BLM Oil and Gas Projects
The Bureau of Land Management is pursuing a number of large oil and gas development projects throughout Wyoming. The Wyoming Outdoor Council has weighed in on many of these, submitting comments and organizing and informing the public. In some cases we have appealed the BLM’s decisions or filed lawsuits to require the BLM to protect wildlife, air and water quality, and human health. In all cases, our goal with these projects is not to prevent oil and gas development but rather to ensure that the BLM and the petroleum companies develop energy while protecting other natural resources. That is, our objective is to make sure they “do it right.”
The Wyoming Outdoor Council is involved in several drilling projects throughout the state. Click the links below for more information on each area:
Fortification Creek and the Powder River Basin
Hiawatha and Continental Divide-Creston Projects
Fortification Creek and the Powder River Basin Northeastern Wyoming
In addition to our efforts to improve the land-use plan that will govern coalbed methane development in the Fortification Creek area, we have also challenged coalbed methane development in this area through a series of requests that the state BLM director review decisions made by local field offices (in this case, the Buffalo Field Office). We have also filed an appeal of the Fortification Creek project with the Interior Board of Land Appeals. Unfortunately those challenges have not been successful to date, although they have been a factor in getting the BLM to amend the resource management plan for this area. It is our goal to prevent oil and gas development on federal lands and mineral estate in Fortification Creek as one of Wyoming’s heritage landscapes.
We have in place a lawsuit challenging the BLM’s decision to authorize drilling more than 50,000 coalbed methane wells in the Powder River Basin.
The Hiawatha and Continental Divide-Creston Projects Southwestern Wyoming
The Outdoor Council has been anticipating environmental impact statements for these two projects for several years, but to date the BLM has not approved either. The Hiawatha project would be located in the Rock Springs Field Office, south of Rock Springs along the Colorado border (part of it would be in the Vermillion Basin area in Colorado). The operator in this area proposes to drill 4,208 new wells. The Wyoming Outdoor Council submitted “scoping comments” for this project. The Continental Divide-Creston Project would be mammoth, involving 8,950 wells in an area north and south of Interstate 80 near Wamsutter. The Wyoming Outdoor Council also submitted scoping comments for this project.
Hiawatha Scoping Comments 10-19-06.pdf
Continental Divide Creston Scoping 05-04-06.pdf
Moxa Arch
The Moxa Arch field is a large natural gas drilling operation in the Kemmerer field office. It occupies 475,808 acres and currently has approximately 1,400 wells. The field is east of U.S. Highway 30 between Little America and Kemmerer and southeast of U.S. Highway 189. The BLM is proposing to allow 1,861 additional wells to be drilled in this field. The agency originally prepared a draft environmental impact statement analyzing the impacts of this increased drilling, but the Wyoming Outdoor Council and others submitted extensive comments on this draft, seeking greater environmental protection. Because of the wide-ranging concerns regarding the original draft EIS, the BLM decided to reissue a revised version of its preliminary analysis before drafting its final decision. We expect the BLM to issue its revised draft EIS sometime in 2009, with more opportunity for public comment. You can view the original draft environmental impact statement here.
Moxa Arch Scoping Comments 11-28-05.pdf
Moxa Arch Drilling Project Draft EIS Comments.pdf
Moxa Arch Drilling Project Draft EIS Supplemental Comments.pdf
Pinedale Anticline
You can get information on this project in the air quality section of our website. In addition to pursuing the issues related to air quality that are discussed in that section, we have also sought to protect many other resources in these areas, including big game herds, sage-grouse, other rare and sensitive species such as the burrowing owl, and water quality.
Miscellaneous Projects
In a nonstop stream, the BLM moves forward with approval of new oil and gas development projects. Many of these are relatively small, involving a few tens of wells, but some are quite large. Recent examples include the Beaver Creek Coalbed Methane Project in the Lander Field Office, the Puma and Luman Rim projects in the Rock Springs Field Office, and the Gun Barrel, Madden Deep, and Iron Horse projects (the latter is also known as the “Lysite Project”) in the Lander Field Office. We offer input in as many of these projects as possible, and you can view a sample of our comments by clicking here. In addition, the BLM permits many geophysical survey projects, which are part of the exploration phase of oil and gas development, and they often occur prior to drilling (although some exploratory drilling—“wildcat” wells—often occur, too). Geophysical surveys often use manmade seismic waves created by explosives or other vibration generating tools, and we attempt to comment on many of these proposed surveys in an effort to reduce environmental impacts on our public lands.
Beaver Creek EIS Scoping Comments 08-21-08.pdf
Puma Prospect Scoping Comments 06-10-08.pdf
Other Energy Projects
We have chosen to focus many of our efforts on air quality protection, water quality protection, and safeguarding wildlife in the face of energy development on public lands. It has been our view that oil and gas extraction and production has had the most significant impact, of all energy development activities, on Wyoming’s environment. Other program activities focus on uranium mining, wind energy development, coal mining, and transmission corridors.
Uranium
There has been renewed interest in uranium mining in recent years, and we can expect to see more uranium mining proposals, perhaps many more, in the future. Wyoming is the nation’s largest producer of uranium and it has the largest uranium reserves of any state. Currently there is only one active mine, the Smith Ranch-Highland mine in west-central Converse County. This mine (and increasingly most uranium mines) is an in-situ recovery site, meaning a solution of chemicals is pumped into the deposit to extract the uranium. It is anticipated that many future mining proposals will call for in-situ mining.
