Worries over water in Wyoming coalbed methane
Date: 29-Apr-02
Country: USA
Author: Judith Crosson
The Denver office of the Environmental Protection Agency in a draft letter gave an EU-3 rating - the worst grade possible - to an environmental impact statement written by the Bureau of Land Management, Max Dodson, assistant regional administrator of EPA's Region 8 in Denver, said last week.
The stakes are high. Powder River Basin in northeast Wyoming could contain between 25 trillion and 30 trillion cubic feet of recoverable reserves of the clean-burning fuel, a large amount considering that the United States uses about 22 trillion cubic feet of natural gas a year.
"You'd be hard pressed to find a play like that anywhere in the the U.S.," Dru Bower, vice president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, said.
The Rocky Mountain region's natural gas reserves have become even more important to President Bush's plan to increase domestic production since the U.S. Senate rejected drilling exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, Tom Darin, public lands director for Wyoming Outdoor Council, said.
"Wyoming is basically the epicenter where all this is going on now. This is now the new focus," Darin said. If the problems are not resolved, Darin said his group might consider legal action to force operators to treat or reinject the water. "If they're not going to do it correctly we're going in armed with EPA's ranking," he said.
EPA SAYS NO POLITICAL PRESSURE
"It's just a preliminary draft. Our intent is to resolve the issue," Dodson said. No political pressure has been brought from the Interior Department or EPA officials in Washington, he said. "We have a very open dialogue."
Dodson declined to disclose details of the draft report other than to confirm they were about the water that is extracted from the coal-bed methane.
He said problems could be solved by treating or reinjecting the water back into the coal mines or having a seasonal discharge would could minimize impact.
Methane is stored in the seams of the coalbed and held in place by water pressure. Once the water is removed the gas is freed. But a problem can arise because the water, which can contain sodium, could harm humans, cattle or irrigation if it is allowed to run off.
The lands in question are public lands in northeastern Wyoming. The BLM, a part of the Department of Interior, wrote the environmental impact statement, which was then reviewed by the EPA. A public comment period goes until May 15.
The federal government owns about 49 percent of the land in Wyoming, but about 66 percent of the mineral rights.
To date about 12,000 wells have been drilled and the environmental impact statement examines the 12,000 plus another another 39,000 that industry wants to drill for a total of about 51,000 wells.
If the project moves along as originally scheduled drilling could begin in 2003 and natural gas could start flowing within several months, Bower said.
Marathon Oil Corp's MRO.N) Marathon Pennaco owns 1,069 wells in the area and partially owns another 472 wells, producing 59.8 million cubic feet per day, a company spokeswoman said.