Road Dust from Gas Rigs Eroding Ancient Pictographs in Nine Mile Canyon

May 01, 2008 by Elizabeth Ziegler

(KCPW News) Road dust from gas rigs traveling through Nine Mile Canyon near Price is slowly sanding away pictographs from ancient American Indian cultures. The defacing of these archaeological sites will speed up with the increased traffic from a proposed expansion of a nearby gas field, says Nine Mile Canyon Coalition member Ivan White, with a voice hoarse from spending the afternoon in the dusty canyon.

"We don't have any desire to stop the gas drilling, but we do not want the longest art gallery in the world, you know, to be completely destroyed," White says.

Today is the last day for public comment on the draft Environmental Impact Statement for Bill Barrett Corporation's proposal to fully develop the gas field south of Nine Mile Canyon. White's group has asked the Bureau of Land Management to extend the deadline for 2 months to further study the dust, survey the archaeological sites, and conduct an engineering study of alternate routes to the gas field. The Environmental Coordinator for BLM's Price Field Office, Brad Higdon, says results of a recent study on dust and the use of magnesium chloride as a dust suppressant indicate they are contributing to the erosion of the ancient art carved into the canyon's walls. In light of this study, Higdon says the BLM is partnering with Carbon County to test different dust suppression methods along Nine Mile Canyon Road to determine short-term fixes for the problem, and possible long-term solutions.

"Everything is on the table at this time, including hard surfacing - using recycled asphalt or asphalt itself. But we are also looking at different type of suppressants, enzyme of petroleum-based suppressants as alternatives to mag. chloride and the use of just spraying water," Higdon says.

He says the BLM is testing these methods for suppressing dust on the existing road after careful consideration of alternative routes to the gas field indicated removing traffic through the canyon is not a viable option.

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