Natural Gas Development Expands Near Pavillion

by Dan Heilig

The Pavillion/Muddy Ridge natural gas field extends through the irrigated fields northeast of Pavillion, across tribal and private lands and up to the Owl Creek Mountains. Although private landowners and the Wind River Reservation own most of the surface, the federal government owns nearly all of the minerals that lie beneath.

Significant drilling began more than two decades ago in the area, which now contains more than 230 successful natural gas wells. More than 100 additional wells are proposed by operators, primarily Tom Brown, Inc., which can be drilled on 10- or 20-acre tracts near existing wells.

No Environmental Analysis

The problem? Neither the Bureau of Land Management nor the Bureau of Indian Affairs has ever prepared an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), as required by the National Environmental Policy Act, for this full-field natural gas development, to help public officials make appropriate decisions that will, in the words of the act, "protect, restore and enhance the environment."

Yet, despite the lack of a legally required EIS to ensure environmental protection and mitigation, the BLM has issued hundreds of drilling permits.

To justify its decisions, the agency has been using an 18-year-old study that includes only limited and dated analysis of certain environmental impacts and absolutely no analysis of the cumulative effects of full-field development on the area's view shed, air quality, important big-game migratory routes, sage grouse habitat, hiking and horsepacking trails and other recreational and cultural uses. (Interestingly, the agency's outdated study promises that "If a new field were to be developed, an environmental assessment of the field would be performed prior to the drilling of the field-confirmation well.")

Not only have the BLM and Bureau of Indian Affairs failed to study the environmental impacts of potential full-field development, neither agency has studied the costs and benefits of directional drilling, centralized facilities, a coordinated transportation plan or any other available means to minimize development impacts.

As a result, federal agencies lack credible data to equip them to make appropriate decisions about continued industrial activity and mitigation for the area's landowners and local citizens.

Besieged Farms & Ranches

Last year, Tom Brown, Inc. informed several landowners that it intended to increase drilling of federal and tribal gas reserves beneath their farms and ranches. One of these landowners, Bill Garland, was notified that the company intended to drill at least 20 additional wells on 800 acres of his irrigated farmland.

Since then, Tom Brown, Inc. has been aggressively lobbying the Wyoming Oil & Gas Commission to ease its restrictions on well spacing (currently limited to at least one well per 20 acres) to allow at least one well per 10 acres. If the company's pressure tactics are successful, its initial proposal for 20 additional wells on Garland's land will actually mean at least 80 wells on his farm.

Token Damage Payments

The company offered Garland a minimal surface-damage payment that did not begin to cover his actual reclamation costs and failed to match the amount the company had paid him for previous drilling damage to his farm. When he refused to accept the company's surface-damage payment proposal, Tom Brown, Inc. sued Garland to obtain access to his land. The case is pending in the courts.

Garland's farm has already lost a significant amount of its value because it has been transformed from a rural landscape with sophisticated pivot-irrigation systems into an industrial zone. There is no compensation available to him or any other local farmer, beyond the token amount offered by the company, and very few -- if any -- of these landowners receive royalty payments because the federal government owns the minerals beneath their lands.

Protecting Wyoming's Values

As Wyoming continues to contribute to the energy needs of this country, it is imperative that we also protect our own values of agricultural productivity, open space, clean air and water and unencumbered migratory routes for big-game herds. Energy production and protection of these values can occur simultaneously Ð but not without appropriate environmental analysis and enforcement.

WOC is working with tribal members and other landowners in the area to ensure that their property values, way of life and environmental quality will be protected for the day when the drilling is over and the companies go back to Houston.