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Show Vernal Express Wednesday, October 29, 2008 A11 Low-key campaigns are hallmark of local races By Kevin Ashby Express Publisher The growing season may have started our extra cold and wet, but it turned out to be a great growing year for area farmers and ranchers as they take stock of their winter supplies of hay and other crops for animals. Plus, it was a good breeding year for area herds, says rancher Cody Jenkins. "This was an excellent sum-' mer," says Jenkins.' "The storms came through just right for great grass in the mountains and hay in the valley. Even our calves weaned out larger than normal this year." And this in in light of calf prices going down 25 cents per pound since July. "Right now there is a lot of indecision in the market," says Jenkins. "We are going to feed them all over the winter, and see how it goes in March." Jenkins says he will have plenty of hay to feed his stock this winter. On Saturday, family members and friends showed up to help Jenkins corral 200 of his 500 head of co ws and calves for vaccination and to check for pregnancy. Doug Murphy, Countryside Veterinary Clinic, did the official pregnancy check and reported that the first 20 cows were all pregnant. Jenkins says he was hoping for a 90-percent pregnancy rate, and it looked like he would have an even higher percentage this year. "It's McDonald's for those that are not pregnant," he says. Utah conspicuous in national oil shale By Mary Bernard Express Writer Exploration of Utah's Green River Formation suggests that 77 billioikbarjejs of oil.arertrapped QiV-shale-'depositsLocated in three Western states Utah, Colorado and Wyoming, these deposits hold as many as 1.7 trillion barrels of oil -more than the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. "We, in Utah, are open for business with regards to oil shale," said Mark Raymond, Eastern Region associate director of USTAR Technology Outreach and Innovation Program at USU - Uintah Basin. "More than one speaker emphasized that 80 percent of the world's reserves of oil shale are found in this country," coun-try," he said, referencing Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman's opening address to the Oil Shale Symposium Sympo-sium on Oct. 13 at the Colorado School Mines. Representatives from 17 countries and 16 states were on hand at the symposium, demonstrating demon-strating the global extent of the commercial interest in oil shale. Most are emerging companies, but others like Russia's industry or Viru Keemia Grupp of Estonia Public comment opens for Clay Basin wells The Bureau of Land Management Manage-ment (BLM) Vernal Field Office announces a public comment period through Nov. 10 for the Proposed Three Clay Basin Unit (CBU) Gas Wells Environmental Assessment (EA). The EA describes the potential po-tential impacts of Wexpro's proposal to develop three wells in the Clay Basin Unit. The project would total approximately approxi-mately 10.73 acres of surface disturbance on Clay Basin. The purpose of this EA is to inform the public and decision makers of impacts associated with implementing the proposal and to solicit the public for additional information informa-tion or corrections. After the 15-day public comment period, the EA will be finalized and a decision will be documented in a decision record. A compact disk or hard copy of the document can be obtained from the Vernal Field Office. The document is also on-line at http:www.blm.govutsten fovernalplanningnepa.html If you wish to submit comments com-ments on this EA, we request that you muke comments as specific ns possible, with references to page numbers and chapters. Comments that only contain opinions or preferences will not receive a formal response, but will be considered as part of BLM's decision-making process. Plea.se refer to " Wexpro CBU EA on all correspondence. Written comment s will be accepted by fax, email, or letter through Nov. 10. i'lense send nil comments to: While the animals are immobilized im-mobilized in the squeeze chute, they are also vaccinated for a variety of illnesses and checked for cancer. If surgery is needed to keep a pregnant cow that is otherwise healthy, Murphy was on hand to perform surgery. For J enkins, many of his cows have horns and are referred to as horned Herefords. He says that his dad used to - Jr.- -v-S. 