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Dustin Bleizeffer

Southwest Wyoming: A working landscape worth protecting

Posted on by Dustin Bleizeffer

Southwest Wyoming and the northern Red Desert are known for iconic geologic features and breathtaking landscapes that look much the same today as they did millennia ago: Adobe Town, the Killpecker Sand Dunes, Boars Tusk, White Mountain. The Golden Triangle at the base of the Wind River Mountains is one of the most important Greater sage-grouse habitats on earth, and the ancient Red Desert-to-Hoback mule deer migration — the longest in the world — is anchored here.

Wyoming residents have worked together for decades to find ways to protect these special places while enjoying a landscape that, at 3.6 million acres, is big enough to also support motorized use, grazing, and energy development. But now the U.S. Interior’s Bureau of Land Management is poised to strip the hard-fought protections that allow for multiple use in favor just one: oil and gas development.

“This is a landscape that can accommodate many uses,” Wyoming Outdoor Council Conservation Advocate John Rader said. “We have vast open spaces where families can recreate, where we can celebrate our outdoor heritage. There are also places where development is permitted right now. So we’re striking a balance. We have a working landscape that really applies the multiple use approach. We don’t want to sell that out for a single use.”

Local voices lost

Every twenty years or so, the BLM revises its “resource management plans,” which guide how the agency prioritizes uses and protections for particular places. The current plan, in effect since 1997, protects unique places like Steamboat Mountain, the South Pass Historic Landscape, and National Historic Trails, while allowing development in other areas. A revision has been underway for nearly 10 years, and the last time the public was allowed to weigh in was 2011.

 Unfortunately, amid continuous delays and changing administrations, the voices and values of Wyoming residents have been lost in the revision effort. Now, under a directive straight from Washington, D.C., the BLM has indicated it will throw out most of the existing multiple-use protections — which were developed in cooperation with Wyomingites over decades — to prioritize energy development alone. That means hunting, recreation, conserving vital wildlife habitats, and preserving cultural and historic sites will all take a back seat to energy development.

If you hunt those herds, if you hike out in those badlands, if you fish those streams, it’s going to affect you personally.”

— JOHN RADER, WYOMING OUTDOOR COUNCIL

 “Here we are almost a decade later, and we’ve got an administration that wants to strip all the protections for the whole area,” Rader said. The people of Wyoming have agreed that there are some places, some values, that are more important. We recognize the importance of energy development here, absolutely. But there are other values at stake. There’s our way of life.”

Tell local officials: top-down doesn’t work for Wyoming

Despite the slow, muddled revision process, the Outdoor Council continues to work with conservation partners, counties, and others to urge the BLM to honor our shared values in Wyoming. Your voice is crucial, too.

Right now, as the BLM prepares a final draft of the far-reaching plan that will guide how 3.6 million acres of Wyoming’s most special places are managed for the next 20 years, local governments and elected officials in southwest Wyoming have a seat at the table.

And they need to hear from you.

 If you live in southwest Wyoming, please contact your city officials, your county commissioners, and your conservation districts. Tell them that Wyomingites care deeply about the special places in this corner of the state, and that our livelihoods and our way of life here will be undermined by a major overhaul in favor of a single use. Ask them to let southwest Wyoming continue to be a working landscape that balances a full spectrum of uses. And if you live anywhere in Wyoming, consider sending Gov. Mark Gordon the same message.

“We like it the way it is,” Rader said. “We like being able to go out into the Red Desert and explore and hunt, we like being able to hike in the Big Sandy Foothills. And we don’t want a top-down approach from D.C. to come in and take those things away from us.”

To find out how to contact your local officials who can urge the BLM to maintain your outdoor heritage in southwest Wyoming, visit our Public Lands page.

New to the Team: John Burrows

Posted on by Dustin Bleizeffer

This month the Wyoming Outdoor Council welcomed its newest member of the team, John Burrows, who serves as conservation advocate. John joins our robust program team and will work closely on air and water quality and other natural resource issues.

A lifelong angler and avid backcountry adventurer, Burrows says being outdoors provides endless opportunities to learn and to teach. It was his passion for environmental education that inspired him to become a NOLS instructor, and it was his drive to actively protect the places that make Wyoming unique that brought him to the Outdoor Council.

Regarding his journey from teaching outdoor skills to conservation, John said he believes “it’s not enough just to go out and recreate and have fun. What are people doing and how are you actively working to protect the things we’re so lucky to have?” 

I recently visited with John to learn more about what brought him to Wyoming and to conservation work at WOC:

WHAT FIRST HOOKED YOU ON THE OUTDOORS?

I grew up in western North Carolina in a small outdoor recreation-based town, in one of the few counties back east that is predominantly public land. I had a grandfather who loved to fish. Some of my best childhood memories were from when he’d pick me up from school and we’d go fish the rivers around Pisgah National Forest together. After college I knew I wanted to be out west. It was exposure at an early age in North Carolina that definitely got me hooked, and I knew from an early age that the conservation world and natural resources were a field I wanted to spend a career in.   

WHAT’S YOUR EXPERIENCE IN CONSERVATION WORK?

