Lack of Testing Hurts DEQ Credibility

The following editorial appeared in the Casper Star-Tribune on May 5.  We reprint it with permission.

The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality should be embarrassed that it had to learn about a fundamental salinity test for coalbed methane water discharges from a study done in Montana.

The DEQ is supposed to check the water discharges from coalbed methane wells.  It's part of the agency's duties.  Granting a permit for water discharge is one of the few controls to protect the environment available to the state.

Inexplicably, however, the DEQ apparently didn't think this salinity test, the sodium absorption ratio test, was essential - even though soil scientists call the test fundamental to understanding how water affects naturally saline and silty soils, like those in many areas of the Powder River Basin.  The sodium absorption ratio test (SAR) measures the ratio of sodium to magnesium and calcium in both water and soils.  The ratio serves as an indicator of the water's compatibility with the soils.

Armed with the Montana study, the Powder River Basin Resource Council and the Wyoming Outdoor Council challenged 37 water discharge permits at coalbed methane wells.  The study done by Montana State University concluded that not a single water discharge sampled just across the Montana border from the Powder River Basin was suitable for irrigation, due to the sodium content.

Sadly, it took the conservationists' challenge and the Montana study to wake up the DEQ to its responsibility.

The DEQ has already issued more than 500 permits in the Powder River Basin region, with each permit covering as many as a dozen wells, without conducting any SAR tests.  Millions of gallons of water have been flushed onto rangeland without proper analysis.

In a worst-case scenario, the water's salinity could upset a chemical balance with the soil and cause the soil to seal itself off from the water and, consequently, plant life.

There is simply no good excuse for the agency's lack of oversight.

The agency's credibility has suffered immeasurably by this lapse.  The people of Wyoming have a right to expect a better performance from the DEQ.

The agency can help restore its credibility by quickly pulling together a plan explaining to the public, the agriculture industry and the gas industry how it intends to move forward.