This is San Juan County - A Guide for Decision Makers Prepared by the Tomhave Group for the San Juan County Commission
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This is San Juan County
A Guide for Decision Makers
Prepared by the Tomhave Group for
the San Juan County Commission
Consider San Juan County
A more dramatic landscape than our county, where red rocks and
blue mountains meet under a turquoise sky, would be difficult to
find. San Juan County is located in the south east corner of Utah,
one of the Four Corners of the Americaʼs great Southwest. Our
7,933 square miles make us the largest of Utahʼs 29 counties.
We are rich in natural resources, including water,
minerals and fossil fuel, but we are infrastructure
challenged, with no railroad, interstate highway, or
commuter air service to support economic development.
The White Mesa Utes, San Juan Paiutes, and Navajo
Indians all call San Juan County home. 15.5 square
miles of the White Mesa Ute Reservation makes up .2%
of the County. 2,654 square miles, roughly one quarter of
the county, overlaps the Navajo Reservation. The
landless San Juan Paiutes lease land on this Utah strip
of the Navajo Reservation.
San Juan County does not meet the U.S. Department of
Commerceʼs definition of “rural”, which is defined as
being any territory, or census tract, with less than 2,500
people. We do not have enough people or infrastructure
to meet that classification. Instead San Juan County is
classified as “frontier” because we have only two
residents per square mile and the nearest service/market
(Cortez, Colorado) is 60 miles from our county seat.
Visit San Juan County
Our county landscape is not only frontier, it is
iconic. People the world over see San Juan
County in countless movies, television
shows, and commercials. We are where
Hollywood and red rocks meet. We are a
travel destination for tourists who come to
see where John Wayne became an American
hero, where Forest Gump ran for his life, and
where Thelma and Louise drove toward their
destiny.
More international tourists visit San Juan
County each year than do Americans.
These world travelers make Gouldings
Lodge air strip (in Monument Valley, Utah)
the second busiest site of arrivals and
departures in the state, second only to Salt
Lake City International Airport. Last year,
1,100,000 visitors vacationed in San Juan
County, thereby supporting 920 of our local
tourism related jobs, creating $34,700,000 in
tourism revenues, and generating
$3,317,000 in sales tax.
Meet San Juan County
We donʼt crowd people here. At 14,726 people, we have the lowest population density of any county in Utah. Our growth
rate has been just 2.3% over the past decade, compared to the statewide average of 23.8%.
Diversity is our strength. 55% of our residents are American Indians. This has enabled us to pioneer our K-12 bilingual/
multi-cultural program, whereby all public school students are taught Navajo language and history.
Joblessness is our challenge. The countyʼs unemployment rate has crept up to 14%, the highest in Utah, where the
unemployment rate is just 3.2%. Consequently, our residents are among the poorest in Utah, with 28.3% of county
residents living below the poverty line.
County wealth indices are nearly half the state average. Our per capita income is $12,606, compared to $22,240 for Utah.
The median county household income is just $36,083, compared to the state median household income of $55,183.
Government is the largest employer in San Juan County, with the San County School District alone providing one third of
all local jobs. The public sector provides more jobs in the county than all private sector jobs combined:
City Jobs: 41 (Only two incorporated cities)
County Jobs: 150
State Jobs: 250 (100 represent College of Eastern Utah)
Federal Jobs: 193 (some seasonal)
Tribal Jobs: 200
Develop San Juan County
We invite private business. We encourage entrepreneurship. Ours is
a history steeped in risk, where hard work is essential to make it in
this most rugged corner of America.
Farming and ranching are the original backbone of San Juan
County and continue to be vital components of our economy.
We have 231 farms, which average 7,243 acres, among the
largest in the state. They produce wheat, barley, oats and
winter wheat. Livestock production makes up about 20%
more of total county agricultural production than crop yield.
Mining has been, and always will be, an important part of the
county, but its boom and bust cycle has made tourism the
The only operating uranium processing plant in the
newest leader in local job creation. Gouldings Trading Post
nation, Denison Mineʼs White Mesa Mill, is also a vital
and Lodge provides up to 250 jobs, making it the largest
member of the countyʼs economic community providing
private employer in the county.
