Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining Director John Baza was joined by a number of his staff to give an introduction and presentation to the Carbon County Commission last week.
The presentation began with Bart Kettle, who is the Deputy Director of the Division of the Oil and Gas program. He stated that, more than anything, they wished to introduce the commission to some of the staff that is located within the county. Kettle then said that they have nine people within the local office.
Director Baza took time to explain the six critical business processes in the department, which are inspection, compliance and enforcement, applications and permit approval, data collection and record-keeping, hazard mitigation, and administration.
He also explained the oil and gas, minerals, coal and abandoned mine reclamation programs and the other projects that the department oversees. They strive to promote the exploration, development and conservation of oil and gas resources, while regulating exploration, development and reclamation of non-coal mineral resources, permitting, completing site inspections and safeguarding abandoned mines.
Before Baza turned the time to the employee introductions, he informed all that they are also the oil, gas and mining information repository for the state. Kettle spoke once again, explaining that within the department, there are three offices that work as an information source for 25,000 oil and gas well records. They process between 7,000 to 10,000 permit actions, complete over 7,000 inspections and orphan wells.
It was also explained that the abandoned mine reclamation program has been working to quench four coal fires at historic mine sites that were ignited by last summer’s Bear Fire.
From here, the staff was introduced. The staff members that spoke were Travis Gray, Karin Odendahl-Madsen and Phillip “PJ” Jensen. They briefly went over their bios and what their jobs mean to them. Baza stated that it is clear that the department has some great people working for them.
He closed by thanking the commissioners for the opportunity to present to them. The commissioners thanked him and the staff for what they do, expressing that it is important to have professionals working in the rural community.
“They are our people and they have a love for the community, and they treat it that way,” said Commission Chair Casey Hopes.