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John Hollenhorst ReportingA legal battle erupted today over a big energy project near one of Utah's best-known archaeological areas. Environmentalists are trying to stop a Colorado firm from shaking the ground with explosives and vibrating trucks.
The lawsuit is no surprise. Fierce controversy has been boiling for a year because the project is just outside an archaeological treasure house called Nine Mile Canyon. Nine Mile Canyon has so many archaeological sites it's often called The World's Longest Art Gallery.
The project will not be in Nine Mile but in side canyons and plateau areas just outside. The Colorado-based Bill Barret Corporation plans to set off thousands of small underground explosions, and to shake the ground with vibrating trucks.
Seismic data collected by computers will help determine the best places to drill for what the company believes is a vast deposit of Natural Gas.
A coalition of environmental and archaeological groups filed suit in Washington to stop the project.
The federal Bureau of Land Management approved the project after 22 months of study and controversy.
Company workers may swing into action as soon as Wednesday, unless critics get a court order to stop it.
A top Bill Barrett official told us today his company produces something everyone uses everyday--energy. And he accused the company's critics of producing nothing but litigation.
Those critics, though, say they wouldn't oppose it if it were done right, with proper protection for valuable resources.
