Plans to drill for oil near artwork raise ire in Utah
Critics fear harm to 'Spiral Jetty'
ROZEL POINT, Utah - When artist Robert Smithson assembled a massive spiral unfurling into the Great Salt Lake 38 years ago, there was no indication that this remote spot would be altered again by humans any time soon.
Smithson's work, called "Spiral Jetty," became a renowned piece of art, its striking man-made pattern created amid isolation. Now art lovers fear it is threatened by plans to explore for oil a few miles offshore.
"The relationship between the work of art and the surrounding landscape is critical," said Laura Raicovich, deputy director of the Dia Art Foundation in New York, which now owns the sculpture. "This is an internationally recognized work of art which not just the people of Utah but everyone should want to maintain."
For decades, energy companies have known that oil sits beneath the Great Salt Lake. Indeed, the remains of a derrick lie a few hundred yards from "Spiral Jetty," a 125-mile drive north and west of Salt Lake City on a shallow edge of the lake. But there has been no exploration on the lake since the sculpture was created, state officials say. The oil is a heavy crude and costs so much to refine that it has been economically unfeasible to extract it.
That is until skyrocketing oil prices made it worthwhile for Pearl Exploration & Production, an oil company based in Calgary, Alberta. The company filed an application in January to explore underneath a stretch of the lake about five miles from the jetty.
More than 3,000 people have written to Utah officials in protest. Keith Hill, president and chief executive of Pearl, also has been swamped with correspondence.
"Not one," he said in an interview, "has been supportive."
Hill, who describes himself as a "closeted environmentalist," said that he understands the concern, and that his company would keep the project as inconspicuous as possible. The only time the work would be visible from the jetty, he said, would be during the month or so of initial drilling from a large barge.
If the project goes into production, the company would build 16-foot-high rigs that would not be visible from the shore, Hill said.
Transport of the crude would be via buried pipelines or a barge that could be diverted far from the sculpture.
Utah officials said they had delayed approval of the oil exploration pending more information on how Pearl would transport the crude.
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