The other thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is the proximity to Gunnison Island, an important rookery site for the White Pelican, among many other birds. You can see from the PDF that these oil rigs would be close enough to cause enormous havoc. If there were ever a spill or accident at the wrong time of year, it could potentially kill thousands of birds.

From Wikipedia:

Approximately 1 mile long and a half-mile wide, Gunnison Island is best known as an important rookery for the American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchus). The California Gull (Larus californicus) also nests on the island, and occasional nesters include the Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias), Common Raven (Corvax corvax), Prairie Falcon (Falco mexicanus), and Rock Wren (Salpinctes obsoltetus).[1]

The entire island is the Gunnison Island State Wildlife Management Area.[2] Access to the island is restricted to prevent curious tourists from disturbing the nesting birds.[3] It is estimated that the population on Gunnison Island (about 10,000) constitutes about 10-20% of the entire American White Pelican population; there are also about 15,000 California gulls that nest on the island.[4][5]

The island's remote location protects it from predators, making it an ideal spot for birds that nest on the ground. Unlike some of the islands in the Great Salt Lake, Gunnison Island does not become a peninsula when the lake level is at its lowest point.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunnison_Island

A Random John said:

"In any case, it isn't clear from the post or the pdf how close this will be to Spiral Jetty or what the impact would be. Spiral Jetty is actually underwater much of the time as the level of the lake rises and falls due to not having any outlets.

All that is clear is that they plan to drill from barges. Unless they're drilling right on top of the spiral then I'm not sure how they'd harm this particular pile of rocks."

I've made an illustration of just how close the drilling rigs will be to the Spiral, using Google Earth and the coordinates from the PDF document.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bluheron/2230921943/

The harm isn't so much to the "pile of rocks" as it is to the complete environment of the Jetty. You can see from the Google Earth Panoramio photo included in the screenshot, the surrounding area is beautifully stark, and a big pile of drilling barges would most definitely change the experience of visiting the Jetty.

As a Utahn who is both a photographer and fan of the Jetty, I would hate to see this pristine wilderness environment ruined by drilling platforms and infrastructure.