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Show 1 Jim Woolf, reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune interviewed Garfield County Commissioners Louise Liston and Clare Ramsay on the side of this scenic hill at the newly proposed Conoco ESCALANTE An unimpos-ing, unimpos-ing, slightly bent, green steel fence post marks one of the most significant sites currently in the environmental limelight. It lies deep in the heart of the new Grand Staircase-Escalante National Na-tional Monument. Picturesque the site is not; controversial it is. For a brief few minutes that post was the focal point of conversation con-versation and camera shots. Representatives of the media were invited Apr. 22 by Conoco to view the spot where the company plans to drill for oil. Its plans have sparked intense opposition from environmentalists all over the nation, with actions directed against Conoco and its parent company DuPont. Conoco has asked the state of Utah for permission to drill an exploratory well on land it leases from the state in the Reese Canyon Can-yon area of the newly created monument. Craig McPherson, new ventures supervisor with Conoco noted that "drilling could potentially yield 150 million barrels of oil, with $800 million dollars going to the federal government and $300 million going to schools." McPherson pointed out that there are no guarantees in drilling for Conoco or the state of Utah; drilling at the drill site. The Commissioners, reporters from the major Utah television news station and several sev-eral print reporters traveled 45 miles to the site to see where Conoco plans to drill for oil. Media Reps Visit Conoco Proposed Site For Drilling: Commissioners Say It's Neither Picturesque Nor Unique site will still be a gamble. Environmentalists contend, however, that exploratory drilling will not only physically disturb but esthetically damage the uniqueness of the remote area. In an effort to better inform the public about the proposed project and' reach as many media persons as possible, Conoco, in conjunction conjunc-tion with the state of Utah Trust Lands and the Utah Geological Survey, hosted a day-long on-site media event for local print and television representatives. Dave Hebertson with State Trust Lands spearheaded the event, arranging for box lunches for the group from the Ponderosa Restaurant in Escalante. Some of the participants had stayed at the Prospector Inn for a day or two, generating curiosity among Escalante Esca-lante residents about the reason for television crews in the area. Representing were Garfield County Commissioners Louise Liston and Clare Ramsay and (See Media Reps Visit Conoco Site For Drilling On Page 5A) Media Keps Visit Conoco Site For Proposed Oil Drilling From Front Page Escalante citizens Lincoln Lyman and Howard Miller. News and camera persons from major television tele-vision networks, ABC, CBS and NBC, Salt Lake City channels 2, 4, and 5 as well as the Fox network, Utah anchor personalities personal-ities and journalists from the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News were present.. The county's commissioners contend that the site, and many others just like it, are not only non-unique but so typically unspectacular as to offer no basis for controversy. Of the 1.7 million acres designated in the national monument, commissioners , a-greed, a-greed, certainly the two opposing groups could agree on sites where the potential for development should and could be explored. Environmentalists opposed to the proposed drilling ran a full page ad Apr. 15 in the New York Times with a toll-free telephone number to call and protest Conoco's Con-oco's exploratory project. Thousands Thou-sands of calls in opposition have been received but many others are calling the same toll free number to express their support of Conoco or signing up for Conoco credit cards they intend to use to demonstrate their support. Others, to show their opposition, are boycotting boy-cotting Conoco. Local Conoco dealers have been approached by supporters of the opposition suggesting sug-gesting a change from Conoco to another company. The proposed drill site is located on state land adjacent to an existing county road approximately approx-imately 45 miles south of Escalante, on the Alvey Wash road. The trip to the site was at best unexciting with mile after mile of virtually barren and uninteresting vistas compared with the generally spectacular and awesome scenery typical of Garfield and Kane Counties. Generally, the area' in question does not appear unique or pristine, pris-tine, except perhaps for its solitude. Acre upon acre of juniper, juni-per, pinion and sagebrush never develop into anything particularly unusual or unique. There are, however, distinct roads, corrals, old abandoned mine sites and reclaimed drill sites, some scat-" tered cattle and stockwatering ponds throughout the area. It is not unlike similar hundreds of square miles of land throughout southern Utah. Conoco representatives represent-atives pointed out that the proposed drill site is not a spot you would readily recommend to-vacationing to-vacationing family members or friends. Conoco officials agree that the monument contains areas of unique and spectacular scenery and that such sections should certainly be preserved and pro- ' tected forever. There are however, how-ever, they say, other areas in the monument, some of them 20 or 30 miles away from the scenic areas, that are neither extraordinary nor unique. They are, claims Conoco, Con-oco, in fact similar to millions of acres of land throughout Utah and other western states where oil and gas operations presently exist. Conoco maintains that where these less scenic portions of the monument hold the promise of energy development or can be used for grazing or other traditional tradi-tional multiple use activities, such development, changes should be allowed to proceed in an environmentally responsible manner. Hebertson said Conoco is proud of its reputation for environmentally sound stewardship steward-ship of land upon which they conduct exploration and development develop-ment activities. R. E. (Bob) Irelan, manager of Conoco's mid-continent exploration explora-tion and production region, noted that Conoco holds existing valid leases on 140,000 acres of state and federal land within the new national monument, and another 85,000 acres on lands adjacent to the monument. He said that Conoco has been evaluating the potential for oil and gas development devel-opment in the area for more than two years. Irelan said that development of oil and gas reserves on leases it holds on school trust land within with-in the monument could provide considerable income for the benefit of Utah school children. Scientific studies indicated the potential for significant reserves of oil and gas in the less scenic areas of the monument, and emphasized these reserves could be developed within the concept of multiple use, without impacting impact-ing the areas of scenic beauty and historic and scientific significance. |
