Political pressure from Salt Lake County and Gov. Mike Leavitt's top aide muzzled government geologists from
publicly discussing whether an active earthquake fault runs beneath the Salt Palace and a planned $47.5 million
expansion of the convention center.
"This sets back seismic safety in Utah 30 years," said Craig Nelson, a UGS advisory board member who resigned
as county geologist last year to take a higher-paying consulting job. "It gets us back to the point when these
decisions were made based on developmental pressure and politics, and not on scientific information."
Colleagues said Clarke told Hardy to tell Allison to "shut up" on the Salt Palace issue.
"It's regrettable the state Geological Survey won't take a stand," said Bruce Kaliser, a consultant and former
UGS geologist.
"The lack of input from the Salt Lake County hazards geologist and the Utah Geological Survey geologists is
cause for concern. . . . Some of the way this is being handled really stinks."
UGS geologists "are being manipulated like puppets," said University of Utah geography professor Don Currey.
"That's a very poor situation for a state geological survey to be in."
The following is the complete story for those wishing to read the full details:
*****************
Geologists Muzzled On Salt Palace Fault
April 21, 1999
BY LEE SIEGEL © 1999, THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Political pressure from Salt Lake County and Gov. Mike Leavitt's top aide muzzled government geologists from publicly discussing whether an active earthquake fault runs beneath the Salt Palace and a planned $47.5 million expansion of the convention center.
State Geologist Lee Allison and Salt Lake County Geologist Darlene Batatian have been conspicuously silent on the issue for the past three months as private consultants developed conflicting reports on the issue.
A Salt Lake Tribune investigation found: -- Allison and his agency were told to "back off" on the issue after county Commissioner Brent Overson complained to Ted Stewart, Leavitt's chief of staff, that Allison's early comments on the issue were unprofessional. Stewart, a candidate for a federal judgeship, and Overson insisted Tuesday that they did not intend to silence Allison and his agency, the Utah Geological Survey (UGS). -- Batatian was told to stay out of the Salt Palace matter by county Planning Director Cal Schneller, who said he was relaying instructions from Public Works Director J.D. Johnson, who was out of town Tuesday.
Overson said Batatian and Allison have no jurisdiction over the Salt Palace expansion, a county project within Salt Lake City. "This sets back seismic safety in Utah 30 years," said Craig Nelson, a UGS advisory board member who resigned as county geologist last year to take a higher-paying consulting job. "It gets us back to the point when these decisions were made based on developmental pressure and politics, and not on scientific information."
Overson, however, said the county's hired consultants studied the Salt Palace site's geology more thoroughly than any other downtown development, and that critics and UGS geologists have "no credibility" and "are just a big bunch of crybabies sitting on the sidelines wishing they were part of the program and upset because they were not." The possible quake fault beneath the Salt Palace site was found in late December by Bountiful geologist David Simon, one of the county's hired consultants.
On Jan. 6, Overson announced excavation would be suspended 30 days for more study. Overson was angered by Allison's statement, quoted in The Tribune on Jan. 7, that the apparent presence of a fault under the Salt Palace meant "the potential is there to do at least significant damage to the Salt Palace, if not cause collapse."
Allison was stating the obvious: that a structure straddling a fault line -- the place where an underground fault intersects the ground surface -- can be torn apart during a big quake. That is why city and county ordinances make it illegal to build on fault lines. Overson said he called the governor's office soon after and left a message telling Stewart "we did not appreciate Lee Allison's comments" and it was "totally irresponsible and unprofessional to issue an opinion on a matter of this magnitude without thorough professional investigation."
Stewart, whom Sen. Orrin Hatch is pushing for a U.S. District Court seat, said he then called Department of Natural Resources Director Kathleen Clarke, the state geologist's boss, and told her "Lee Allison ought to communicate to the county, not through the media." Allison was out when Clarke called. So Clarke talked to Kimm Hardy, the No. 2 UGS official. Colleagues said Clarke told Hardy to tell Allison to "shut up" on the Salt Palace issue. "The message was not to shut up, it was to back off," Clarke said Tuesday.
