March 28, 1997

Attendance:

Board Members:

• Richard Kennedy
• DeeDee O'Brien
• Jerry Golden
• William Berge
• Cary Smith
• Milton Wadsworth

Excused:

• Russell Babcock

UGS Staff:

• M. Lee Allison
• Werner Haidenthaller
• Kimm Harty
• Cheryl Ostlund
• Bob Blackett
• Tim Madden
• Brenda Nguyen
• Jeff Quick
• Catharine Woodfield
• Bob Keefe
• Bryce Tripp
• Tom Chidsey
• Craig Morgan
• Wally Gwynn
• Gary Christenson

Guests:

• Howard Rigtrup, Department of Natural Resources

Vice Chairman Jerry Golden called the meeting of the Utah Geological Survey Board to order at 8:30 a.m. Chairman Babcock was excused from the meeting, he was out of the country.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Bill Berge made motion to approve the minutes of the January 10, 1997 meeting, DeeDee O'Brien seconded, and the motion carried.

STAFF INTRODUCTIONS
Director Lee Allison introduced new staff to the board. They are: Bob Keefe, geologist, Geologic Extension Service; Catharine Woodfield, geological technician, Economic; Jeff Quick, geologist, Economic; Tim Madden, public affairs officer, Geologic Extension Service; and Brenda Nguyen, secretary, Applied/Mapping.

Director Allison introduced Howard Rigtrup, Deputy Director, Department of Natural Resources. He and Kathy Clarke have switched responsibilities and Howard oversees UGS.

DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Board Nominations
Director Allison informed the board that four board member appointments expire this month. All are eligible for reappointment, except for Milton Wadsworth. Nominations have been accepted by the Governor's office. We haven't heard much and will let you know as soon as we do. They should have names to legislature for approval in their April interim committee. Current board members are invited to remain on the board until replaced.

Legislative Session
The UGS report on the economic resources for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was distributed to legislators as soon as it was published. Kimm Harty reported the legislature did approve the use of $300,000 from the Warehouse Internal Service Fund to complete the sample library. Senator Craig Taylor introduced a bill to define a geologist under the Land Survey and Engineer Licensing Act which exempted them from licensing as a land surveyor or engineer. Opposition to this bill from engineers and surveyors lead to a substitute bill which removed the exemption of geologists from the engineer and surveyors licensing act. In part because the geologic and engineering community didn't have the opportunity to review the substitute legislation, the bill was sent to interim study. Ms. Harty has contacted the geologic associations in Utah to give them the information and a copy of the bill and asked for comments. The original bill was introduced to give one geologist the ability to practice engineering and land surveying without being licensed. We will keep board informed as to its status.

Sample Library
Kimm Harty indicated that the budget is now almost $1 million. We are now in the programming phase. The new warehouse (10,000 square feet) is smaller than the one we are currently renting, but the shelves will be higher and will hold more core. Construction is scheduled to begin the end of June.

Results of the Bluebell Project
Craig Morgan described the results of the first demonstration phase of the Bluebell Project. Production volume improved, but was still low after treatment. Plans are to move on to the next well this summer and treat specific beds and not the entire well.

Paradox Basin Drilling Project
Tom Chidsey informed board members that the UGS is working with Harken Southwest and the U.S. Department of Energy on a project to increase oil reserves and production in small fields throughout the Paradox Basin. Horizontal drilling and enhanced oil recovery technology are two of the new techniques being used on this project. Harkin requested to drill a horizontal well in the Mule field area and planned to drill for 1,000 feet. There were a lot of mechanical problems to begin with. They were able to drill the 1,000 ft. length in about five days. It appears that they were drilling stratigraphically above where they intended. In attempting to encounter the mound, they were in the super-mound interval, not in the mound-core interval where they wanted to be. Mr. Chidsey indicated there are a couple of options: 1) leave the hole as is and attempt a completion in the super-mound, or 2) drill another lateral below the first to find the mound-core interval. The results will be interesting, horizontal drilling hasn't been done before in a small field of the basin. Forty to sixty percent of the remaining oil is in the super-mound interval.

XRF Demo
The board members were given a tour of the lab with the new X-ray Fluorescent unit. Wally Gwynn has been working to rehabilitate the unit and it should be fully running within a few months. The unit will be a big help in doing some original data analyses in-house. The first program planned is to look at high-calcium limestone samples.