150 full time jobs directly (65% of those employees are
American Indian) and 60 additional mining and trucking
Fossil fuel production is a major local economic driver. It is
jobs necessary to supply the mill. White Mesa Mill
essential for tribal stakeholders, to whom royalties are paid,
processes 24% of all the yellowcake uranium produced
and for the American public, whose domestic energy is an
in the United States, which is then shipped to Metropolis,
essential component of homeland security. So far in 2011,
Indiana for further processing before becoming nuclear
seven local oil and gas companies have generated
fuel rods.
$365,030,296 in annual revenues.
The following income reveal just some of the wealth generated in the county:
2010 2011 Change
Metalliferous Mining: $99,545,592 $119,022,810 +$19,477,218
Non-Metal Mining: $4,169,603 $16,128,620 +$11,959,017
Oil & Gas: $291,200,766 $361,546,151 +$70,345,385
Our major local employers are:
Firm/Agency Location Service # of Employees
Cedar Mesa Products Blanding Pottery/Manufacture 35
City of Blanding Blanding Government 28
City of Monticello Monticello Government 13
College of Eastern Utah Blanding Post Secondary Education 100
Federal Agencies County-wide Government 193 (some seasonal)
Four Corners Care Center Blanding Geriatric Health 110
Gouldings Lodge Monument Valley Tourism 75-250 (seasonal)
Halls Crossing Marina Lake Powell Tourism 50-150 (seasonal)
Hite Marina Lake Powell Tourism 15-32 (seasonal)
Navajo Nation South County Government 200
Oil Field Services (misc.) County-wide Minerals Development 200
San Juan County County-wide Government 150
San Juan Health Care Services County-wide Health Care 115
San Juan School District County-wide Public Education 500
Utah State Agencies County-wide Government 250
Support San Juan County 92% of the county is non-taxable land owned by the federal government, the state of Utah, and the State and Institutional Trust Lands Administration. Only 40,000 of our countyʼs 5 million acres are subject to local property tax. Despite this fact, the federal government seeks to withdraw from public access an additional 582 square miles of land in San Juan County, a land mass equal in the size to America Samoa, or 8 times larger than Washington, DC. Access to our public lands is the economic lifeblood of our county. Farming, ranching, mining, oil and gas development, and tourism all depend on open access to public land. Our economic survival is contingent upon a few key federal decisions. For that reason, we identify the following as our current legislative priorities: Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) and Secure Rural Schools (SRS) represent the federal governmentʼs responsibility, as property owner, to contribute to the local tax base for local government services. San Juan County provides emergency medical service, fire, police, and road maintenance on these federal lands. Our county property and business tax payers cannot subsidize the federal government if PILT and SRS funding is cut. We urge your support of continued PILT and SRS funding. The National Strategic and Critical Minerals Policy Act of 2011, H.R. 2011 and its Senate companion bills, would require the Secretary of the Interior to assess our national capability to meet our current and future demands for the rare-earth minerals necessary for telecommunications, military technologies, medical devices, and renewable energy technologies - minerals critical to the United Statesʼ manufacturing competitiveness and economic national security. San Juan County could provide such minerals well into the future and urges your support of these bills. The Wilderness and Roadless Area Release Act of 2011, H.R. 1581 and S. 1087 would release wilderness study areas administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that are not suitable for wilderness designation from continued management as de facto wilderness areas. Passage of this legislation would release 14,831 acres in Cheesebox Canyon (34 miles west of Blanding), from being held hostage by BLMʼs twenty year wilderness study. We urge your continued support of this Act. The Utah Lands Sovereignty Act, H.R. 2147 and S. 1182, seek to prohibit any further extension or establishment of national parks and monuments in Utah without Congressional authorization. We urge your continued support of this legislation.
Acknowledge San Juan County One quarter of our county is tribal reservation land held in trust for Americans Indians by the federal government. The federal government has a special trust responsibility to provide services for over one half of county residents, which the federal agencies generally ignore. The San Juan County Commission, through our county departments, try to ensure that county residents who live on the Navajo Reservation are not harmed by this federal negligence. We do our best to provide Utah Navajos with the same services as county residents who live off the reservation. While our authority and resources for the Navajo Reservation are limited, San Juan County is unique in the nation for the responsibilities we shoulder that are really functions of the federal and tribal government. We do this today, as we have for three generations, because we believe that federal and tribal neglect of Utah Navajos should not deny our tribal county residents the essential services every community needs.
