A leaked memo from the U.S. Department of the Interior has raised the prospect that the Cedar Mesa area in San Juan County could be designated as a national monument. The monument could be designated without Congressional approval or public input through the Antiquities Act. The same course was used near San Juan County in the 1996 designation of the Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument in adjacent Garfield and Kane counties and in the 1999 designation of the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in adjacent Montezuma and Dolores counties in Colorado. While federal officials downplayed the document and stated that it is just a “draft memo”, the response was strong among Congressional, state and local officials.
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