Yet it suffers Beijing-level air quality that frequently violates the Clean Air Act. Hemmed in by high mountain ranges on three sides, the basin is home to only about 50,000 people stretched over 9,300 square miles. Local environmentalists have dubbed this sparsely populated desert region “Mordor,” after J.R.R. There are currently more than 13,000 active oil and gas wells in Eastern Utah’s Uinta Basin. Gas lines draped over the cliffs and crosshatched the swallow nests, serving as the most visible indication that high on the plateau above us lay the state of Utah’s most productive oil and gas fields.
Eventually, the reason for the headache-inducing fumes came into view, and it wasn’t the sheep. But then, as we drifted peacefully around a bend, the stench of oil and other volatile organic compounds engulfed our little flotilla of rubber rafts in an invisible cloud of toxic gasses, blotting out the scent of sagebrush that had followed us down the river for the past two days. A lone elk wandered the hillside, while sheep noshed along the water, tended by a man on a horse striking an iconic Western pose up on the ridge. Swallows darted in and out of mud houses packed on the underside of the soaring sandstone cliffs.
From the water, the White River canyon was a scene worthy of Ansel Adams.
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