UTAH

State failed to stop Great Salt Lake’s rapid shrinking, lawsuit says

Utah officials have pushed the Great Salt Lake to the brink of an ecological collapse because they allowed upstream water to be diverted for decades to farmers growing alfalfa, hay and other crops, according to a lawsuit filed on Sept. 6 by a coalition of environmental groups.

The conservationists want a court to step in and force the state to let more water reach the largest natural lake west of the Mississippi River, which is an oasis for millions of migratory birds, an engine for Utah’s billion-dollar mineral industry and a tourist attraction.

The risks of a diminished Great Salt Lake aren’t merely beached sailboats and wider shores. They also include species extinction and toxic dust clouds billowing over nearby communities, the lawsuit says.

The lake first hit a record low in the summer of 2021, fueling renewed attention from Utah’s Republican-led Legislature. But lawmakers’ actions have not been enough to assuage the concerns of a coalition that includes Earthjustice, the Utah Rivers Council and Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, among others.

Emma Williams, a spokesperson for Utah Republican Gov. Spencer Cox, declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation.

State officials have repeatedly identified restoring the lake as a top priority. But despite a temporary rise in lake levels this summer after a record winter snowfall, the lake’s long-term outlook is bleak. Earlier this year, Cox created and filled the position of Great Salt Lake commissioner in an effort to find solutions.

Toxic chemicals – including arsenic, lead and mercury – are trapped in the lakebed. As more of the lakebed becomes exposed and dries, those chemicals are carried into the air by the wind. The consequent toxic dust storms could lower life expectancies, as well as heighten cancer and infant mortality rates, said said Brian Moench of the Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, citing past instances of lakes drying up across the world.

Stu Gillespie, a senior attorney at Earthjustice, which filed the lawsuit, said Utah’s constitution clearly outlines the state’s obligation to safeguard the Great Salt Lake on behalf of the public. It’s called the public trust doctrine, and it was used by California’s supreme court in the 1980s to protect Mono Lake from shrinking because of water diversion to Los Angeles. The doctrine is cited in the lawsuit.

MONTANA

Company paid $2.6 million to relinquish oil lease on land sacred to Native Americans

BILLINGS – A Louisiana company will receive $2.6 million to relinquish the last remaining oil and gas lease on U.S. forest land near Montana’s Glacier National Park that’s sacred to Native Americans, government officials and attorneys involved in the deal said Sept. 1.

The deal would resolve a decades-long dispute over the 10-square-mile oil and gas lease in the mountainous Badger-Two Medicine area of northwestern Montana.

The lease was issued in 1982 but has not been developed. It’s on the site of the creation story for the Blackfoot tribes of southern Canada and Montana’s Blackfeet Nation. Tribal members bitterly opposed drilling.

In exchange for giving up the lease, Solenex LLC will receive $2.6 million, said David McDonald with the Mountain States Legal Foundation, which represented the company. The government will pay $2 million and the Wyss Foundation, a charitable group founded by Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss, will provide the remaining $625,000.

The Solenex lease had been cancelled in 2016 under then-U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell at the request of the Blackfoot tribes and conservation groups.

But U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ordered the lease reinstated last year. Leon said Jewell lacked the authority to withdraw the lease so many years after it was sold and after several prior studies had examined the environmental and other impacts of drilling in the area.

Blackfeet Tribal Historic Preservation Officer John Murray characterized the legal battle over the lease as a “protracted clash of cultures” and said he was relieved it was over.

NEW MEXICO

State to consider increasing hunting limits for black bears

SANTA FE – The New Mexico Game Commission will consider in October increasing hunting limits for black bears in several areas of the state.

Stewart Liley, the state Game and Fish Department’s head of wildlife management, presented a plan to the commission on Aug. 24, recommending that the total kills allowed be increased to 864 from the current 804.

The plan also suggested keeping cougar hunting limits the same in all but one management zone, where it would be reduced by 17 kills.

New Mexico’s overall kill limit now is 8% to 12% for a mature population of bears and 17% to 24% for cougars.

Hunters aren’t allowed to kill cubs or kittens or mothers accompanying the babies.

Wildlife advocates protest the increased killing of animals they say are vital to the ecosystem, while ranchers and hunters generally support the effort.

“We call for a reduction of the kill quotas across the board for both bears and cougars for the next four years,” said Mary Catherine Ray of the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter.

Liley said the commonly used term “quotas” is incorrect because the state isn’t trying to achieve these numbers but rather is placing a ceiling on how many of the animals can be hunted.

ARIZONA

US will start training Ukrainian pilots on F-16s at air base

WASHINGTON – The U.S. will start training Ukrainian pilots to fly U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets, beginning at an Air National Guard base in October, the Pentagon said on Aug. 24.

The training is part of a U.S. and European effort to get the advanced fighter jets to Ukraine for its defense against invading Russian forces.

The announcement came as President Joe Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to commemorate Ukraine’s Independence Day and to reiterate support for the effort to fight back Russian troops.

The two discussed the F-16 training, and Biden assured Zelenskyy of an expedited approval for other nations to transfer their F-16s to Ukraine once training is completed, the White House said in a statement.

U.S. military officials stress it takes years of training to be able to field F-16 squadrons, limiting the impact the aircraft will have on Ukraine’s defense for the near future.

The training will take place at Morris Air National Guard base in Tucson, Arizona. The pilots will first undergo English instruction at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, to bring their fluency up to the level needed to operate the aircraft, starting in September, Ryder said.

Police say human skull donated to Goodwill not linked to any crime

GOODYEAR – It’s probably not the strangest item ever donated to a Goodwill store. But employees of a thrift store in the Phoenix area knew exactly what to do when they saw what looked like a human skull in one of their donation boxes: Call police.

Officers responded to the store in Goodyear on Sept. 5 and took possession of the skull, which was covered in spots and had its upper front teeth attached, plus a false eye in the left socket.

The skull was transported to the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office where authorities “confirmed that it is in fact a real human skull,” police spokesperson Lisa Berry said.

“It appears this human skull is historic and has no forensic significance, meaning there appears to be no associated crime,” Berry added of the preliminary findings.

It remains unclear who donated the skull and what would become its final disposition. Berry said police had no additional information to release about the skull.