We subsidize the federal government every day by spending local resources to provide:
Road & Bridge Maintenance on the Navajo Reservation:
San Juan County maintains 629 road miles on the Navajo Reservation in the
county. More than half of these are unimproved dirt roads. We also maintain all
of the bridges on the reservation, many of which are structurally compromised.
Without the San Juan County Road Department, whose 43 full time employees
(10 of whom are American Indian) and 2 permanent part time employees (1 of
whom is American Indian) brave extreme weather conditions to keep Utah
Navajo roads passable, there would be no road maintenance within Navajoʼs
Utah Strip.
We are the default tribal roads agency for the Utah Navajo because both the
Navajo Nation in Window Rock, Arizona and for Navajo Area Office of the
Bureau of Indian Affairs Office (BIA) in Gallup, New Mexico keep Utah Navajoʼs
out of sight and out of mind. San Juan County became the sole provider of road
and bridge maintenance within Navajoʼs Utah Strip because neither the tribe nor
the BIA were willing to extend these services to Utah Navajos.
More than 25 years ago, we entered a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with
the BIA to provide service where BIA and Navajo will not go. Under our MOA,
BIA pays us just $78,880.46 annually, or $125.40 per mile, to step into the boots
of the BIA Roads Department. BIA has not increased this funding level since we
first signed the MOA.
Consequently, we have been forced to subsidize the federal government by using our state B Road Funds to restore B
Roads (county roads) on the Navajo Reservation. To cover the funding gaps that the MOA and our B Road Funds canʼt
meet, weʼve successfully sought federal funds through Congressional appropriations. These appropriations have made
Utah Navajo roads safe and passable, giving our residents access to emergency medical services, jobs, law enforcement,
senior services, and schools.
The Indian School Bus Route Maintenance Program provides us with $600,000 annual funding from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). First authorized under the Transportation and Equity Act of the 21st Century, this program ensures that roads remain passable for Navajo students by delegating funds from FHWA to Utah, New Mexico and Arizona for road maintenance within each stateʼs section of the Navajo Nation. Each state gets an equal annual share of the $1.8 million that the last federal highway bill authorized for this urgently needed program. San Juan County gets the entire Utah portion.
MOA funding from the BIA, coupled with B Road Funds and Indian School Bus Route Maintenance money, is not enough
to help make 629 miles of road and bridges in Utah Navajo safe for travel. Since 2004, the county has received
$8,982,777 in special appropriations from Congress to improve and restore roads and bridges on the Navajo Nation. The
following list details these projects.
In 2010, the BIA Navajo Area Office awarded us $1,855,777 in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Projects. We
completed all work and now await reimbursement for:
BIA Route N42:
$619,644.20 for pothole patching,
base preparation for overlay, striping,
road widening, and new left hand
turning lane into Monument Valley
High School and Elementary School
(to reduce pedestrian and driver
fatalities). Work performed by
LeGrand Johnson Construction Co.
Bridge N323:
$219,695 for erosion repair under
abutments to stabilize pillars
supporting bridge. Work performed
by Dennis Lierd II Construction Inc.American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Projects:
BIA Route N5068:
BIA Route N5069:
$635,550.63 for crack sealing,
$358,407.59 for crack sealing,
pothole patching, chip sealing and
patching, chip sealing, and road
new pavement markings. Work
stabilization. Work performed by
performed by county staff.
county staff.
BIA Route N5099:
$22,478.78 for crack sealing.
Work performed by county
staff.Federal Highway Bill (SAFETEA-LU) Projects Fiscal Year 2008 FHWA Project
San Juan County Road 495: Street lights from Halchita to Mexican Hat. Halchita Bridge: Design, engineering, and construction.
