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Show I-..,,...,,,,. ....... , ,.,., , .Km..mmmnmmm, -f, ..-,, ; ... . r Environmental studies on potash application will be complete before end of year A team made up of staff personnel of the Moab District Office of the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Geological Survey, is currently working on an environmental analysis of a proposed potash development north of Moab, and should complete their work in the early fall, it was stated this week by Gene Day, BLM District Manager. The work is being done in response to an application from Buttes Resources Company and it parent company, Buttes Gas & Oil Co., which if approved would allow the company to drill four exploration explora-tion test wells for potash on lands situated approximately 18 miles northwest north-west of Moab in the Ten Mile area. Buttes has conducted intensive geolo-g geolo-g c studies of the structure on the potash bodies lying some 5,000 feet below tl f surface of the land, and needs now to co- 'uet actual drilling tests to deter- -;f 5rst, f potash is indeed situated at that level, and second, if it is of sufficient quantity and quality to warrant a continuation of exploration and possible development of the properties. Involved in the exploration plan, if sufficient indications of potash are found, would be the construction of a tests solar evaporation brine pond of some 160 acres, since mining from the depths indicated in the report would by necessity neces-sity have to be by solution mining. Public meetings on the application were held in Salt Lake City and in Moab during the middle part of May, and at those meetings a host of supporters of the project offered testimony. BLM officials have indicated that negative response to .the proposal has been extremely small, and that work on the environmental analysis report would be done as quickly as possible. "We will complete that work well before the end of the year," Mr. Day stated Tuesday. If the application is approved, and if the test drilling program proves successful, success-ful, a new industry could be developed over the next four or five years which would ultimately employ over 300 persons, per-sons, according to Buttes. |
