Earth First! makes a mess of SITLA tar sands plans in Utah

Yes­ter­day, Feb­ru­ary 20, the Earth First! 2012 Orga­niz­ers Con­fer­ence & Win­ter Ren­dezvous cul­mi­nat­ed in a row­dy demon­stra­tion out­side the School and Insti­tu­tion­al Trust Lands Admin­is­tra­tion (SITLA) offices in down­town Salt Lake City. Earth First! activists staged their protest with local orga­niz­ers from Utah Tar Sands Resis­tance and Canyon Coun­try Ris­ing Tide. The offices were closed for Pres­i­dents’ Day, but a clear (and messy) mes­sage was left at the doorstep—a mock oil spill accom­pa­nied by a mur­al read­ing “Hey SITLA: Tar Sands Out­ta Utah!” 

The project would lease school trust lands for tar sands extrac­tion in the Book Cliffs area, direct­ly impact­ing PR Springs, a site which is also uti­lized for camp­ing and recre­ation.

“Destruc­tion of edu­ca­tion trust lands through tar sands min­ing is con­trary to the man­date of this agency, which requires them to main­tain the land for the long term,” said Mark Pur­dy of Utah Tar Sands Resis­tance.

An arti­cle in the Desert News stat­ed: “The pro­posed min­ing oper­a­tion would occu­py a 213-acre site in the East Tava­putts Plateau strad­dling the bor­ders of Uin­tah and Grand coun­ties.  An ore pro­cess­ing facil­i­ty would accom­mo­date up to 3,500 tons of ore per day in the pro­duc­tion of bitu­men. The extrac­tion process would require 1.5 bar­rels to 2 bar­rels of water per bar­rel of bitu­men pro­duced… The com­pa­ny will have to post a recla­ma­tion bond of near­ly $1.7 mil­lion before any work is allowed to begin at the site.

Anoth­er com­pa­ny, MCW Ener­gy, is propos­ing a pilot project to test its pro­pri­etary sol­vent in the extrac­tion of bitu­men on 1,000 stock­piled tons of tar sands 3 miles west of Ver­nal in Uin­tah Coun­ty.

Oppo­nents have appealed per­mits issued relat­ed to the PR Springs project, with hear­ings set for next month.”

Utah was cho­sen specif­i­cal­ly as the site of the annu­al Earth First! win­ter gath­er­ing to high­light resis­tance to these tar sands pro­pos­al, as well as lend sup­port to the coura­geous actions of peo­ple like Tim DeChristo­pher who was sen­tenced to a two-years in prison for his effec­tive sab­o­tage of an oil and gas auc­tion on Utah’s pub­lic lands. 

Along with DeChristo­pher, two oth­er eco­log­i­cal and ani­mal lib­er­a­tion activists from Utah, Jor­dan Hal­l­i­day and Wal­ter Bond, are also cur­rent­ly fac­ing time behind bars for their involve­ment with direct action efforts in the state. Con­tacts for these and oth­er eco-pris­on­ers can be found at the Earth First! Journal’s pris­on­er sup­port page.

In relat­ed news, an anony­mous com­mu­nique enti­tled Eco-Sab­o­tage Ends Tar Sand Extrac­tion was also received the pre­vi­ous night, appar­ent­ly sent back from the future, stat­ing: “…The Book Cliffs, where Spot­ted Owls screech and Elk reign, were under attack… Eco-War­riors worked under the ris­ing sun. We have Molo­toved their min­ing equip­ment. We have Mon­key-Wrenched their machines. We have sawed their bull­doz­ers to pieces. There are no longer any func­tion­al drilling tools in the Book Cliffs.

A major blow has been dealt to the oil extrac­tion infra­struc­ture. The PR Springs Mine Project is at its knees. Take Warn­ing. Oil will nev­er be piped through the West. Utah will nev­er be mined. The mines of Alber­ta will cease.

No longer will our wild places fuel this mil­i­ta­rized cul­ture. Your machines are bound to rust. Tar Sand Extrac­tion Prof­i­teers, SITLA, CEO’s Glen D. Snar and Mr. Cuth­bert; We are com­ing for you. This is just the begin­ning…”

The min­ing equip­ment is not actu­al­ly present on-site yet, just in case that was unclear.