After graduate school, I got a fellowship with an organization called The Forestland Group. I spent three months working with them on forestry conservation projects in upstate New York, New Hampshire, West Virginia, and eastern North Carolina. That was a very powerful professional work experience where I gained more respect for industry and the quality of work that was being done, and the sincerity behind it. Their profit models were built largely around “ecosystem service markets” — that’s been a big cultural shift in the conservation discussion for natural resource-based businesses. It’s not just about raw commodities — timber, coal —  it’s also about valuing the natural services a healthy environment provides, like clean air and clean water. We need to be on the frontlines with organizations and businesses that are asking these questions and making an economic argument for conservation: How can we value the tree for more than its timber? How do we value clean water and clean air? Not easy questions to answer, but a lot of people and businesses are doing it, and in the process giving conservation an economic leg to stand on. 

WHAT DRAWS YOU TO ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION?

There’s an inspirational side of environmental education. We live in a beautiful world with so much diversity and so much to get from being immersed in a natural landscape. When I think of teaching there’s a curiosity component that I try to emphasize. Ask questions: Why are those rocks there? What are you noticing about these mountains? What species of bird is that? A huge part of teaching is spreading that excitement. If you’re really excited about something, passionate about it, that’s contagious. It’s incredibly fulfilling to see this with students — and we’re all students at some level.

This last summer I was working for NOLS in Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve, and wow. It was climate chaos up there. Alaska had one of its biggest heat waves in history. We were up along glaciers when it  was consistently above 80 degrees, and the rivers below where like something you would see at a whitewater theme park. We couldn’t cross rivers because the meltwater was so high. There were bad forest fires down lower. True Alaskan bushmen who have been up there their whole lives said they’d seen nothing like it. It makes this work seem all that more relevant.

WHAT WOULD BE YOUR IDEAL WEEK OUTSIDE IN WYOMING?

That’s pretty easy for me. I’d be hiking into a remote drainage fly-fishing for cutthroat trout with friends and family. I’ve really grown fond of the Winds, and the Bighorns, too. It would probably be sometime in early September, just as the aspen start to turn — hiking, and getting up high in the mountains with a fly rod.

WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS FOR THE FUTURE?

Honestly, I’m just excited to be here at WOC and working in a state that is truly ground zero for so many of the big environmental questions and challenges of the 21st century. We are playing those out here with our state budget, our state’s economy, our natural resources, and our quality of life. These things are all connected and it feels like being on the front lines of something that’s really significant and important. We have to get this right. 

(You can read John’s staff bio here.)

At What Cost? Wyoming Doesn’t Have to Risk Clean Water for Energy Development

Posted on by Dustin Bleizeffer

DECEMBER 2019 UPDATE: The Wyoming Outdoor Council and our partners have requested that the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality inspect potential existing violations of Wyoming water quality standards at Moneta Divide, and we are still awaiting a reply. We are concerned that the DEQ involved Aethon, the project proponent, in its study of stream health that was in response to public concerns about potential impacts to wildlife and public health. The DEQ intends to reissue a revised permit for wastewater discharge in January. We’re also awaiting the Bureau of Land Management’s Environmental Impact Statement for the Moneta Divide project, which must evaluate wastewater disposal issues. Please stay tuned for how you can weigh in to protect our water, and tell the DEQ “Don’t Poison Boysen!”

This past spring,  snowmelt unleashed just as heavy rains fell for several weeks, swelling the reservoir at Boysen State Park to capacity. The Bureau of Reclamation increased flows to 7,000 cubic feet per second below the dam, pushing water high along the banks of the Wind and Bighorn rivers, creating a challenge for drifters. 

But the fishing was still hot.

“Yesterday we had two boats out, and each of our boats hooked up to about 40 fish — all in that 18- to 20-inch range,” fishing guide John Schwalbe said back in June.

Schwalbe, owner of Wyoming Adventures in Thermopolis, has guided on the Bighorn for 25 years, owing his livelihood to the Blue Ribbon trout fishery that produces big rainbows, browns, and cutthroat.

“I wouldn’t live in Thermopolis, Wyoming, if it were not for the Bighorn River that runs through it. It’s my livelihood, it’s the reason why I stuck around this area.”

— John Schwalbe, River Guide

A lot of his regular clients are locals who work in the oil and gas industry, and in addition to navigating the high water and figuring out what flies trout were hitting, the big topic of discussion this spring was the future of this fishery.

Upstream in the watershed is the Moneta Divide oil and gas field, where Texas-based Aethon Energy proposes to drill 4,100 new wells over the next 15 years — an economic boost for many communities in a part of the state that desperately needs jobs and revenue. But the company’s plan includes dumping up to 8.27 million gallons per day of “produced” oilfield wastewater — groundwater mixed in the oil- and gas-bearing formations — into tributaries of Boysen Reservoir.

The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality relied on modeling from a consultant hired by Aethon to determine that decreases in water quality in the Class 1 Wind River were insignificant. The DEQ’s analysis also found that impacts to Alkali and Badwater creeks would meet regulatory requirements. As it turned out, neither conclusion was correct. 

Although some residents want to see the drilling project move forward for the jobs and revenue, many worry that Aethon and the state didn’t do a thorough job of analyzing the plan and didn’t provide safeguards to ensure the viability of livelihoods that are tied to Boysen and to the Wind and Bighorn rivers.

“There’s a responsibility that we have here to manage our state well, but also put people to work. I’m all for that,” Schwalbe said. “But not at the cost of our watersheds and natural resources. Not at all.”

