Runaway CBM Development Hits New Snag

by Tom Darin

Industry's latest "solution" to CBM discharge water problems in the Powder River Basin: spraying it into the air. Not accounted for, apparently, were winter freazing and massive salt accumulations. Photo by Jill Morrison, Powder River Basin Resource Council

In February, a jury of everyday Wyoming folks awarded Mary and Buck Brannaman, owners of a stunningly beautiful ranch near Sheridan, more than $800,000 in damages caused by a CBM company's abuse of their property. The verdict confirms what a coalition of ranchers and conservationists have been saying for some time: unchecked CBM development threatens ranchers' lands and the environment.

In January, responding to a WOC appeal, the Department of Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) ruled that the 190-well Lower Prairie Dog Creek CBM project near Sheridan was not backed by a thorough environmental analysis. In its 28-page opinion, the appellate board sent the BLM back to the drawing board.

Fortunately, we obtained a stay on development during the appeal process, so the Lower Prairie Dog Creek project had been put on hold. IBLA's ruling has far-reaching implications, since the BLM must now greatly improve its site-specific studies before it can approve industrial-scale CBM development in the Powder River Basin.

Our primary concerns focused on the BLM's shoddy science concerning the salinity and sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) of millions of gallons of water that will be discharged onto the surface during CBM drilling. In general, water with high salinity (dissolved salt content) reduces plants' ability to take up water. High SAR values (sodium in relation to magnesium and calcium) may clog pores in certain soils, slowing water infiltration and making less water available to plants.

IBLA agreed with us, ruling that the BLM failed to take a "hard look" at the likely impacts to soils and vegetation of high salinity and SAR values in CBM discharge water.

Importantly, IBLA observed that the BLM used only one water sample to conclude that there would be no impacts to soils and vegetation; failed to mention the impacts of high SAR values in produced water; and failed in its attempt to mitigate these impacts.

The timing of our victory is critical since the BLM is now in the final stages of its studies for 51,000 CBM wells in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and up to 26,000 wells in the Montana portion of the basin. IBLA has made it clear that the agency's site-specific impact analyses must take a harder look at all of the impacts from CBM discharge water, based on an ample supply of data.

One wonders how many times the BLM must hear repeated warnings before it gets the message that it cannot ignore the unbiased opinions of non-industry scientists outside the agency. If the BLM is required to draft new analyses after failing to thoroughly assess, study and mitigate environmental impacts the first time around, the agency itself is responsible for delaying CBM well approvals.

WOC will continue to press the BLM to ensure that CBM development in the Powder River Basin proceeds in a manner that protects area ranchers' land and water quality and the basin's environment.