This is an open letter to Irwin Olian, President and CEO of Desert Mountain Energy Corp. in response to a story published in the Oct. 24 edition of The Tribune regarding Mr. Olian’s intent to explore for helium in the region. Dear Sir, I appreciate your willingness to enter the public arena by allowing an interview resulting in the article by Linda Kor, published in The Tribune on Oct. 23. I am not going to use this space to debate the pros and cons of various forms of well stimulation. However I would not wish readers to believe, as the mining industry often says “we’ve been dong this for over 50 years and it’s perfectly safe”. As mining professionals we both know no mining process is 100 percent safe. The leases you have acquired are both upstream and upwind of the local community of Woodruff. I am writing here to propose three specific measures that your company could take at little cost that would perhaps reassure residents of Woodruff. You will be drilling with muds that usually contain toxic materials and probably will be using acids for well stimulation. I suggest you could sponsor a water-testing program of Woodruff’s drinking water. Such a program would need to be executed under the supervision of an independent body such as the local county works department. Of course to be effective the tests would have to be specifically looking for chemicals used in your drilling and stimulation operations. So these chemicals would have to be declared at least to county officials. Secondly a similar air quality monitoring program could be implemented. Again the program would have to monitor for gasses that might be bled off during the gas separation process. These two programs would probably result in at least one local job being created. Finally, in my retirement from the oil and gas industry I have been indulging in organic growing. In that pursuit I have come to learn that the Arizona flora and fauna are super sensitive. Once disturbed recovery from damage and loss of ground cover is a major challenge and will not be solved by planting of junipers. The juniper only grows in very specific soil conditions and grows very slowly. However a potential solution may be nearby in New Mexico. Michael Melendrez of Soil Secrets is one of the worlds leading experts in the rebuilding of soil sub strata and an arboriculturist specializing in trees of the Southwest. He can tell you which trees will grow where. I would recommend that you hire this man to consult in the design, implementation and over site of an environmental restoration program. In the end this is a matter of our risks vs. your profits. I would ask you to give serious consideration to these proposed programs as they would be a tangible manifestation of the verbal reassurances you gave in your interview. Dr. Kevin L. Gibson Mining engineer (retired) Snowflake, Ariz.
