WOC Develops Citizens' Proposal

Protecting Wyoming's People, Land, Water and Air: A Citizens' Proposal to Conserve Wyoming's Heritage in the Powder River Basin was submitted to the Bureau of Land Management in October for consideration in the agency's draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) on a proposed 50,000 CBM-well project in the basin.

While the BLM largely ignored these principles in its recently released DEIS, it's important to let the agency know that you support the citizens' proposal and that its recommendations should be analyzed in the final environmental impact statement and adopted in the record of decision approving the project to protect the basin's residents, land, water and air. WOC will soon send out an alert with more information about the citizens' proposal and how to contact the Wyoming BLM with your comments.

Our citizens' proposal:

• adds more landowner protections on split-estate lands;
• requires re-injection and/or treatment of produced CBM water;
• mandates the use of the best available technologies to reduce environmental impacts; and
• highlights the need for flexible management so that as impacts are revealed, practices are modified to mitigate or eliminate unforeseen effects.

If you'd like a copy of the citizens' proposal, contact Bonnie Hofbauer at (307) 332-7031, bonnie@wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org.