Protect Parley's Canyon! Voice your opposition to Governor Cox. 

Our Concerns

LOCATION 

A windy canyon with a nearby downwind population center is a high-risk location for a gravel pit. Wind reports for lower Parley’s Canyon show that wind speeds in the area exceed 25 miles per hour about 40 percent of the time. From the mouth of Parleys Canyon, 21,000 people live within a 1-mile radius and 139,000 people live within a 3-mile radius. 

The currently approved permit is for a 20-acre parcel. However, the land is part of a 634-acre parcel, and the company previously attempted to file for a larger mine, leading most to the conclusion they have plans to expand it and are using a small operations permit to get their foot in the door and circumvent more rigorous approval processes. 

FUGITIVE DUST

Fugitive dust that blows off gravel pits is as much of a hazard as any other form of air pollution. The dust, crystalline silica, and diesel emissions are known carcinogens and have multiple other adverse health consequences. State regulations don’t require gravel pit operators to comply with dust control regulations when wind speed exceeds 25 miles per hour, which is about 40% of the time in Parley’s Canyon. 

WATER

To permit the use of water that is needed to suppress fugitive dust is irresponsible during the West’s megadrought.

FIRE RISK 

A Parley’s Canyon wildfire in 2021 (caused by sparks from a car’s catalytic converter) highlights the area’s wildfire risk. Industrializing Parley’s southern slope would elevate wildfire and other physical risks for wildlife and the neighboring Mt Aire Canyon community and further threaten the watershed. Extreme measures are being taken right now to reduce wildfire risk, including denuding hundreds of acres of trees in Parley’s Canyon, a strategy we disagree with. The approval of this mine flies in the face of those extreme efforts to reduce wildfire risk. 

The prospects of a severe wildfire in Parley’s, and the potential impact on the watershed is one of the reasons why the SL City water department has supported this tree removal project, something out of character for their usual environmental priorities. This mine completely undermines that objective, increasing the risk of a catastrophic wildfire, which would further damage the watershed beyond the impact of the mine itself.

GRANITE CONSTRUCTION’S TRACK-RECORD

Granite has violated at least 46 environmental rules or regulations at federal, state and local levels relating to air pollution, failing to control fugitive dust, hazardous waste, operating without a permit, violating air quality standards, violating the Clean Water Act and water pollution. Granite’s history of violating environmental regulations is especially ominous in light of the dire state of Utah’s water shortage, and public health consequences of inevitable dust pollution.

THIS PROJECT IS TOO RISKY FOR A COMPANY WITH A HISTORY OF NON-COMPLIANCE