Clean water is too important to risk

With the help of partners and members, the Wyoming Outdoor Council hired hydrologists, aquatic biologists, and other scientists to conduct a detailed, expert analysis of the proposal by Aethon and the DEQ. The results were troubling. The analysis revealed significant flaws in the plan that would severely threaten aquatic life and municipal drinking water sources, as well as the economic and cultural values that tie Schwalbe and so many others to these iconic Wyoming waters.

“This proposal violates the Clean Water Act, the Wyoming Environmental Quality Act, and the DEQ’s own rules about implementing these important laws,” attorney and Outdoor Council Senior Conservation Advocate Dan Heilig said. “Fundamentally, though, the proposal unnecessarily risks the health and livelihoods of Wyomingites. It doesn’t have to be this way. There are other solutions.”

The Outdoor Council is not the only voice pointing out that good jobs and economic development should not be at odds with clean water and healthy fisheries. In many cases, they’re one and the same. Dusty Lewis is among a growing number of locals in Hot Springs County who hope to boost tourism in the area. Lewis owns Rent Adventure in Thermopolis, renting out drift boats, rafts, kayaks, and paddle boards. 

“We spend a lot of time in the water, and we do a lot of fishing,” he said. 

While Aethon and the DEQ assured the public that there’s no risk associated with the plan to use Boysen Reservoir as an oilfield wastewater mixing zone, Lewis and others were not fully convinced. There’s too much at stake, said Lewis.

“If the fishery were damaged, that would probably be the worst thing.” 

He noted that everyone in Thermopolis recognizes the outsized role the Bighorn plays in the community, and suggested that economics is only part of the equation. The river and the outdoor way of life it supports is a huge part of the community’s identity. That’s why this proposal is so troubling.

“I’ve got a five- and seven-year-old — Fischer and Fletcher — and they are outdoor junkies,” Lewis said. “They would be some little angry rugrats if something happened. They would be like, ‘Dad, why didn’t you act more responsibly and help the river get saved?’ So I think about it for them. The next generation coming up has a lot to overcome.”

Lewis also serves on the town council in Thermopolis. The town draws from the Bighorn for its municipal water. A change in water quality could add to operational costs at the town’s water treatment plant. Alternate sources for municipal water come with their own costs. Locals worry that tapping aquifers nearby could affect the town’s world-famous hot springs, and tapping aquifers elsewhere would come at a significant expense.

“There’s a lot of variables when you talk about changing water sources,” said Lewis.

Sustaining clean water is a win-win

Based on the scientific and legal analysis, the Outdoor Council submitted comments to the DEQ in July asking that the agency go back to the drawing board. “A careful look revealed so many significant flaws in this plan that we’re confident it won’t stand without a fundamental revision to ensure that water quality standards are met, and that downstream users and livelihoods are protected,” Heilig said.

This story went to press before we could learn of the DEQ’s response to the Outdoor Council’s comments or its proposed next steps. We were encouraged, however, by the number of public comments urging the DEQ to deny the permit — including a powerful letter from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that identified numerous significant flaws in the draft permit.

If the DEQ forwards its plan for Aethon Energy’s wastewater surface discharge permit without meaningful revision, the state may still face challenges to hold it accountable for safeguarding clean water resources. The Outdoor Council is committed to insisting that Wyoming’s clean water is protected.

As oil and gas leasing picks up around Wyoming, and as the Moneta Divide project expands, making sure that energy development doesn’t come at the expense of Wyoming’s clean air and water and healthy wildlife populations will continue to be a challenge. 

It’s one worth meeting head on. 

“Wyoming residents were given a false choice — that we must accept lower water quality and unknown risks in return for economic development,” Heilig said. “We know better. We hope that the DEQ takes into account the thousands of residents who rely on these iconic waters today and for generations to come.”

WOC intern Jacob Pries; creating opportunities

Posted on by Dustin Bleizeffer
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Jacob Pries gravitated toward becoming a policy wonk early in his academic career, excited to one day help conserve the great outdoors he enjoyed so much while growing up in the Midwest. Halfway through his political science undergrad work at the College of Wooster, he also acquired an intense interest in geology, prompting him to take on a double minor in environmental studies and geology.

“If you’d told me I’d fall in love with rocks, I would have told you that you were crazy,” said Jacob who grew up hunting and fishing. But that passion helped build a solid foundation for a career that ties the geologic past to the present — and that connects those who inform critical environmental policy with the natural world.

“I want to give back to something that’s given so much to me.”

Jacob, 24, is working as an intern at the Wyoming Outdoor Council this summer, digging deep into National Environmental Policy Act matters related to water quality issues in Wyoming, among other things. So far, he’s worked long-distance from his hometown of Wadsworth, Ohio, but he plans on making his way to Wyoming soon. He’s especially excited to visit Yellowstone. “I understand it’s absolutely beautiful, so I’d love to get to see the crown jewel of Wyoming and the country.”

I had the opportunity to visit with Jacob recently. Here’s what we discussed about conservation and his hopes to bring people together for smart conservation policy:

What do you hope to give back in terms of connecting people and the outdoors?

People develop a connection to the land. One thing I love about hunting and fishing so much is that connection you feel. It means more to you than you can express in words. The greatest thing about being outdoors is when you’re out there you feel like part of something bigger than yourself, and that’s really rewarding. People are passionate about natural resources and public lands because of that connection — we’re part of an entire scheme of things, that’s what drives people to make sure these places they are connected to are conserved. It’s so important to get people outside and experience, that’s how you get people to care.

