“Dangerous Liaisons: Mining the Colorado Plateau” is an upcoming one-day symposium on the renewed interest in developing the uranium, petroleum and oil shale resources of the Colorado Plateau. This is the annual Colorado Plateau Studies Symposium held at Coconino Community College.  “Dangerous Liaisons” will be held at Coconino Community College’s Lone Tree Campus on Saturday, September 30th from 9AM to 4PM.

“Dangerous Liasons: Mining the Colorado Plateau” is free and open to the public. For more information contact Alan Petersen at 226-4322. Information is also available on the web at www.coconino.edu/cps.

Roger Clark, Air and Energy Program Director for the Grand Canyon Trust, will give an overview of the “History of Energy Development on the Colorado Plateau.” In 1995 Clark received the Ben Avery Award from Arizona’s governor for “outstanding contributions to Arizona’s environment.”

Coconino Community College geology faculty member Pete Kohler will give a talk titled “Finnegan’s Rainbow? The Geology of Energy Resources of the Colorado Plateau." His presentation will give a general overview of the geology of the plateau region with specific discussion of mineral and energy resource bearing strata and structures.

Andrew Gulliford, visiting from Fort Lewis College in Durango, will discuss the history and economics of oil shale, an energy resource that is once again attracting the attention of the federal government and energy companies. His talk titled “Boomtown Blues and Energy Development” is based on research from his book Boomtown Blues: Colorado Oil Shale, which won the Colorado Book Award.

Michael Amundson, Associate Professor of History at Northern Arizona University, will talk about the history abd culture of uranium mining on the Colorado Plateau. He is the author of “Yellowcake Towns: Uranium Mining Communities in the American West”. In his talk Dr. Amundson combines science and politics along with imagery and artifacts of the 1950’s uranium boom and frenzy.

Laura Kamala, returning to speak at the symposium again this year is the Grand Canyon Trust’s Utah Program Coordinator. Her presentation “The Cost to Communities of the Boom and Bust Cycle of Energy Exploitation” discusses the effects on small plateau towns of the influx of large numbers of energy industry workers. The costs of the  resulting social and economic challenges that must be met can be overwhelming.

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