$600,000 $ 1 million
Utah Route 262: Street lights in Aneth. $675,000
Utah Route 22: Pedestrian sidewalks. $825,000 Fiscal Year 2006 FHWA Projects
San Juan County Road 442: Chip seal. $147,000
Fiscal Year 2010 FHWA Project San Juan County Road 444: Chip seal. $330,000
San Juan County Road 470: Chip seal $250,000
Oljeto Road: Phase two of repaving from highway to Gouldings.
$1 million Fiscal Year 2005 FHWA Project
Navajo Route 5063: Design, planning, environmental. studies.
Fiscal Year 2009 FHWA Project $350,000
Oljeto Road: Phase one of repaving from highway to Gouldings. Fiscal Year 2004 FHWA Project
$950,000
Navajo Route 35: Resurface from state-line.
$1 million
We are well aware that congressional appropriations are subject to abuse. We further understand the current national
debt must be addressed and should not be left for future generations to pay. In our harsh physical environment, where the
tax base is profoundly restricted by federal land holdings, not all appropriations are created equal.
San Juan County represents real need, and demonstrates real results. The appropriations we have received are
legitimate federal investments in the safe roads that goods, services, and people need. Without these appropriations, you
could not safely haul everything from uranium ore to school children across one of Americaʼs last frontiers.Emergency Management on the Navajo
Reservation:
San Juan County is the first responder when severe
storms, wild land fires, pipeline leaks, explosions,
floods or landslides happen on the Utah strip of the
Navajo Reservation. Our Emergency Operation Plan
covers the Utah section of the Navajo reservation,
and we are responsible for coordinating our efforts
with other jurisdictions, including the Navajo Nation.
County law enforcement, fire, medical, emergency
management, public works, environmental response,
and other personnel are the first to arrive, and the last
to leave, any incident site anywhere within the Utah
strip of the Navajo Reservation.
Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
on the Navajo Reservation:
When someone calls 911 from almost anywhere
within the Utah section of the Navajo reservation,
San Juan County responds. Our nine
ambulances are staffed by 4 full time employees
and 46 volunteers (about half of whom are
American Indian). Typically, we lose money on
every 911 call we get from the Reservation.The Utah Bureau of Emergency Medical Service sets the emergency response fee schedules we charge:
Basic Ambulance Service (oxygen & monitoring vitals): $569
Intermediate Ground Transport (intravenous & medications): $752
Medications and Supplies: Additional
Mileage (only charged when patient is in back of ambulance): $31.65 per mile
For example, patient transportation costs from Montezuma Creek to
the nearest county hospital in Blanding is 40 miles, so our mileage cost alone is $1,266
Montezuma Creek to the nearest Indian Health Service hospital
in Shiprock, New Mexico is 60 miles, which costs $1,899
Each 911 call we take costs
approximately $1500, of which
Medicaid or Medicare typically only
reimburses $400, regardless of
how far we travel. Indian Health
Service, as the payer of last resort,
is supposed to provide the patientʼs
20% co-pay but often does not. So
we typically lose well over $1,000
per 911 call we receive from the
Navajo Reservation.Senior Services on the Navajo Reservation:
San Juan County provides programs that give our Our home delivered meals provide homebound frail and
seniors, and our national debt, the respect they deserve. elderly individuals what is often times their only food and
Our main senior programs- In Home Programs, Home human contact all day. This program costs the federal
Delivered Meals, Congregate Meals, and Transportation government just $18,463 annually, and the state of Utah
Services- keep seniors in their own homes and out of just $30,487. Even though our required county match is
expensive (and government subsidized) nursing facilities. only $8,042, we provide $39,868.
We provide our seniors with food, comfort and care
outside of institutional settings, which helps them maintain We also provide congregate meals twice a week, at 4
independence, and helps save state and federal dollars. county senior centers, to individuals we transport from all
over the county, including every Utah Navajo Chapter.
A county, state, and federal partnership funds our in home The Older Americans Act provides us with $45,715 in
programs. Even though we get the smallest funding of annual funding, the smallest allocation in the state.
any county in Utah, our results yield some of the most Communities in northern Utah are funded enough to
significant cost savings in the state. Our annual budget of provide congregate meals 5 days a week. We must
$460,233 saves Utah $1,005,198 per year in Medicaid exceed our required county match of $8,310 by providing
nursing home costs. Over a 4 year period, San Juan $40,951 to fund this program.