What are you working on at WOC this summer?

NEPA and Clean Water Act issues [related to Aethon Energy’s plan to dump oilfield wastewater into Boysen Reservoir], sage-grouse restoration, and mule deer migration corridor work. They are big issues in Wyoming and the West, so it’s really exciting. I learned that the Moneta Divide project is extremely complicated — it’s big in size and it’s big in its implications. That’s one thing I try to realize is the implications of what I’m working on, and I try to [understand] the implications for the people affected. It keeps you motivated and moving in the direction you want to move.

What do you see yourself doing in five years?

Foremost, I’m blessed to be doing what I am now, and I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes. I have a fiancé, so I look forward to getting married and starting a family — those are the big things. As for career aspirations, I’m grateful and thankful for whatever comes my way. I’m interested in policy work and giving back to what’s given me so much — make sure my children and their children get to experience what I’ve experienced in the outdoors. 

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Help tell the DEQ: No need to sacrifice clean water for energy development

Posted on by Dustin Bleizeffer

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Wyoming relies on clean water. From our world-class fishing and recreation, to irrigation and municipal use, clean water is a cornerstone of Wyoming’s economy and our way of life.

That’s why it was no surprise that hundreds of citizens packed two recent meetings to learn more about the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s proposed “surface discharge permit” for wastewater from the Moneta Divide oil and gas project.

Unfortunately, the dense, highly technical proposal — which would allow more than 8 million gallons per day of oilfield wastewater to be discharged into Alkali and Badwater creeks — does not adequately address environmental and human costs, and it seriously threatens the health of those creeks, Boysen Reservoir, and the communities downstream.

The DEQ’s proposal also sets up a false dichotomy: that Wyomingites must accept lesser water quality in exchange for the jobs and revenue that the Moneta oil and natural gas expansion plan promises.

The people of Wyoming know better.

There are solutions that allow for continued energy development in this area that don’t also risk the health of communities, fisheries, or the places we love. The DEQ needs to consider them.


What’s at stake: Wyoming’s clean water economy and heritage 

Thousands of people rely on Boysen Reservoir and Boysen State Park for fishing, camping and recreation, as well as the revenue those activities provide. Recognizing that, the DEQ rules designate Boysen Reservoir a “high quality water” requiring “the highest statutory and regulatory requirements for all new and existing point source discharges . . . ”   

Boysen flows into the Wind River, a vital resource for many communities. It cuts through the beautiful Wind River Canyon and becomes the Bighorn River at Wedding of the Waters just south of Thermopolis. The Blue Ribbon trout fisheries are integral to outfitters and the local tourism industry. The Bighorn provides municipal water for Thermopolis, and is a lifeline for irrigated agriculture throughout the Bighorn Basin.

THE PROPOSAL

The DEQ’s wastewater surface discharge proposal is the linchpin to a major drilling expansion in the historic Moneta Divide oil and gas field east of Shoshoni. Texas-based Aethon Energy, the main operator in the field, wants to add up to 4,100 new wells over the next 15 years. The project would support hundreds of jobs and provide an economic boon to several communities in the area that desperately need it. But the scale of the expansion, and the geology of the Moneta Divide field, present a major challenge.

The targeted oil and gas formations are laden with dirty water that would be brought to the surface with the oil and gas, requiring a massive undertaking to properly manage large volumes of “produced” water in a way that meets legal standards to protect existing clean water resources and uses.

The Moneta Divide oil and gas field currently has a reverse-osmosis water cleanup plant — the Neptune Water Treatment Facility. But the facility can handle only a small portion of the produced water that Aethon must manage. The field is also equipped with several wastewater injection wells, and Aethon’s proposal calls for several more injection wells to be constructed, as well as surface pits and other water handling methods. Even so, the massive volume of produced water still exceeds the capacity of these systems.

The DEQ proposes to allow Aethon to dump up to 8.27 million gallons per day of untreated and partially treated produced water into the riparian Alkali and Badwater creeks. The highly saline wastewater, which contains a long list of pollutants, would flow 40 miles west to Boysen Reservoir to settle and dilute in a “mixing zone” in Boysen’s Badwater Bay, according to the proposed DEQ permit.

In its proposal, the DEQ’s Water Quality Division relied on modeling and analysis from a consultant hired by Aethon Energy to determine that the discharge would not result in adverse impacts to human health or aquatic life in Boysen Reservoir, and would result in only minor, acceptable decreases in water quality in the Wind and Bighorn rivers downstream of Boysen.

Our analysis suggests otherwise. For the past two months, we’ve worked with fisheries biologists, hydrologists, and other scientific experts to take a closer look at the DEQ’s proposed discharge permit and the modeling it’s based on. We’ve found a number of flaws resulting in significant threats to the state’s surface waters, and will point these out to the DEQ in our written comments.

what we’ve discovered so far: 

  • Impacts to aquatic life in Alkali Creek and in Badwater Creek from the daily discharge of millions of gallons of contaminated oil field wastewater will likely violate water quality standards for those streams.
  • Polluted wastewater entering Badwater Bay, a proposed mixing zone, could harm an important nursery area for sauger, a species of fish related to the walleye.
  • The Wind River will be degraded, despite a strict anti-degradation standard for Class 1 rivers.
  • Chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing may enter Boysen Reservoir and contaminate drinking water supplies used by the Town of Thermopolis.
  • The water quality baseline used to determine pollution levels in the WInd River should be 1979, the year when the Wind River was designated a Class 1 river — not 2010-2016.

