WOC's Coalbed Methane Road Show

by Tom Darin

WOC staffers recently hit the road as part of our continuing effort to educate state agencies and listen to the concerns of landowners and other citizens about the environmental impacts of runaway coalbed methane (CBM) development in Wyoming.

On a summer-like day in early May, WOC executive director Dan Heilig, newly hired Environmental Quality & Justice Program director Michele Barlow and I traveled to Casper for a meeting with members of the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (WOGCC), and then gathered with landowners and other citizens at two town-hall meetings in Gillette.

During our two-hour meeting with WOGCC members and Bobbie Rinegar, Senior Assistant Attorney General for the State of Wyoming (assigned to handle legal matters for the commission), we politely yet firmly reminded them of WOGCC rules and regulations which mandate that the commission act to prevent the waste of underground water, the unreasonable use and occupancy of ground surfaces and the contamination of soils and surface waters generated by CBM development.  WOGCC responded to our public-records request by providing us with documents concerning methane venting and citizen complaints about well spacing and groundwater depletion.

Michele, our computer guru, talked with commission members about WOGCC's CBM webpage (http://wogcc.state.wy.us/coalbed.cfm), which serves as an information clearinghouse for CBM well locations, gas and water production, drilling permits, companies and the status of Coordinated Resource Management efforts.  Michele and Rick Marvel, WOGCC's petroleum engineer and web master, also discussed the capabilities of the University of Wyoming's Internet Map Server (http://wims.sdvc.uwyo.edu/) to create maps containing information on geology, soil types, water resources, animals, plants, political boundaries, satellite imagery and CBM data.

Commission members listened closely as we pleaded our case that Wyoming, like Montana, should impose a statewide moratorium on CBM wells until the impacts of development are better studied and understood.  They seemed receptive to WOC's planned petition for a broad rulemaking to address bonding requirements, rigid protections for surface owners, well-spacing issues and feasibility studies concerning places where CBM extraction should not occur due to the importance of other resource values.

This meeting was an important first step in communicating to WOGCC the importance of CBM drilling concerns, WOC's strong  commitment to responsible CBM development and our sincere interest in developing a working relationship with the commission.

Next, we moved on to Gillette for a late-afternoon meeting with approximately 20 members of the Northeast Wyoming Property Owners Coalition, a group of citizens concerned with the impacts of CBM development on their communities.  Dan and I listened to citizens' concerns regarding devalued properties, well drilling in neighborhoods and the unknown and unstudied impacts of massive aquifer depletion.  We then presented a brief overview about what WOC is doing, and is planning to do, on CBM issues. (See "WOC Pursues Major Coalbed Methane Development Reforms" on page 8.)

Our comments then became more focused on landowners' property rights, specifically how discharge water from adjacent properties constitutes illegal trespass and possibly an actionable nuisance.   The meeting was a good one, and we received excellent feedback on WOC's commanding statewide presence on CBM issues and our public outreach efforts.

That evening we met for several hours at the Campbell County High School with more than 50 landowners interested in developing their mineral rights, citizens concerned about the environmental impacts of CBM development, reporters and industry representatives.  Dan led off WOC's presentation to the group with some good news: the BLM's admission to Congress that ongoing federal CBM development is illegal, and our recent success with the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality on CBM water quality issues (see "WOC Protest Halts Coalbed Methane Discharge Permits" on page 13.)

I was left to deliver the bad news: some 70,000 CBM wells are projected for the Powder River Basin, yet federal and state agencies are giving companies the green light, with little or no concern for the potentially devastating environmental consequences of development on such a massive scale.  I then detailed our ongoing legal actions against the BLM and our plans to challenge several state agencies to prevent groundwater depletion, surface water pollution and unreasonable surface disturbance from CBM drilling.

I concluded my presentation on a positive note, describing the power of citizens to halt the tide of runaway CBM development.  I stressed the importance of public comments to agencies regarding proposed CBM projects and explained landowners' rights on split-estates (where they own the surface and someone else owns the underlying minerals) concerning bonding amounts, appeal rights if the bond is insufficient and surface disturbance safeguards.

It was a long but very productive day.  Outreach efforts like these are key to maintaining an open dialogue with state regulatory agencies and strengthening WOC's statewide campaign to educate and mobilize Wyoming citizens to help ensure responsible CBM development in our state.  More WOC CBM road shows are planned for the near future as part of this campaign.