County saves Utah $4,020,792 in Medicaid costs through
our in home programs.
92% of our in home program seniors live on the Navajo
Reservation. Of those, 10% live in Navajo Mountain,
which is the most remote community on the Navajo
Reservation, and one of the most remote tribal
communities in the entire continental United States. Our
3.5 case managers (1 of whom is American Indian) are
the only providers who care for seniors in Navajo
Mountain, as the Navajo Nation itself offers no help at all.
Despite this fact, we directly provide the Navajo Nation
with $50,000 annually to help improve Navajo Nation
owned and operated senior centers in Utah.Law Enforcement and Victim Services on the Navajo Reservation:
Sexual assaults, which are 3.5 times higher for American Our Sheriff is currently negotiating with the Navajo Nation
Indian women than other American women, are now for federal cross jurisdiction on the Navajo Reservation
epidemic on reservations nationwide. Right now there is that would enable our deputies to achieve the same
no Navajo tribal police presence on the Utah section of certification, and tort protection, as any federal law
the Navajo reservation. Without local police, it is nearly enforcement agent. Until then, our Victim Advocate has
impossible to secure a crime scene, preserve evidence, helped increase convictions and guilty pleas of criminals
or interview witnesses anywhere in Navajoʼs Utah strip. who pray upon Utah Navajo communities.
Crime victims must wait hours, or even days, for tribal or
federal investigators to arrive. By then, the case is often So far this year, a Violence Against Women Act grant of
ruined. $29,814 has allowed our Victim Advocate to serve 40
Utah Navajo crime victims (among 68 total clients). We
San Juan County provides the only local crime victim urge your support for re-authorization of the Violence
advocate for Navajos in Utah. The Sheriffs Departmentʼs Against Women Act as crucial to securing justice for Utah
Victim Advocate is available 24/7, 365 days a year, to any Navajos.
victim of crime anywhere in the county, on or off a
reservation. Our Victim Advocate provides crime victims
with a range of services, from emergency help during the
immediate aftermath of a crime through court
proceedings.A Special Note: San Juan County is dedicated to improving the quality of life an safety of county residents who live on the Navajo Reservation. Consistent with this commitment, we support S.1327, to enable Utah Navajos to become the trustee of their own trust fund. Congress created the Utah Navajo Trust Fund in 1933, and amended it in 1968, to ensure that 37.5% of the oil and gas deposits under the Aneth Extension of the reservation (in San Juan County) are used for the health, education and general welfare of all Utah Navajos. When Utah ended its role as Trustee in 2008, this trust fund fell into a legal limbo and remains unspent, greatly disadvantaging all Utah Navajo communities.
Celebrate San Juan County
We solve problems in San Juan County. We step into the for the Manhattan Project. For two decades, when the mill
boots of the federal government every single day to fix was operational, local residents processed materials and
what is broken and provide what is needed on and off the were exposed to extraordinary levels of radiation and
Navajo Reservation. In this remote corner of the country, carcinogens which resulted in a cancer cluster first
where the federal government owns most of the land, and identified in 1960 that continues today.
enjoys most of its control, it is the county with its boots on
the ground who help the people who live here. In 2008, with the help of Senator Orrin Hatch, we forged a
partnership between the federal government, Utah
When Navajo Mountain runs out of water, we get the call Department of Health, and community leaders to create
because the residents know we will not let them down. an innovative cancer screening program that has saved
We will not tell them that this yearʼs budget did not many lives and has since become a national model for
contemplate their drinking water crisis. We will show up other communities.
first, fast and always.
Here in San Juan County, we believe in resilience, in self-
When the Victims of Monticello Mill Tailings recognized sufficiency, and in partnerships. We do the right thing
that the federal government violated the trust and health even when no one is watching. The federal government
of our communities, San Juan County helped champion may own most of our land, but we are the ones who know
this cause. In 1942, the United States government built it. What makes our county special is not our landscape
and operated a uranium and vanadium mill in Monticello but the people who live in it.This is San Juan County
Prepared by the Tomhave Group for
the San Juan County Commission
October 2011You can also read