There’s another way 

The previous owner of the Moneta Divide field, Encana, proposed a number of options to avoid problematic surface discharge of wastewater and the environmental damage it would cause. Among its solutions were deep well injection and treating the wastewater to Class 1 standards, then piping and discharging it into Boysen Reservoir. But the DEQ hasn’t considered any alternatives beyond the surface discharge proposed by Aethon, even though such analysis is required by the DEQ’s own rules.

We’re asking the DEQ to analyze other options. If surface discharge is necessary, the produced water should be purified and piped to Boysen Reservoir, not dumped into Alkali and Badwater creeks, where the environmental impacts will be devastating.

If done right, the Moneta Divide Project could be a “win-win” for local economies and downstream communities. The construction of advanced water treatment facilities and pipelines to transport purified water from the Moneta Divide field to Boysen Reservoir would provide high-paying jobs and protect the environment.

If done incorrectly, the discharge of massive quantities of produced water could devastate the Wind River and Bighorn River blue ribbon fisheries, contaminate municipal drinking water supplies, and render irrigation water unsuitable for crop production, leaving a legacy of pollution for future generations to clean up.

A robust energy industry doesn’t mean we must sacrifice our vital clean water resources. Energy development can be done responsibly.

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Please join us in asking the DEQ and Aethon Energy to go back to the drawing board and develop a proposal that protects water quality for present and future generations.

Click here to read a fact sheet about the DEQ’s proposed surface discharge permit and tips about how to provide a comment (public comment is due by July 5).

Click here to read a fact sheet about the BLM’s draft EIS for the Moneta Divide Oil and Gas Project, and for tips about how to provide public comment (public comment is due July 18).

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Leading smart conservation policy at the state legislature

Posted on by Dustin Bleizeffer
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Many legislative committees have already launched into their “interim” work (the rest of the year between winter sessions), and we’ve been traveling the state to attend the public hearings and advocate for smart conservation policy.

Last month we mentioned a major legislative success: you helped us convince the Minerals Committee to back off from a proposal for the state to take over the federal authority for evaluating oil and gas development (and other projects) on public lands in Wyoming. Read this WyoFile article for more details about abandoning the idea for Wyoming taking over NEPA primacy. This is the level of influence we can have when we collectively mobilize and engage with lawmakers throughout the year. Thank you!

A good governance opportunity

We traveled to Gillette to cover the “joint” (House and Senate) Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee, which takes on big topics with big implications, such as fossil fuel and renewable energy policies.

One proposal we’re following closely would revise public comment rules regarding permitted mines (think gravel pits and everything that’s not a big coal mine). The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s public comment rules generally allow for adequate public notice, public comment, and comment response. However, when it comes to non-coal mines, any public comment on a proposed permit automatically triggers a hearing before the DEQ’s governing body — the Environmental Quality Council.

This can be intimidating for citizens and small groups that merely wish to provide information and comments that may be useful for the DEQ to consider. Environmental Quality Council cases are legally technical — proceedings are similar to a court hearing. Often there are discovery submissions and attorneys involved. All of this can discourage citizens from weighing in and offering helpful information regarding a proposed small mine permit.

We’re supporting a measure that would allow for an informal conference before triggering a full hearing before the EQC. This good governance revision will encourage more free exchange and problem solving among stakeholders and the DEQ.

Time to refocus on oil and gas emissions, and ozone

At the Minerals Committee, we also heard a report by the DEQ about the series of dangerous ozone spikes in the Upper Green River Basin this past winter. The DEQ recently conducted a survey of compliance among oil and gas operators there. DEQ Administrator Todd Parfitt told committee members the results were disappointing: the agency found that operators were less than 70 percent in compliance with emissions requirements.

We’re grateful to the Pinedale-based Citizens United for Responsible Energy Development for its leadership on this issue. They identified compliance and inspection issues as essential for lowering industrial emissions in the area. We’re joining the grassroots organization in seeking solutions that will help ensure clean air in the Upper Green River Basin — including better accountability from the state to protect clean air and public health.

Stay tuned — we’ll write about ozone efforts in a separate blog post.

In coming months, the Minerals Committee will also explore measures regarding Wyoming’s oil and gas regulations, as well as potential actions to better manage a historic glut of applications for permit to drill in eastern Wyoming. We expect more discussion and action on these topics at the committee’s next hearing in August.

Wildlife, renewable energy, invasive species

Also in Gillette, the Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Committee laid out several options to provide stable funding for safer wildlife crossings. There’s broad support for this effort, but still a lot of discussion ahead about how to fund it. The Wyoming Department of Transportation’s top 10 priority wildlife crossing projects are estimated to cost between $197.5 million to $256 million. (Check out WyDOT’s excellent wildlife crossings presentation here.)

At the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee hearing in Casper, we encouraged lawmakers to consider more flexibility in Wyoming’s laws regarding onsite renewable energy use, including rooftop solar installations and net-metering. We see many opportunities for the state to modernize its laws around small-scale, onsite renewable energy to support property owners’ desire for electrical self-sufficiency and to help add more jobs in response to growing demand for renewables.

