Oil Drilling Threatens Smithson’s Spiral Jetty

Canadian firm planning to drill exploratory boreholes near iconic icon that was created in 1970

by Tony Illia

A proposal to drill for oil in Utah’s Great Salt Lake threatens artist Robert Smithson’s monumental 1970 earthwork, “Spiral Jetty.” Calgary, Alberta-based Pearl Montana Exploration and Production holds three 2003 leases to drill exploratory boreholes near the iconic coil. On January 11, the company submitted a state application (#8853) to drill two wells from floating barges anchored to the lake bed. It caught artists and conservationists off guard.

The 1,500-ft.-long mud, salt crystal and rock spiral was supposedly safeguarded under a 19-month-old settlement. In May 2006, preservation groups including Western Resource Advocates, the Sierra Club's Utah chapter, Friends of Great Salt Lake and Great Salt Lake Audubon reached an agreement with the state that pulled back oil and gas leases in the northwest arm of the lake. The pact covered 116,000 acres, but left out 55,000 acres. The lake's Little Valley Harbor, five miles southwest of the Spiral Jetty, is among those acres exempted.

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Smithson’s 15-ft.-wide counterclockwise curlicue is located at Rozel Point in Box Elder County. It was built using heavy machinery and 6,650 tons of basalt and earth. Spiral Jetty was under water for years before remerging in 1999 after a drought.The earthwork was acquired by the New York-based Dia Art Foundation as a gift from the artist’s estate in 1999.

The sculpture, which is considered Smithson’s masterpiece, embodies his exploration of entropy a theme shared by James Wines and other deconstructionist architects during the 1970s and has been known to generations of architecture and art history students mostly through photographs and a film produced by the artist himself.

“The expansive natural setting is integral to Smithson’s artwork, providing an essential frame for experiencing the Spiral Jetty,” said Jeffrey Weiss, foundation director, in a statement. “Any incursion on the open landscape, including the proposed drilling, would significantly compromise this important work of art.”

Yet drilling could occur this year. The state must honor mineral rights, although it still determines drilling terms and conditions. "If there's a problem, we won't sign until the problem is solved," said Brad Hill, permit manager for the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining. A permitting request is normally processed in a couple of weeks. But state officials extended the public comment period to February 13. A permitting decision is expected by late March due to high volume of feedback.

“The state is in a tricky situation. They have to figure out how to navigate these waters,” Lynn de Freitas, executive director of the Friends of Great Salt Lake. “This is a first of wave of permits coming forward because there are other leases that were approved in 2005 when the state opened up a significant amount of acreage for oil and gas leases.”

Oil companies have explored the area before and after Smithson finished his earthwork in 1970. In the 1920s, a drilling company built an offshore rig on a pier near Rozel Point. Amoco drilled in the same spot during the 1970s, but abandoned the leases when oil prices dropped. Groups opposing new drilling near the Spiral Jetty include the artist’s widow, Nancy Holt, as well as the Dia Art Foundation, National Trust for Historic Preservation and Friends of the Great Salt Lake, among others. A revision in the state's Great Salt Lake Mineral Leasing Plan of 1996 is expected to play a key role in the permitting decision. The state agreed to pull back leases in 2006 because the plan is outdated.