Utah Issues
What Can You Do?
Volunteer with Grand Canyon Trust.
Social Media Links
Grand Canyon Trust is an active member of the Canyonlands Watershed Council, a coalition of citizens from southeast Utah in Grand and San Juan Counties.
Our actions help address human health concerns related to traditional energy development.
Grand Canyon Trust organized a high-level meeting to discuss air-quality issues and collaborative strategies with Grand County, the EPA, BLM, Park Service, Utah State Trust Lands Administration, and Utah regulating agencies of the Department of Environmental Quality. The BLM and State are now working together to get cooperation from developers in the Uintah Basin to voluntarily clean up air emissions to prevent an EPA “nonattainment status” ruling for ozone in the region. In 2010, the Uintah Basin had the dubious distinction of having the worst air quality in the nation, outpacing even San Bernardino County in the Los Angeles metroplex, while exhibiting extremely high ozone readings in the winter months. The only reason the Uintah Basin is not currently at nonattainment status is that it fails to meet the population density figures EPA uses for this determination.
The Trust invited Dr. Theo Colborn, one of the world’s leading authorities on endocrine disrupting chemicals and their effects on human health and the environment, to speak before the Grand County Council and Planning Commission in Moab. Dr. Colborn’s presentation alerted elected and appointed officials to the dangers of chemicals used in oil and gas production and led to better language and oversight in the ordinance the county was drafting to govern the disposal of oil and gas wastewater, an industry activity being promoted by the County.
We testified before the Governor’s Energy Task Force to help develop Governor Herbert’s Ten Year Energy Plan advocating for energy efficiency, a renewable energy standard, and acknowledgement of direct health care costs to citizens sickened by air and water pollution caused by the energy industry. The final plan was released in March 2011.
We provide information to local governments, state regulating agencies and the EPA, which has led to enforcement actions on existing industrial developments in southern Utah and additional scrutiny of proposed operations.
Your donations and membership dues make our research, monitoring, and restoration work in Utah possible.