Next, we’ll travel to Sheridan for the Agriculture, State and Public Lands and Water Resources Committee hearing where the growing threat of invasive plant species will be a major topic. In Gillette, the Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee will discuss chronic wasting disease, state lands, and efforts to encourage Wyoming’s growing tourism and outdoor recreation industries.

Good conservation legislation depends on you!

In all of our conservation advocacy we look for ways to be proactive, and that includes forwarding a conservation agenda for the legislature. We’re currently crafting several measures we believe all Wyomingites can get behind (more on these later) — and we want to hear from you about your conservation ideas. Our work is not possible without you! If you have an idea the legislature should consider, or if you’re looking for more details about a legislative topic we’re following, contact our program director Steff Kessler at stephanie@wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org.

Don’t forget to check the legislature’s calendar for upcoming meetings and agendas. You can also livestream many of the meetings as they happen. To watch past legislative meetings, go to the Wyoming Legislature’s website, click on the committee you’re interested in, and click on the “audio/video” tab.

 

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Safeguarded: Prime wildlife habitat in Little Snake River Valley

Posted on by Dustin Bleizeffer
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Some good news to report! Oil and gas operator Greater Rocky Mountain Resources has abandoned plans to drill more than a dozen wells in some of the most important and sensitive wildlife habitat in the state.

In March, investment firm-backed GRMR (based in Colorado) notified the Bureau of Land Management Rawlins Field Office it would “release” federal permits to drill the wells — which could have set the stage for major industrial development spanning 136.5 square miles in the Little Snake River Valley near Baggs. The development would have taken place inside mule deer crucial winter range, migration corridors, and priority (“core”) habitat for Greater sage-grouse. The area is also home to the largest population of Columbian sharp-tailed grouse anywhere in the Rockies.

The picturesque Little Snake River Valley is treasured hunting grounds, and home to sheep, cattle, and irrigated agriculture operations. As the conservation group EcoFlight put it, “The Little Snake River Valley is one of the few remaining intact river valleys in the West that has not experienced rampant development.”

In places where oil and gas development is appropriate the Wyoming Outdoor Council works hard to see it “done right” by advocating that operators mitigate impacts to air, water, and wildlife. But in other places, mitigation is not sufficient.

“This is a great example of an area that should never have been leased in the first place,” Senior Conservation Advocate Dan Heilig said. “These are rare habitats, and there’s simply no way to accommodate an industrial development here without sacrificing native wildlife, open spaces, clean air and water, and tranquility in the Little Snake River Valley.”

The Wyoming Outdoor Council worked with local ranchers and partner organizations to advocate more effective stipulations to protect vital mule deer and sage-grouse habitat. We reviewed BLM’s analysis and permitting, and asked for revisions to correct deficiencies in the federal plans. WOC, along with Little Snake River Valley locals, The Nature Conservancy, National Audubon Society, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department advocated better analysis of cumulative impacts of the overall development.

“It was evident that GRMR and the BLM hadn’t done their homework,” Heilig said. “Thanks to the dedication of local ranchers and advocacy among many partners, the operator decided to abandon the project — a huge win for some of Wyoming’s most precious wildlife habitat that simply can’t be replaced.”

 

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Wyoming must do more to protect mule deer migrations

Posted on by Dustin Bleizeffer

Wyoming has been in the world spotlight since the discovery of the longest known mule deer migration, which runs 150 miles between the northern Red Desert and the Upper Hoback. That such an ancient migration still exists — despite roads, fences, housing, energy development, and other human activities — is amazing.

And new science is conclusive on two points: mule deer avoid development, and once a route is impeded, the deer don’t adapt. Unfortunately, under the new energy dominance policy, the BLM is offering oil and gas leases inside this corridor and other crucial wildlife habitat. And unless they hear from state wildlife managers, they’ll continue to do so.

The existence of the longest known mule deer migration is something Wyoming can no longer leave to chance. If we allow oil and gas activity here, the loss of this unique pathway will be on us.

Wyoming Game & Fish Department must step up

Wyoming’s wildlife is a tremendous part of our outdoor culture and a driver of our statewide economy. Big game hunting alone brings in about $300 million annually. According to a recent poll from Public Opinion Strategies, an overwhelming majority of all Wyoming voters — 89 percent — agree with Gov. Mark Gordon that protecting wildlife corridors does not have to be at odds with Wyoming’s energy industry.

Even former Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke understood the importance and popularity of protecting big game herds for westerners. Last year, he signed an executive order “to enhance and improve the quality of big-game winter range and migration corridor habitat on Federal lands.”

Yet the BLM continues to sell leases inside these habitats.

The thing is, states have the power to push back. When western states have asked the feds to pull oil and gas leases that have been offered in vital big game habitat, we’ve seen the BLM respond. Last year, the agency pulled more than a quarter of a million acres in Colorado from oil and gas lease sales at the request of state leaders.

And on the few occasions when the WGFD has asked the BLM to defer leasing parcels that fall entirely within a designated migration corridor — a very small percentage of the total number of oil and gas leases being offered in corridors — the BLM has granted its request.

This should be good news. But a state has to believe that the science matters, and then it must have the will to speak up. Unfortunately, that’s not what we’re seeing in Wyoming. Right now, the WGFD is operating under the flawed premise that if only a portion of a particular lease parcel falls within a wildlife migration corridor, there’s no threat to our wildlife. But that isn’t the case.