'f'! -1 . . . is .'' ''A Rhett Jenkins shows the effort that goes into squeezing a cow in the squeeze shoot. Cows having horns makes this especially tricky as Rhett has to wait until the head works its way through, before closing the chute on the shoulders as the cow lunges forward to get out. have been operating for more than 20 years. Raymond said oil-shale production pro-duction has changed significantly in the last 20 years. "Oil shale production jLs the 'name of the game' all over the world. Countries like China, Estonia, Es-tonia, Russia, Jordan and Brazil have been producing commercially commer-cially for years," he said. "These countries look at the enormous oil-shale reserves in the United States and can't believe we are not actively developing our oil." Most domestic reserves are located on Bureau of Land Management lands, which fall under federal laws and regulations. regula-tions. Recently, the agency has drafted rules for leasing federal lands and plans to finalized the regulations shortly. Beyond the maze of regulations, regula-tions, the energy industry has been working to evaluate where the oil shale strata is most recoverable. recov-erable. " Oil shale reserves mapped by Michael Vanden Berg of the Utah Geological Survey determined the thickness and richness of yields from the different layers," Raymond said. "He studied hundreds hun-dreds of old assays to find three Bureau of Land Management, ATTN: Mark Wimmer, 170 South 500 East, Vernal UT 84078. Fax: 435-781-4410 or visit UT VernalCommentsblm.gov Include address, phone number, e-mail address, or other personal identifying in Metal Buildings Factory -Direct Pricing Frames in as little as three weeks v T- ' PJllHiR wAIai 1 ' ., DesignBuild StandardCustom Packages Do it yourself or we can do it all l V, V t. l.O l M IN T IN run horned cattle, and every so often, as a reminder of his father, he will go a year or two, leaving the horns on the calves. The cowboys working on J en-kins en-kins cows did it under blue skies and warm temperatures. This was in contrast to a week earlier when those same riders went up Taylor Mountain to bring the cows down during a storm and with the wind blasting through oil shale strata in the Green River Formation: 50 gallons per ton (GPT) of rock 40 billion barrels (bbl) at a max thickness of 18 feet 35 GPT 86 bbl at a max thickness of 55 feet , . ,;, . ,. 25 GPT 158 bbl at a max thickness of 130 feet Recoverability is indexed by the depth of overburden as well as other factors, but each of the three strata have the potential to be commercially viable said Raymond. Altogether that's 280 bbl of oil trapped in shale rock in Utah, making Huntsman's 77 bbl a conservative estimate. "To give you an idea of just how much oil this is," Raymond says, "presenter Glen Miller of Grand Junction translates the 1.7 trillion barrels into 100 Prudhoe Bays or 8 Lake Powells or three feet of oil covering the entire state of Colorado." Companies like Oil Shale Exploration Ex-ploration Company with 22,000 acres of private lands in eastern Utah are poised to recover oil at the earliest opportunity. They, like Ecoshale, located on SITLA lands, in Uintah County are involved in research and development develop-ment at this time. formation with comments. Be aware that entire comments - including personal identifying identify-ing information - may be made publicly available at any time. While requests can be made to withhold personal identifying information from public review, re-view, it cannot be guaranteed. JiL' Ralph Calder 801.368.6590 ralcaldaol.com . the valley. This year more than 2,000 head of cattle were taken off Taylor Tay-lor Mountain, and Jenkins says it was quite a sight to behold. He runs his cattle on about 28 miles of summer forage; his cows start out low, are worked up the hill, then back down, and are taken off the mountain in October. kashbyvernal.com The idea is to bring small pilot projects for research and develop- ment into the operational phase said Raymond. r I V,r m i m't tA - i 1 - .! .J i 111 t ; 1 f : I s m i 1 i i -- i . n i '-- (i ij h I I f tcj- j - .... r "" By Liziff E. Wmws Uintah Basin News Service Just like they have across the nation, voters in Duchesne and Uintah counties are also going to the polls prior to Election Day, Nov. 4. But if you haven't cast your ballot yet, you may not even realize that there are other elections besides the omnipresent om-nipresent Obama versus McCain presidential campaign. There are