Utah environmental groups ask judge to cancel lease sales

New York (Platts)--23Jun2010/400 pm EDT/2000 GMT

     Charging two US agencies with violating federal law by including

environmentally sensitive federal land in 2004 and 2005 lease sales in Utah,

three environmental organizations in that state have asked a federal judge to

cancel the sales.

     The Utah Rivers Council, the Utah Environmental Congress and the

Citizens' Committee to Save our Canyons want a US district court judge in Salt

Lake City to require the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to

"enforce protections" mandated for 140,000 acres within the Uinta National

Forest, including more than 90,000 acres of designated "Roadless Areas,"

according to their petition.

     "The leases are a very clear violation of the 2001 [US] Roadless rules

that says no new roads are to be built in Roadless Areas for oil and gas

exploration," Kevin Mueller, program director for the Utah Environmental

Congress, said Wednesday in a interview.

     Another key concern of the environmental groups is the leases could allow

for the degradation of crucial habitat for the Bonneville cutthroat trout, a

rare native subspecies, Mueller said.

     The Forest Service in its own 2003 land use plan for the Uinta National

Forest banned surface disturbances within 300 feet of either side of its

streams, but both it and the BLM have refused to include such a stipulation in

its leases, Mueller said.

     Ironically, Mueller said, a petition to have the Department of Interior

list the Bonneville cutthroat trout as an endangered species was rejected in

part because of the Uinta National Forest plan included the stream protection

requirements, Mueller said.

     The Forest Service repeatedly has refused environmental group requests to

include the streamside protection requirements in the Uinta leases, saying

they could be added later when leaseholders actually start development,

Mueller said. But with the leases being "legally binding contracts," this

would be problematic at best, legally impossible at worst, he argued.

     According to the environmental groups' complaint, filed Monday with Judge

Tena Campbell in the US District Court for the District of Utah in Salt Lake

City, the BLM, in a September 2004 lease sale, with permission from the Forest

Service, sold 57 contested Unita parcels, totaling 119,000 acres, including

73,000 acres of Roadless Area, despite protests from the groups.

     The following December, the BLM sold nine such parcels totaling 20,000

acres, including 17,000 of Roadless Area, and in August 2005, BLM sold 14

contested parcels totaling 27,000 acres, including 20,000 Roadless Area acres.

The BLM has since refunded payments for seven of the leases at the requests of

the leaseholder, the groups said.

     "The leased area boasts some of Utah's most important wildlife habitat,

contains high-quality fisheries, fosters rare and native plant communities,

attracts huge numbers of anglers, hunters, hikers and sight-seers and provides

critical ... water to Wasatch Front cities and farmers," the environmental

groups said in their complaint.

 

     ENFORCING LAWS

     The Uinta leases "allows the total alteration of the natural character of

the leased area and authorizes an industrial use of the forest that will

result in considerable harms such as air pollution, noise, soil erosion,

stream sedimentation, habitat destruction, harassment of wildlife, damage to

historic sites and a complete transformation of the visual landscape," the

groups said.

     The environmental groups want Campbell to require the Forest Service and

the BLM to enforce the US Mineral Leasing Act, the National Forest Management

Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, ensuring their leasing

decisions are based on "adequate analysis of the reasonably foreseeable

environmental consequences" of the Uinta leases, and follow the 2003 Uinta

forest plan and protect the national forest's natural, recreational and

cultural resources.

     Citing other US laws--the US National Forest Management Act, the

Roadless Area Conservation Act, the National Historic Preservation Act and the

Endangered Species Act--the environmental groups want the Forest Service and

BLM to monitor the lease areas five "management-indicator species," the most

sensitive species in a particular environment, sometimes providing warning

signals of overall environmental problems in such locales; prohibit road

construction in Roadless Areas; consider the impacts of leasing on historic

and archaeological sites; and to ensure the leases did not jeopardize the

continued existence of a listed species or its critical habitat.

     A Forest Service spokeswoman Wednesday did not know about the

environmental groups' suit against the agency and a BLM spokesman did not

return a call for comment.

--Richard Rubin, richard_rubin@platts.com