Oil from an aging Garfield County oil field has contaminated a wash flowing into Utah’s popular Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. Hikers traversing Little Valley Wash discovered the 4-mile wide spill on March 22. The group photographed oil-covered sandstone walls, sandy beds and small waterways, and delivered the images to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) who has sent a team to investigate the spill.

The Wilderness Society’s Assistant Director of Policy and Planning, Phil Hanceford, believes this spill, which went unreported for some time, illustrates both the carelessness of the responsible company, and the need for the BLM to increase its limited monitoring and enforcement capacity.

The oil appears to have been flushed down the wash months ago, but the recent photographs were the first time the BLM was alerted to the problem. This is the second time that officials have looked into oil escaping the Upper Valley oil field, which is operated by Citation Oil and Gas Corp.

‘The news that an unreported oil spill has been contaminating the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is a sure sign that stronger BLM oversight is needed for oil and gas drillers operating on public lands,” Hanceford said.

By law, companies who hold contracts to extract […]