Overson, Stewart and Clarke said they did not intend to gag Allison and his agency -- even if that was the ultimate effect -- but merely to tell him to voice his concerns to the county, not through the news media. "I feel very bad if this thing got misinterpreted," Stewart said, adding it is "critical that scientists be permitted to do their work. I regret this has happened."
"I categorically deny ever asking for anybody to be muzzled," Overson said. "I can't help the effect. I have a right, any day of the week, to call and say I don't appreciate what you've done." Allison could not be reached for comment Tuesday. But when asked Monday if he and his agency had been muzzled on the Salt Palace issue, he replied: "It would be fair to say that I got some advice not to prejudge the situation, not to take a public position until we had a chance to review all the technical data." In recent months, several local geoscientists have questioned if politics influenced debate on whether the Warm Springs branch of the Wasatch fault runs under the $85 million Salt Palace and the planned 200,000-square-foot expansion.
Simon's final report concluded a quake fault likely runs beneath the site. The Kleinfelder Inc. consulting firm reached the opposite conclusion. "It's regrettable the state Geological Survey won't take a stand," said Bruce Kaliser, a consultant and former UGS geologist. "They are going to be suspect forever in the future. It just has to be surmised now they are subjected to political pressures.
That's totally unacceptable." Salt Lake consultant Lamont Sorenson of LGS Geophysics said: "The lack of input from the Salt Lake County hazards geologist and the Utah Geological Survey geologists is cause for concern. . . . Some of the way this is being handled really stinks." UGS geologists "are being manipulated like puppets," said University of Utah geography professor Don Currey. "That's a very poor situation for a state geological survey to be in."
Overson said the Salt Palace is none of the UGS's business. "I don't appreciate armchair quarterbacks weighing in on an issue of this magnitude without being expressly contracted to do the work or requested to do it in an official capacity," he said. Batatian "has no business weighing in on this" because her job is to review fault hazards only for developments in the unincorporated county, Overson said. The county-owned Salt Palace is in Salt Lake City, which is responsible for deciding whether to issue a building permit for the expansion.
Overson said present and past county geologists were not consulted for any county-owned projects, including the 1994-1996 reconstruction of the Salt Palace, because a county geologist might be considered biased in favor of such projects. So the county hired Simon and Kleinfelder to study the Salt Palace expansion site. Batatian on Tuesday said: "I was asked not to be involved." She and planning director Schneller echoed Overson's explanation.
Salt Lake City now plans to have a California consultant review the conflicting consultants' reports. Several local researchers said in February that an independent review was needed. Allison said UGS was willing to do the work, but had not been asked.
The city did ask last month, but Allison declined, explaining that "a variety of people felt we may have jumped to a conclusion or supported one opinion prematurely." Stewart said he now believes the UGS should review the Simon and Kleinfelder reports. Overson last week said the county planned to proceed with construction because Simon repeatedly changed his opinion on the presence of a fault and has "no credibility" on the issue. Simon has said he changed his views as more information was collected.
Lewis Katz of Utah Geophysical, a Salt Lake consulting firm, noted Allison was willing to comment on faults near Private Fuels Storage's proposed temporary nuclear-waste storage site on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian reservation in Tooele County. In that case, Allison's criticism coincided with Leavitt's opposition to the facility. "Yet here at the Salt Palace, we have the same state agency but they haven't made any public comments, nor have they reviewed the county's data to determine if there's a fault present at the Salt Palace."
In 1997, The Tribune reported the Salt Palace was rebuilt during 1994-1996 without a legally required study to look for a fault in the site. Several other developers followed that precedent, and also failed to conduct fault studies. The expansion project represents one of the first downtown Salt Lake City developments -- and perhaps the first -- that has tried to comply with the law. Local geologists say if the county and city fail to examine the evidence objectively, it will set a bad example for other developers and affect the safety of numerous new downtown buildings when the Wasatch fault eventually produces a magnitude-7 earthquake in the Salt Lake Valley.
In the past decade, UGS researchers found evidence of four such quakes in the past 5,600 years, rocking the valley an average of once every 1,350 years. It has been about 1,300 years since the most recent one. The UGS has estimated a major quake could kill up to 7,600 people, injure 44,000 others and cause $18 billion in damage and economic losses.
Page Modified Arpil 21, 1999