We are fifth-generation long-time Moab residents whose great-great-grandfather established the first ferry across the Colorado River near Moab in the 1880s. This same great-great-grandfather, Norman Taylor, was awarded Utah public land, after The Black Hawk War (1867) very near the proposed Kane Creek sewer plant and development on the banks of the Colorado River near the Portal. Our family owned that property continuously until a family decision was made to donate it to The Nature Conservancy and the Matheson Wetlands Preserve in 1991. In all those years of ownership, nothing was built on that land because of the long-standing threat of flooding and immersion from waters of the Colorado River and Mill Creek. It was not even suitable for cattle or livestock grazing because of the effects of flooding from the river. Additionally, the mosquito population, despite the efforts of abatement projects, has never been tamed.
Having grown up in Moab and still living here, we have recollections of attempts by “developers” to control said riverbank land and build on the Kane Creek property now proposed for development by KANE CREEK PRESERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT, LLC. The Colorado River and the natural environment have usually thwarted the best-laid plans to use that section of land for permanent structures. A private sewer plant built there would be a mistake, and the inevitable resulting pollution of the river and its drinking and life-giving water for millions when flooding occurs seems ill-advised. Building condos and second homes with retail would disrupt and destroy one of Utah’s most beautiful riparian areas while destroying important river corridor wildlife habitat. The road-building needed to access a commercial resort/real estate development from the Portal would be off-the-charts expensive and would surely require taxpayer money to develop Kane Creek Road, and certainly involve removing roadside cliffs along the river that at this point are still public lands. It all seems like a bad, sad, idea.
Recently while watching “Jurassic Park” with grandkids, this exclamation from Jeff Goldblum’s character, Dr. Malcolm (a doctor invited by insurance lawyers to identify any liabilities for the Jurassic Park dinosaur park), seemed noteworthy: “Your scientists [developers] were so preoccupied with whether or not they COULD, that they didn’t stop to think if they SHOULD.” In this case, the project’s developers, Kane Creek Preservation and Development, should ask themselves this same question.
Carrie Bailey & Marsha Marshall
Moab Utah