The WGFD has developed a “strategy” that endorses leasing inside migration corridors so long as at least 10 percent of a parcel falls outside the corridor. The rationale — which the WGFD admits is not rooted in science — is based on the hope that energy operators will “do the right thing,” and locate infrastructure in the portion of the lease parcel that’s outside the designated migration corridor. Unfortunately, operators are not legally bound to do so.

Crossing our fingers that private energy companies will do what’s best for our wildlife is no way to manage one of Wyoming’s most important resources. But unless the WGFD finds the will to ask the BLM to pull these leases, blind hope is all we’ve got for now, because there’s no legal way to ensure that energy operators will limit development to outside corridor boundaries.
Even more troubling, when pressed, both the WGFD and the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission — the bodies charged with protecting Wyoming’s wildlife — have said they can’t ask to defer leasing in this tiny portion of Wyoming’s most important big game habitat for fear of retribution from the legislature and the oil and gas industry. This is despite an overwhelming and bipartisan majority of Wyoming voters agreeing that protecting wildlife corridors does not have to be at odds with energy development.

The bottom line is that there is no need to offer oil and gas leases in Wyoming’s migration corridors. Even if every lease that abutted the Red Desert to Hoback mule deer corridor were made off limits tomorrow, millions of acres of public lands are still available to lease — and develop. Wyoming is not so poor that (for as little as $1.50 per acre — less than a slice of pizza or a cheap cup of coffee) we should give away to energy companies our most crucial big game habitats and the very future of our big game herds.

Working to save Wyoming’s muleys — and how you can help

We’ll continue to review every BLM oil and gas lease sale in Wyoming and file protests when the agency ignores our concerns. We’ll keep testifying at Game and Fish Commission meetings, respectfully urging this body, charged with protecting Wyoming’s wildlife, to heed the science and take a stronger stand. We’ll keep meeting with WGFD leaders — and with the governor and his policy staff — to pore over maps and advocate better strategies. We’ll work with with partners, sportsmen and women, and citizens around the state to get the word out.

And we will continue to weigh all our options, including filing a legal challenge. That’s not a step we’d take lightly, but it’s one we’ll consider if it means protecting the future of Wyoming’s mule deer.

Wildlife and the vast open lands they need to survive define us in Wyoming. The Wyoming Outdoor Council is more committed than ever to work on behalf of Wyomingites to defend these irreplaceable resources and protect the state’s migration corridors for future generations.

 

An update: our ongoing efforts to protect Wyoming’s migration corridors

Posted on by Dustin Bleizeffer

These past few months, we’ve been asking the state to urge the Bureau of Land Management to take a more precautionary approach to oil and gas leasing in migration corridors until legally binding wildlife protections can be put into place. New and existing science clearly shows that drilling in migration corridors is bad for mule deer herds, and we want to know that any leases offered will have the stipulations in place that will protect Wyoming’s wildlife.

And thanks to you, the BLM is hearing a loud and clear message from the public. More than 260 of you signed our petition — which we submitted as formal comments — asking the BLM to defer leasing in Wyoming’s mule deer migration corridors and crucial winter ranges. To learn more about this issue, you can read our fourth quarter sale fact sheet.

In September, too, a west-wide court ruling forced the BLM to temporarily withdraw hundreds of thousands of acres of Greater sage-grouse habitat from its oil and gas lease auction scheduled for December, in order to allow for more public participation. The court found the BLM’s attempts to shorten public participation periods are likely in violation of several federal laws. As a result, just three parcels will go up for auction in Wyoming in December while the remaining 584 parcels spanning 790,462 acres will go on the auction block in February.

It’s the biggest lease sale in the state’s recent history, and it’s an indication of what the Trump administration’s “energy dominance” mandate continues to mean for Wyoming — a state where nearly half our lands are public. We’re letting the BLM know that we won’t stand for leasing in our most vital wildlife habitat.

We submitted a second round of comments listing several concerns regarding the BLM’s failure to consider a more measured approach. We continue to ask the BLM to defer leases that overlap big game migration corridors and crucial winter range until science-based and legally-enforceable stipulations are put into place to protect these habitats.

This week we testified before the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission to let them know that Wyomingites overwhelmingly support protecting these migration corridors, and we continue to encourage state officials to simply honor that support by asking the Interior to defer leasing. To find out what our “next steps” are, you can read our recent letter with our recommendations to Gov. Matt Mead’s policy advisor.

 

Conserving Greater sage-grouse requires more than lip service

Posted on by Dustin Bleizeffer

It took nearly 10 years for western states and the federal government to agree on a plan to save the imperiled Greater sage-grouse — along with the health of the sagebrush ecosystem that it relies on. Yet the actual work of implementing the plan and testing its potential for success has only just begun.

That’s why the Wyoming Outdoor Council is closely examining plans to expand uranium mining in prime sage-grouse habitat in the remote Great Divide Basin in south-central Wyoming. Recent mining activities here have already “moderately” degraded the habitat, and a proposal to expand the mining operation would nearly double the area already disturbed.

In its eight-volume review of the proposed expansion, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management concludes that the mine’s increased degradation of prime sage-grouse habitat is acceptable and falls within the legal parameters of its own sage-grouse management plan. WOC staff disagrees.

