Energy companies have rapidly expanded oil and gas drilling in the headwaters of the Colorado River. This expansion comes through both traditional energy development and much more destructive measures such as fracking, and strip mining for oil shale and tar sands. Utah alone has nearly doubled its total volume of oil and gas wells in the last 10 years and the state shows no sign of abating its courtship with dirty energy.
Alongside this expansion has come illegal dumping of crude oil byproducts alongside several prominent oil spills in our watershed. These impacts are effectively increasing the abundance of toxins in our headwaters. Particularly disconcerting is the proposed expansion of tar sands and oil shale which stand to turn vast tracts of pristine headwater lands into a polluted lunar landscape of strip mined land and industrial byproducts.
We must not let the tar sands and oil shale industries take hold in Utah. The consequences for current and future generations are unacceptable.
Tar Sands Oil Shale Oil & Gas Nuclear Energy
Colorado River Connected 