The controversial plan to drill the so-called "Viking Well" is officially dead. Since the issue surfaced in the summer of 2005, over 78,000 scoping comments were delivered to the Park Service and BLM opposing this well. The project was a retread of 1972 proposal (defeated by the Sierra Club) and would have involved upgrading roads in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, new road construction in the Glen Canyon NRA, clearing a well pad in the NRA, and drilling the well.

The overwhelmingly negative response during the scoping stage showed the Park Service that any decision to allow the project to move forward was going to be highly controversial and certainly litigated. As a result the NPS was able to take a tough line with the company and outline myriad requirements that the company would have to meet. The company couldn't meet those requirements and, after being given several "warnings" by BLM/NPS to submit a complete plan of operations, -the BLM lifted the suspension on this lease and it expired a few days ago. For those of you keeping count - the lease was issued in October 1969 -- and expired 37.5 years later without a well ever being drilled.