“The BLM has not lived up to its own commitments,” Outdoor Council Conservation Advocate John Rader said. “They misapplied their own density calculation tool to suggest a smaller surface disturbance than the actual disturbance, they incorrectly assessed baseline noise levels, and they barely mention the cumulative impacts of the proposed expansion. They claim to make up for ongoing and future damages with an ‘adaptive management plan,’ yet no adaptive management plan exists.”

Rader said that carefully scrutinizing the BLM’s draft environmental impact statement for the Lost Creek mine expansion provides an important opportunity to improve not just this project, but the implementation of Greater sage-grouse management plans more broadly. Holding industry and permitting agencies accountable at Lost Creek will help ensure that standards and expectations are met in sage-grouse country around Wyoming.

“Essentially, this is an opportunity to test the larger effort to save the Greater sage-grouse,” Rader said.


A full accounting for surface disturbance

The Lost Creek in-situ uranium mine 40 miles northwest of Rawlins consists of a series of small wells that tap into a shallow formation containing uranium ore. A solution of mostly carbonated water is pumped into the formation to dissolve the metal, and pumped back to the surface where metals are recovered in a treatment facility.

The proposed mining expansion would nearly double the size of the project area to 10,000 acres — all inside an area known as a BLM Priority Habitat Management Area. That means the mine operates within one of Wyoming’s protected sage-grouse “core areas” — important nesting, breeding, and lekking habitat that’s vital to the bird’s health. As such, the BLM must apply several prescriptions to limit damage to the bird and its habitat.

One key stipulation that applies here is how much surface inside a sage-grouse core area is allowed to be disturbed at any one time. New development activities may not disturb more than 5 percent of suitable habitat per an average of 640 acres. To calculate this, officials use a “Density and Disturbance Calculation Tool.” The formula requires BLM to consider disturbed sage-grouse habitat, even outside of the project’s footprint.

However, Rader and other Outdoor Council staff discovered that the BLM didn’t do this. The agency misapplied the formula by not accounting for areas between actual wells, roads, and other new structures. Yet science shows that because these physical structures and roadways fragment the habitat, impacts to the species go beyond just where the infrastructure sits. If the BLM’s measurement tool had been correctly applied to include the in-between acreage, it is likely that surface disturbance would have exceeded the 5 percent threshold, Rader said. He also noted this in the Outdoor Council’s comments to BLM Rawlins Field Office.

We want the BLM to correctly apply its own formula for determining how much surface area may be disturbed by mining operations at Lost Creek. Getting it right here will help ensure it’s done right across all critical sage-grouse habitat in Wyoming and the West.


Setting the bar for noise and cumulative impacts

Our review of the BLM’s Lost Creek mine expansion proposal also revealed flaws in how baseline noise levels are measured. And we found that cumulative impacts (such as the loss, alteration, and fragmentation of habitat, and various stresses of industrial activity) were not accounted for — a troubling omission.

Human-caused noise and activity may reduce lek attendance, which can harm sage-grouse. Therefore, another key stipulation requires that no development activity exceeding 10 decibels above an area’s baseline noise level is allowed at the perimeter of a lek from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. during the spring breeding season. But the BLM’s flawed calculation of baseline noise levels grossly underestimated potential impacts, Rader said, and would allow for potentially harmful noise levels during the lek season.

Rader also noted that there’s too much variation in equipment used to measure ambient baseline noise, and too much variation in how the equipment is placed during testing. For example, sometimes microphones were placed much higher than a sage-grouse’s ears, allowing for more wind noise.

Based on ambient noise studies and the negative effects of noise on sage-grouse in Wyoming, we suggested that a clearer protocol be developed for establishing background noise levels and for monitoring. This is something that industry has also requested, noting that it would help avoid confusion and ensure clarity. We also suggested a statewide presumption of background noise levels based on peer-reviewed studies in sagebrush habitat in Wyoming, and recommended ensuring that human-caused noise levels do not exceed 26 decibels during lekking hours.

This presumption would decrease cost to industry by eliminating the need for baseline measurements, and reduce the risk of inaccurate measurements from flawed studies.

The BLM’s draft environmental impact statement for the Lost Creek mine expansion is troubling not only for its flawed analysis, but also for its failure to address cumulative impacts.

The BLM’s cursory evaluation — just two sentences — addressing the compounding effects of habitat fragmentation and other human-caused stresses associated with the mine’s activities risks weakening the broader, multi-state effort to protect the Greater sage-grouse. Curiously, the BLM defends these flaws by stating that any negative impacts to the bird and its habitat would be addressed in its Adaptive Management Plan for the project. But no such adaptive plan exists.


Why it matters, and what we’re doing

This project is not just about the habitat near Lost Creek. As we see opportunities for public input on these admittedly complicated processes diminish, it’s more important than ever to hold industry and permitting agencies accountable for protecting the Greater sage-grouse throughout sagebrush country. Agreeing on and using a clear set of science-based management prescriptions is necessary to ensure that mining, drilling, and other activities don’t further harm the species’ habitat.

“The sage-grouse management plans are more than a set of documents,” Rader said. “The bird is still in peril, and we must ensure that science-based plans are put into practice. State and federal permitting authorities are obligated to make sure they are properly measuring impacts and accounting for protections to avoid decimating some of the last best habitat that plays a major role in the survival of the species. That’s what we’re doing at Lost Creek.”