The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has released its revised plan for expanded drilling on the Pinedale Anticline project area. The proposal calls for 4,400 more wells, almost nine times the number currently in place, likely drilled at a rate of up to 232 wells per year, and substantially expanding the impacts beyond those that were authorized in the original plan issued in 2000. Additionally, in a precedent setting move, the operators propose to drill year-round and no longer be subject to well-established, seasonal drilling protections for big game and sage grouse.

While this proposal contains some good measures to limit industry’s footprint, unless enforceable mitigation measures are strengthened, this ramped-up drilling in the Pinedale Anticline will harm northwest Wyoming’s quality of life, exceptional vistas, and extraordinary wildlife—all the things that make the Upper Green a great place to live and visit.

The BLM won’t get a second chance to get this important decision right. They have the tools for a good plan but so far have failed to combine them into a sensible conservation alternative. Contact them today, and let them know that a slower pace of development and stronger enforcements are paramount for finding real balance on the Anticline. Find out the specifics of how they could actually do it here.

Resources

• Road map for doing it right on the Anticline

• BLM details of new plan

• Take Action

Background Information
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this plan. BLM originally released their supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) in the winter of 2007, however it was sent back to the drawing board due to opposition and critiques from a wide range of interests.

In his comments, Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal wrote that he was “stunned” with the staggering increase in drilling proposed for the Anticline and challenged the BLM to provide “long-term protection for the remaining valuable social, cultural, scenic, aesthetic, agricultural and wildlife resources so as not to cause irreversible harm to any of them.” Without these protections or a program to honestly monitor impacts, the governor said he would refuse to support the project.

Almost no one attending the BLM’s open houses voiced support for escalating Anticline drilling and Wyoming’s newspaper editorial boards have panned the proposal. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave the SEIS a poor rating. Because the document studied such a narrow range of alternatives, EPA rated it as EO-2, Environmental Objections—Inadequate Information, or the equivalent of a D-plus. The agency insisted that the final SEIS review an alternative that calls for a reduced rate of development.

The Town of Pinedale cited a daunting array of socio-economic impacts associated with the oil and gas boom, now in its eighth year, including increased traffic and crime, particularly illegal drugs and domestic violence, stressed social services, school crowding, inadequate infrastructure, escalating property values, declining air quality and wildlife, and changes in the region’s rural character. Like the EPA, town officials insisted on “a slower and more staged pace of energy development to allow our towns to respond to the impacts we are already incurring from the rapid gas field development, and to allow for our towns to stabilize these influences to avoid the less owe have already learned, that the ‘boom and bust’ cycle is of no ultimate long-term benefit to our communities.”

Coupled with the recently approved 3,100-well infill project on the neighboring Jonah Field, ramped-up drilling in the Pinedale Anticline could forever alter Sublette County’s quality of life, air quality and ability to support abundant wildlife—all the things that make Wyoming’s Upper Green River Valley a great place to live and visit.

Below are links to comments from other organizations, including the Upper Green River Valley Coalition and its consultants.

Comments from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality
The DEQ calls on the BLM's plan does not adequately protect air quality. Industry must be required to speed up its emissions-reduction proposal by at least two years, writes the agency's director John Corra. (737K)

Comments from the Upper Green River Valley Coalition

Coalition comments regarding wildlife impacts by William Alldredge (91K)

Coalition comments regarding air quality impacts by Megan Williams and Cindy Copeland (355K)

Coalition comments regarding sage grouse impacts by Clait Braun (80K)

Coalition comments regarding socio-economic impacts by Joe Kerkvliet of The Wilderness Society (70K)