environmental continuing programs to protect and restore environmental conditions affected by its operations have been conducted by utah international a full time director of environmental quality who is trained and exper ienced in the field and reports directly to the president of the company has been added to utah's staff to assist and advise management and operating divisions an example of the company's environmental protection activities is found at the navajo mine in new mexico in 1958 a comprehensive photographic survey was made to record the condition of the leasehold area prior to mining operations the site is remotely located and has an arid climate being desert by definition because of the scanty rainfall thin soil and sparse vegetation much of the area is barren with large sections of badlands and frequently cut by arroyos and dry washes only two trees were found on the 31,000 acre leasehold before mining was commenced prior to opening the mine utah contracted with the division of anthropology of the museum of new mexico to conduct a survey to locate and investigate any sites of anthropological archaeological and historical significance and to recover artifacts of interest and value an extensive report on the findings and results of this survey was published by the museum in 1962 under a later contract with utah the museum main tains a continuing and similar survey ahead of the mining operations the present land reclamation pro gram performs a dual function at the navajo mine four thousand tons of bottom ash and fly ash a day the residues of coal combustion at the power plant are hauled by utah to mined out areas and completely buried under overburden material previously removed the area is regraded to a slightly undulating sur face which resembles the contours and topography of surrounding undisturbed land natural revegeta tion is becoming re-established in the reclaimed areas and with the aid of qualified independent consultants utah is endeavoring to supplement and accelerate this process the photographs appearing on page 5 depict the surface conditions before and after mining and after regrading work has been performed utah's new copper mine in british columbia is an open pit operation as distinguished from the strip mine methods employed at navajo standards and measures for pollution control and preservation of natural environmental conditions in the vicinity of the mine and mill site were devised and adopted in cooperation with the provincial and federal governments an extensive investiga tion established water quality and the ecological status of rupert inlet prior to operations and tailings dis posal with the commencement of operations an elaborate system of monitoring conditions of marine or ganisms fish life water quality tailings settlement and other environ mental factors was inaugurated these procedures are periodically reviewed by scientists from the university of british columbia and the data collected is regularly re ported to the provincial and federal pollution control authorities this program is one of the most extensive of its kind in the mining industry and should contribute measurably to a better understanding of the environ ment as well as to its protection both at the island copper project and at similar operations elsewhere environmental protection meas ures tailored in each case to the nature of the terrain and of the mining operation and the local conditions requiring consideration have been similarly adopted by utah interna tional at other of its mining ventures in its land development operations utah maintains high environmental standards upgrading local zoning requirements by special covenants governing the development and maintenance of both residential sub divisions and industrial parks above left navajo girl a utah employee from museum of new mexico dragline a blast hole drill in background below left navajo artifacts from chaco culture circa a.d 1000 recovered by museum of new mexico in archaeologic survey prior to opening of mine and con struction of power plant facilities right technicians from island copper laboratory collect water specimens for r