To the editor:
Unbelievably, southern Utah may take industry's bait on yet another outlandish promise of "unprecedented economic prosperity." This time, the promise comes from Andalex Resources and their proposal to mine coal on the Kaiparowits Plateau.Have the people of southern Utah forgotten again the history of extractive industry in their part of the state? The result of uranium mining, oil shale development and the like has consistently been a boom-and-bust economy - with generally a lot of bust and a very small, short boom.
Kane County especially would be well-advised to learn from prior mistakes. If not that, it should at least look to the recent experience of the timber industry in the Pacific Northwest.
In the not-too-distant past, American timber was cut and then shipped overseas in huge quantities to supply demand for plywood and other wood products in Japan and the Pacific Rim. As a result, valuable wildlife habitat was destroyed, old-growth forests were clear-cut and roads were punched into previously unroaded areas.
Timber jobs disappeared quickly as the effects of declining timber supplies and increased mill mechanization were realized. Eventually, timber's promises of wealth and prosperity came up empty.
Congress was forced to pass legislation limiting timber exports and, in the end, also limiting the practice of destroying valuable natural resources in this country to provide a few jobs and to meet the timber needs of importing countries.
Southern Utah faces an identical risk. Should it be approved, Andalex's mine will yield major adverse impacts on the pristine environment of the Kaiparowits Plateau - on its diverse wildlife habitat, on its population of raptors and other rare birds and on its silence and loneliness.
In the meantime, the coal will be shipped out of state or, more likely, exported to the Pacific Rim. The economic benefits to Kane County - if indeed they even occur - will be short-lived and will not even begin to cover the destruction that the mine will cause.
Mark MacAllister
Salt Lake City