside the abandoned None Such uranium mine in San Juan County, June 14, 2021. Radon occurs naturally in the presence of radioactive elements, such as uranium and radium.

One in three homes in Utah has dangerous radon levels. Here’s what can be done

By Brian Maffly | May 20, 2022, 2:08 p.m.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The boat marina on Antelope Island is rendered inoperable as The Great Salt Lake continues to shrink as seen on Tuesday, March 15, 2022.

Rescue Great Salt Lake with seawater from the Pacific? Utah lawmakers consider it

By Brian Maffly | May 19, 2022, 1:36 p.m.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The two buttes that make up the namesake for the Bears Ears National Monument can be seen in the distant horizon line as EcoFlight takes journalists, tribal people and activists over the Bears Ears Monday, May 8, 2017. The Utah Legislature has approved a deal to swap state trust lands in and around the monument for 165,000 federal acres in 21 counties.

Utah lawmakers approve Bears Ears land swap

By Brian Maffly | May 18, 2022, 10:51 p.m.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) The northeast flank of Grandeur Peak, pictured on Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021, would be the site of a massive limestone under a proposal by a Parleys Canyon property owner.

Salt Lake County mining ban draws lawsuit from Parleys quarry developers

By Brian Maffly | May 17, 2022, 12:00 p.m.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Land owned by the Bureau of Land Management adjacent to Interstate 15 in Washington County, Thursday, May 12, 2022. The town of Toquerville is looking to acquire the land that private developers would turn into a sprawling recreational complex, with parks, trails and a charter school.

Tiny Toquerville wants 600 acres of public land for massive recreation destination

By Brian Maffly | May 16, 2022, 12:00 p.m.

(Courtesy photo by Ray Bloxham, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance) Utah’s remote Henry Mountains in Garfield County are home to free-roaming herd of bison. A land trade is in the works where nearby ranchers would exchange their private inholdings on the range’s west slope with public land that could then be developed in fast-growing Washington County.

Southern Utah land swap would give bison more room to roam, but at what cost?

By Brian Maffly | May 7, 2022, 10:17 p.m.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Family and friends of former U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch watch as final honors are performed by the Utah Army National Guard after the funeral at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Institute of Religion in Salt Lake City on Friday, May 6, 2022. Hatch, the longest-serving Republican senator in U.S. history and the longest-serving from Utah, died April 23 at age 88.

Orrin Hatch remembered at funeral as a Senate great who embraced adversaries

By Brian Maffly | May 7, 2022, 3:31 a.m.

(Brian Maffly | The Salt Lake Tribune) This wastewater equipment, photographed on March 18, 2022, is to be installed at the Canyon Meadows subdivision in Wasatch County.

When the land wouldn’t support septic tanks, a Provo Canyon subdivision tries its own mini sewer system

By Brian Maffly | May 5, 2022, 2:59 p.m.

(Zak Podmore | The Salt Lake Tribune) Crews with the Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service net endangered fish below the Piute Farms Waterfall in what used to be the San Juan arm of Lake Powell on Tuesday, March 29, 2022. As Utah's largest reservoir continues dropping, federal officials announced new measures to get more water into Powell to ensure continued power generation at Glen Canyon Dam.

Spilling water from Flaming Gorge to feed Lake Powell, feds will try to keep Glen Canyon Dam operational

By Brian Maffly | May 4, 2022, 12:00 p.m.

(Courtesy photo by the Bureau of Land Management) The BLM is leasing large sections of Utah’s West Desert for geothermal energy development, such as Pine Valley in this photograph shot from the Wah Wah Mountains looking northwest. Two companies recently acquired rights to 32,000 acres in Beaver and Millard counties.

Vast reaches of Utah’s West Desert could be leased for geothermal power

By Brian Maffly | May 2, 2022, 11:19 p.m.