several races in the Uintah Basin with 19 candidates seeking contested elected office for county commission, school boards, the state Legislature, and the U.S. Congress. There are also a handful of races that were decided in the primary election, and because no candidate from the opposing party is running, those races are uncontested in the general election. Local, state, and even the race for the 2nd Congressional District seat that represents the Basin have all been low-key throughout the campaign season, leaving many voters to wonder just what will be on the ballot. Please take time to read about the candidates seekingyour vote so that you can make an educated decision when you select the people who will be representing you and making decisions that will impact your life in so many ways. In Duchesne County, the candidates seeking the open seat on the county commission have generated the most discussion. Incumbent commissioner Rod Harrison, who lost in the primary election, announced his write-in campaign last month. He will challenge fellow Republican and political newcomer Ron Winterton, as well as Democratic candidate Alma Richens. There is also a school board election in Duchesne County, with incumbent board member Melvina "Mel" Tanner facing opposition from Gordon Moon. " Once we have met environ- mental protection regulations that involve technique, water and emissions controls, we will iiM't.ri, : l i. Have a photo you think is great! Enter this year's Holly Days 1 VERNAL Enter your favorite photos that would qualify in the following categories: Nature Portrait Scenery fiction Photos will be judged with 1st 2nd and 3rd places receiving a variety of gifts and awards. Winning entries will be displayed at Western Park during the Holly Days celebration on Thanksgiving Weekend. The rules are simple. 1) The photo was taken somewhere in the Uintah Basin. 2) The people in the photo are or were Uintah Basin Residents. 3) Photos must be printed and mounted mount-ed on 8 12 xll or 11x17 inch card stock. . 4) Entries must include the name of the photographer and a short description of where the photo was taken and who is in the photo if applicable. 5) By entering the contest, participants partici-pants agree to allow the Vernal Express to reprint the photos. 6) Entries can be picked up at the Vernal Express Office after December 1. 2008. If not picked up they will become the property prop-erty of the Vernal Express. ENTRY DEADLINE: NOVEMBER W, 2008 AT 5;00 RNY AT THE VERNAL EXPRESS OFFICE AT 60 EAST 100 NORTH, VERNAL, UTAH V1 1 The Uintah Basin will help elect a Wasatch County resident to the Utah House of Representatives, Representa-tives, District 55 seat. That's the seat that had been held by a long line of Basin residents. Gordon Snow currently holds the seat but is not running for re-election. Basin voters will chose between Constitution Party candidate Douglas K. Thompson, Democrat Neil G. Anderton, or Republican Kraig Powell. Duchesne City residents will decide whether to institute a recreation, arts and parks tax. The RAP tax is a one-tenth of 1 percent sales tax that generates gener-ates money for cultural and recreational programs. Roosevelt City voters passed a similar tax in 2005 that has provided money for improvements to city parks, increased arts programing, and additional community activities. activi-ties. In Uintah County, voters will determine who will serve them on the school board. Shane Frost, the incumbent board member, is being challenged by Allen A. Huber, and write-in candidate Matt Wallis. The race for Utah House of Representatives District 55 has a unique mixture of candidates. Incumbent Rep. John Mathis, a Republican, is seeking reelection. re-election. He is challenged by Constitution Party candidate Daniel Ray, Democratic Party candidate Wayne Y. Hoskisson, and Libertarian Party candidate Ron Regehr. Second Congressional District incumbent Jim Matheson is facing fac-ing opposition from Constitution . Party candidate Mathew Arndt, Libertarian Party candidate Dennis Den-nis Ray Emery, and Republican Bill Dew. That's another race that hasn't generated much in the way of campaigning in the Basin by the contenders. Polls open on Nov. 4 at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Early voting is also available through Thur. debate see the industry expand. Maybe as much as 2 million barrels of oil a day by 2020," he said, mbernardvernal.com |