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Show Countyites tell BLM In consecutive meetings in Beaver, Wednesday afternoon, after-noon, and Milford, Wednesday Wednes-day evening, BLM was told that local people wanted no more restrictions on geothermal geo-thermal development. It was generally felt that drill rigs, pipe lines and power plants would be a vast improvement over sage brush and jack rabbits. However, it was quickly pointed out that it was not expected to sacrifice even sagebrush or jack rabbits, ' since it is felt that geothermal geo-thermal development wiU blend with the environment so well as to hardly be seen, except by those who search it out. As for detracting from the tourist industry, one individual indi-vidual pointed out that the geothermal development probably would be a greater tourist attraction than most of Western Beaver County. At Beaver it was not so clear just what BLM had up its sleeve, but by the time they got to Milford, they left no doubt that existing leases at Roosevelt Springs, Cove Fort-Sulphurdale, andTher-mo andTher-mo were not threatened. The purpose of the meeting meet-ing was to consider withdrawing with-drawing approximately 60 square miles of the Mineral Range, extending from, Minersville Min-ersville Reservoir to the Millard County line. The approximate ap-proximate acreage would be somewhere between 35,000 and 40,000 acres. The bureau of Land Management Man-agement attempted to superimpose super-impose pictures of drill rigs, pipe lines and power plants over color slides oftheMin-! oftheMin-! eral Range. However, the loss of depth without three dimension photos, brought 5 protests of bias presenta-a presenta-a ; tions, and arguments that , the impact was far out of proportion to reality, y The BLM also was put it in a bad light when showing r developments in other geo-n geo-n thermal fields under con-:n' con-:n' struction, anddepictingthem l- as completed projects. Many of the audience recognized i the pictures as construction photos and not completed projects. Most of those present had been on site, either at Roose -velt Springs or other geo-' geo-' thermal developments, and were aware of the minimal impact made by drill rigs and pipe lines. Drill rigs are only temporary, tem-porary, until a well is com -pleted, and impact would hardly be noticeable six I months later. I Pollution of Minersville Reservoir by geothermal I water was considered about ! as remote with development I as it would be to have an I earthquake open the earth J and pour brine or lava into I the reservoir. I BLM's main concern I at least that of Dave Kissel, I their landscape architect j was the visual impact. He I recommended closing the X whole area to leasing, to I preserve it for tourists who I might drive by every few I years. I A few comments were: I I Supt. Haslem "Need for ; I growth in Beaver County. I Geothermal is a clean re- t source and will provide a . ( I broadened tax base, em-. em-. I ployment, and is renewable." e i He urged restrictions be kept , I to a minimum. j Grant Esplin "Geo-1( "Geo-1( I thermal resource is a good, (. I clean resource let's use I It!" I Red Wilson "Presenta-Bd "Presenta-Bd X tion unfair. In reality, im-)il im-)il I Pact would be far less than 4 depicted. Power plants could I be hidden behind rolling rth 1 Mils. Rugged mountains r- I "ould hide almost all with- I ta short time." 1 Ron Forrest "With the rth I Present knowledge, there is ce, I Uttle chance of geothermal er. j development near Granite I peak or around the Miners -ne. J 'tile Reservoir. So-called jd. Irtnes are only 10,000 parts 1,000,000. Cattle, sheep y wildlife can drink 1 fluids." Bill Berge "The state designated geothermal as water, 'under the Paction of State Engi-( Engi-( ;r" He opposed with-jng with-jng large blocks of land. I -UGreggerson "Anx-U "Anx-U $, ? to see ai-ea developed Jo extent' Presenta-Was. Presenta-Was. There is beauty continued on Page 6) and there would be a two- r. ,. year environmental study before be-fore a power plant could be built. Gordon asked where the power would go. He said he wanted to get cheap power In Cedar City. Berge explained that the power would probably to Into a power grid where almost all power goes. There are just four or five of these grids in the country. Consequently, Utah is an exporter ex-porter one day an importer im-porter the next. Wilson reported that with mufflers installed, the most noise with a flowing well was a small gasoline generator to run instruments. He asked Gordon if he was opposed to exporting power. Power is a resource the same as beef cattle, alfalfa, sugar beets, or Coleman products. Richard Jefferson challenged chal-lenged the scenic classifications. classifi-cations. He said BLM arbitrarily arbi-trarily sets classifications that we have to live with. It's time you people learned you work for us. The meeting was quickly brought to a close without allowing a hand vote but Wilson asked for a show of hands for those favoring opening op-ening the mountains for leasing. leas-ing. The vote was unanimous except for Lloyd Gordon, who cast the lone opposing vote, of approximately 60 attending. attend-ing. The COUNTY NEWS was advised Friday that BLM Cedar District Office would recommend open leasing except for a few restrictions on mountain peaks, recreation recre-ation areas andaroundMin-ersville andaroundMin-ersville Reservoir. The indication W2s that restrictions would be very minimal, but until actual restrictions re-strictions are drawn, they will not be known. opening the proposed area for five years. He presented the only opposition op-position in either meeting, but said he favored geo-thermal geo-thermal development as well as the proposed alunite development de-velopment in Beaver County. His arguments for waiting five years were that we didn't know about many developments, de-velopments, brines, etc. Frank Metcalf said that leases did not give leasee uncontrolled rights. USGS has tight controls over exploration ex-ploration and development, as does BLM. He said that an environmental statement must be filed before a power plant can be built. Dick Iindser requested a clarification of the scenic classification arbitrarily set by BLM. Joe Jar vis explained explain-ed that they had set up five classifications, however, for the Mineral Range they used only 2-3 and 4. These were represented on the map by A-B-C, which thoroughly confused everybody. Gordon again asked for a five year moritorium. He cited lack of knowledge, noise, loss of AUM's, etc. Berge said, "You may not know the chemistry of the brines, but I do." He said open leasing and exploration would permit BLM to go on with multiple use planning, if it's explored, and no reservoir res-ervoir is present, it can be written off as a geothermal prospect and BLM then can plan other development or uses. Five years would just delay that decision. He said, BLM and USGS review everything under present regulations roads, sites, HERE'S MORE ABOUT Ccothormol in man-made structures and development, also." Dave Carriere "Many advantages to geothermal. No large mines, no large mills. Geothermal Act of 1970 provides regulations for reseedlng, planting and rehabilitating areas of impact. im-pact. Impact very small. Pad for drill rig only two to three acres, at most, Including Includ-ing reservoir. A dry well would leave no permanent scar. Producing well would have only pipe out of ground leading to power plant." A show of hands was unanimous un-animous to open the whole area to leasing. About 35 attended the Beaver meeting. In Milford, the tempo changed when Morgan Jensen, Jen-sen, Cedar City District Manager, made sure at the outset that everybody understood under-stood that previously leased lands were not under discus -sion. He said applications for higher areas of the Mineral Min-eral Range and near the Minersville Reservoir were pending. The meeting is to gain public input on whether to lease or not, he said. Three alternatives were offered: 1. Offer no leases at all in the restricted area. 2. Offer leases with stipulations. 3. Open the whole area to leas -ing. - Lloyd Gordon, who represented repre-sented ISSUE, a Southern Utah Environmental group, and said he was a member of the Sierra Club, opposed |