GIS Demo
Director Allison informed the board we now have the software donation we received from Landmark Graphics (valued at $250,000) up and running. Bill Case demonstrated the new software, along with the newly acquired ArcView software. Maps can be plotted at any scale. Well logs can also be scanned into the system or digitized and added to the database. We already have over 100 well logs digitized. We have been upgrading computers and will be purchasing additional work stations that will run ArcView.

Director Allison indicated these new software packages are allowing us to move into GIS aggressively. We hope to produce our maps, with all of the associated data, on CD ROM that will be available for purchase at the bookstore. We will have viewers in the bookstore to allow customers to view the CD ROMs before purchasing them.

DISCUSSION ITEMS

Landslide and Debris-Flow Hazards
Gary Christenson informed the board that to date the snowpack is very high and well above normal. This spring has been dry compared to 1983, although the snowpack total is higher. A lot of the snowpack has melted in the lower areas during March. In addition to flood hazards, we are looking at landslides and debris-flow hazards. The debris-flow hazard is tied into flooding. There is a higher landslide hazard this year than normal. We have been monitoring some of the chronic slide areas and have noted some movement this year. The Thistle slide is moving again. At this point we don't feel that it will be a problem. Staff will continue to monitoring the problem areas.

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
Director Allison reported that since issuing our resource assessment of the monument area, we have published three additional information pieces - the archeology and paleontology reports and the topographic map. The monument area is very understudied for both archeology and paleontology. The new map is a combination of four USGS maps, with the roads in the area marked. There are about 1,100 miles of dirt roads and 470 miles of jeep trails within the monument.

We are working on a proposal to Congress. We submitted an outline to Senator Bennett about completing an assessment of the mineral, energy, archaeological, paleontological and water resources for the school trust lands within the monument. His office has asked us to submit a more detailed proposal to him for possible submittal to Congress. We would carry out the work on behalf of the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration. They will submit the proposal and then possibly contract with us to complete the work. As part of this project, we have identified approximately 50 core holes to drill on the trust lands to sample coal resources. The monument proposal includes funds to assess other coal areas in Utah that we are not currently working with USGS on for coal assessments. The total budget on the proposal is approximately $15 million. The program would double our staff and budget for the next three years. We will need a field operation center to complete this work.

Director Allison met with the president of Southern Utah University yesterday, along with key university staff about establishing an Escalante Field Institute. We are proposing it to evolve into a permanent scientific study center, with plans to turn the facility over to SUU as a science field research institute for them to operate after we have completed our work. It would be used also to meet the governor's goals to find alternative economic opportunities in rural areas of Utah and promote eco-tourism. There are a number of these types of institutions near national parks. This would be a separate component of the study proposal that we would submit to Congress. Dave Tabet will be the UGS program manager for this project.

Cary Smith made the motion of support from the board for the assessment proposal on the monument, Richard Kennedy seconded the motion and it was unanimously passed.

Governor Leavitt has negotiated an agreement with Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt for five state employees to be on the planning team for the new monument. We were asked to provide a geologist and have selected Bob Blackett. He will be assigned to Cedar City for the next three years. This is the first time that representatives from a state will serve on a national monument planning team. BLM is bringing ten people in from all over the country to serve on the planning team.

The Governor's office and the Department of Interior are proposing to hold a national science forum on the monument. It is tentatively scheduled for October 13-17 at SUU. There are plans for two days of field trips and two days of meetings. We are being asked to help organize this forum. It will overlap with some of the field trips with the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Salt Lake City. Suzanne Winters, the Governor's science advisor, is heading up the planning team for the conference for Utah.

Board Field Trip/June Meeting
Director Allison reminded the board it typically has a field trip each year. We have no recommendations for a trip location this year. Mr. Kennedy recommended that the field trip be canceled because of the pressures on the staff for other projects. The Board meeting for June was rescheduled to June 9 at 8:30 a.m. A luncheon honoring Milton Wadsworth for his service on the board will be held following the board meeting on that day.

Miscellaneous
Mr. Golden has been elected president of the Utah Friends of Paleontology.

Director Allison distributed copies of exhibitor's prospectus for the upcoming GSA annual meeting to the board.

ADJOURNMENT
Mr. Kennedy made motion to adjourn, Mr. Wadsworth seconded and the motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 11:55 a.m.