In 2008, the BLM initiated an environmental review for the proposed Reynolds Ranch in-situ uranium recovery mine. This mine would be located adjacent to the existing Smith Ranch-Highland mine in Converse County. The Wyoming Outdoor Council submitted scoping comments on this proposed project.
Reynolds Ranch ISR Scoping 07-28-08.pdf
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is preparing a nationwide “generic” environmental impact statement for in-situ uranium milling facilities. The Wyoming Outdoor Council submitted scoping comments on this analysis, and we anticipate submitting comments on the draft environmental impact statement.
NRC GEIS scoping comments final.pdf
Wind Energy
The Wyoming Outdoor Council strongly supports development of wind energy and other renewable forms of energy. We believe it is critically important to break away from our dependence on fossil fuels to meet our energy needs, both because of the pollution created by burning fossil fuels, and because of their substantial contribution to global warming due to the release of large amounts of carbon dioxide when these fuels are burned. That said, we also recognize that renewable sources of energy can have environmental impacts, too, that must be avoided. We believe, however, these impacts can be greatly reduced by avoiding sensitive areas, and important wildlife areas, when siting these facilities. We believe it is critical to have an established protocol and methodology for determining appropriate siting before a project is fully developed, and that if such a protocol is in place and adhered to adverse impacts can be minimized or avoided altogether in most cases. In this regard, the Western Governors’ Association’s Western Renewable Energy Zone project is promising, and will likely be a great aid to appropriate siting of wind energy projects and other renewable energy projects.
There are currently at least 30 proposals for wind energy development in Wyoming, and most are in Converse, Carbon, and Uinta Counties. One of the most significant of these is the Chokecherry-Sierra Madre proposal near Rawlins, which would be constructed largely on BLM lands. As many as 1,000 wind turbines could be constructed. The BLM is beginning to prepare an environmental impact statement for this project, and the Wyoming Outdoor Council submitted scoping comments on this project. The BLM has developed a national programmatic environmental impact statement to guide wind energy development.
Chokecherry SM Scoping Comments 08-26-08.pdf
Geothermal
The BLM is developing a national programmatic environmental impact statement for geothermal energy development. The Wyoming Outdoor Council joined in scoping comments that were submitted on the draft geothermal energy environmental impact statement.
Geothermal EIS Scoping Comments.pdf
Geothermlal Draft PEIS Comments.pdf
Coal
Wyoming coal, by the numbers:
- Wyoming produces more coal than any other state in the union, and nearly 40 percent of the nation’s total.
- Wyoming coal is exported to power plants in 35 states, according to the Wyoming Mining Association.
- Wyoming has 68.7 billion tons of coal reserves; only Montana and Illinois have more coal than the Cowboy State.
- In 2008, Wyoming produced more than 462 million tons of coal.
- There are currently 13 active mines in the Powder River Basin, and six outside the basin, most of them surface, rather than underground, mines.
Coal mining impacts:
The Powder River Basin, as a region, has exceeded the national PM 10 standard—the air quality standard for coarse particulate matter. But under EPA guidance, this area hasn’t been designated in “nonattainment.”
The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality often classifies these PM 10 contraventions as “high-wind events,” arguing that dust was kicked up by exceptionally high winds, and therefore should not count as a violation of national air quality standards. The basic argument is that these are “natural events,” and not human-caused. However, even though high winds are, indeed, natural, there is nothing natural about the underlying cause of the high particulate levels in the air: There are vast tracts of bare land and soil in the Powder River Basin that were made bare by strip mining.
State and industry officials want to avoid violations of the national ambient air quality standard because it could lead to a "nonattainment" designation, which could force a moratorium on new mining, oil and gas, and other industrial activities in Campbell County, according to the Casper Star-Tribune. Outcomes such as shutdowns are not likely, in reality, but if the area were designated in nonattainment, significant steps to control air pollution would be required.
Surface mining releases methane gas into the atmosphere. Poisonous orange clouds used to be a major problem associated with large blasting operations, but the industry has moved to smaller blasts, and has worked to minimize the problem. However, it is still not unusual to have an orange cloud event in Wyoming coal country.
Surface mining in the PRB disturbs a great deal of land, and operators are required by law to work with the Wyoming DEQ, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and the Bureau of Land Management to reclaim and restore rangelands, farmlands, waterways, and wetlands.
The Wyoming Outdoor Council recently engaged in a revision of the state’s land reclamation rules for coal mining operations. Among other changes, the revised rules ensure that successfully reclaimed areas will not incorporate invasive non-native plant species, such as cheatgrass.
View the state’s coalmining guidelines and standard operating procedures here.
Electricity and Transmission Facilities
An additional significant consideration in energy production and development are transmission facilities—pipelines for natural gas, and electric transmission lines. Natural gas pipeline capacity in Wyoming has lagged behind production potential, and this has been a significant issue for gas producers as it has caused market anomalies that can depress the price of Wyoming natural gas as compared to natural gas produced elsewhere. It is widely recognized that a significant constraint on the development of wind energy will be access to transmission lines. Information on the numerous electric transmission lines under consideration in Wyoming can be found at the Wyoming Infrastructure Authority’s website at http://www.wyia.org/. One major natural gas pipeline under construction is the Rockies Express, which will transport natural gas to the Midwest.
Several agencies are developing an environmental impact statement for utility corridors on public lands in the West. You can get more information about that effort here. The Wyoming Outdoor Council has joined in comments submitted on this environmental impact statement, which you can view by clicking here. In addition, we occasionally provide comments on environmental analyses for transmission facilities that are proposed in Wyoming, such as the Gateway West transmission line, which would cross much of the state.