There certainly is plenty of wilderness, potash, and oil shale deposits in eastern Utah. And marginal deposits of tar sands, and conventional oil and gas fields.

However, there certainly isn't plenty of water. In fact, the Colorado River has nothing left to give. The water you see in this landscape, is already spoken for, because the Colorado River is shared with 35 million people.

Despite the upper basin state's desire to develop another one million acre-feet per year, the total supply has been declining by one million acre-feet every 50-years since the beginning of the 20th century. This trend will continue to the end of the present century, according to the agency that regulates the basin's surface water, the Bureau of Reclamation (Final Report)

Why then, is the Utah congressional delegation so eager to make a deal with the public they serve? Knowing that sizeable depletions from the Colorado River system for water intensive extractive industries will send the entire basin into huge legal battles over water rights?

Not only will this deal be bad for Utah's water security, it will be bad for all the people who depend on the gift of the Colorado River.

GRAND COUNTY ALTERNATIVES

• Alternative 1
• Alternative 2
• Alternative 3
• Possible Book Cliffs Highway Route

NEWS COVERAGE

• This Land Was Your Land. American Prospect.
• Wilderness Bills Blocked: Utah's Bishop Singled Out. Salt Lake Tribune.
• Grand County Seeks Uintah County's Feedback on New Book Cliffs Road Study. Moab Times-Independent.
• Bishop Bill Would Restrict National Monument Creation. Salt Lake Tribune.
• County Takes Early Step Toward Book Cliffs Road. Moab Sun News.
• March 2014 - Protest about oil & gas in Grand County
• Statistics Show That Residents Favor Land Protection. Moab Sun News.
• Moab's Dilemma: Can Recreation Coexist with Energy? Deseret News.
• Mapping Grand County's Future. Moab Sun News.
• Sego Canyon Road: Path to Prosperity or Harm. Salt Lake Tribune.

OP/EDS

Jim Baca - Obama Should Declare Greater Canyonlands Monument.

Stewart Udall - The Creation and Expansion of Canyonlands National Park.

DOCUMENT ARCHIVE

• Press release on the public process for Grand County.
• Congressional Staff Report. November, 2013.
• Letter from Representative Rob Bishop

• Utah Wilderness Coalition Final Bishop Response
• Grand Canyon Trust Priorities
• Process ask from Grand Canyon Trust, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Great Old Broads, Canyonlands Watershed Council, Utah Environmental Congress
• Complete record of letters from citizens. January, 2014.

BLM'S 1992 BOOK CLIFFS HIGHWAY DRAFT EIS

• Preliminary Draft EIS For Highway from Ouray to Cisco.
• Draft EIS Highway from Ouray to Interstate 70.
• EA for Proposed Ouray to Cisco Highway Survey.
• EA for Proposed Ouray To Cisco Highway.
• Bookcliffs Highway Correspondence.

MAPS

• Hatch Point Proposed Land Exchange
• Hatch Point Trade Proposals

Summary of what the extractive industries want:

• Placing restraints on the Antiquities Act.
• Reforms of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
• Reforms of the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
• The release of wilderness study area's that have energy and mineral resources below the surface.