Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance

Veritas Hearing Scheduled for Thursday
SUWA will ask judge to halt Canyonlands oil exploration

The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance tomorrow morning will ask a federal judge to temporarily stop Veritas Inc. from beginning seismic activity on public lands near Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park near Moab.

A hearing on SUWA's request for a preliminary injunction will begin at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, in the courtroom of Judge Bruce Jenkins, 350 South Main, Salt Lake City.

SUWA attorneys will ask that the Veritas seismic work, authorized by the Bureau of Land Management to begin September 1, be delayed while a full hearing on the merits can be heard. SUWA will argue that the BLM improperly followed environmental guidelines when the federal land agency granted the Veritas approval earlier this summer. The hearing should last several hours.