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Drilling Turns Powder River Basin into a Powder Keg
WASHINGTON, DC, January 21, 2002 (ENS) - The Powder River Basin in
northeast Wyoming and part of Montana has seen a surge in drilling for coal
bed methane over the past seven years. In 1994, there were 110 coal bed
methane wells in the basin.
Today, there are over 12,000 coal bed methane wells that have been drilled
in northeast Wyoming, with another 8,000 coal bed methane wells that have
been permitted for drilling.
 Discharge
water from coal bed methane operation entering the Tongue River
(Three photos by Jeff Blend courtesy
Montana Department of Environmental Quality
)
Environmental groups say the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is permitting
coal bed methane activities detrimental to streams, wildlife, ranching and
agriculture in the Powder River Basin. The Corps says it is not allowing
coal bed methane production to destroy any wetland area larger than .10
acre.
This week, three Wyoming based conservation groups filed suit in federal
court in Washington DC against a general permit issued by the Corps of
Engineers that allows the discharge of fill material from oil and gas
exploration and development on both public and private lands in the state
of Wyoming.
The Corps issues general permits to allow its staff to "manage its workload
by quickly authorizing activities with minimal adverse effects and focusing
its limited resources on higher value aquatic areas." The Corps is required
to reissue general permits every five years.
The permit at issue governs the construction of in-channel reservoirs for
produced water from coal bed methane production wells, as well as road and
pipeline crossings in Wyoming.
The Wyoming Outdoor Council, the Powder River Basin Resource Council and
Biodiversity Associates, represented by the nonprofit public interest
environmental law firm Earthjustice, say they filed the lawsuit to stop
surface and groundwater pollution, as well as damage to streams, wildlife,
ranching and agriculture from coal bed methane production in the Powder
River Basin.
High value aquatic areas, including wetlands, are subject to case specific
special conditions added by Corps districts during their review of specific
projects, and the Corps has the discretionary authority to require a
standard individual permit on a case by case basis.
 Welder works on pipeline,
expanding capacity to carry increasing amounts of Powder River Basin coal
bed methane gas to market. (Photo courtesy Western Gas)
Coal bed methane is natural gas that is trapped in the fissures and
fractures of underground coal beds by overlying water in underground
aquifers.
The gas is released when the water is pumped to the surface, at a rate of
anywhere from several up to hundreds of gallons a minute, easing the
pressure and allowing the gas to follow the water up. This water has been
found to contain salts, arsenic, iron, barium and manganese.
Coal bed methane now provides almost eight percent of the nation's reserve
of natural gas, more than quadrupling its share of the reserve since 1989.
Over 50,000 wells are expected to be drilled in the Powder River Basin by
2010. Current estimates are that the basin will eventually have between
2,000 and 4,000 reservoirs to serve all of these wells.
The lawsuit contends that this general permit (known as GP 98-08), issued
in 1998, has "major ramifications for the future of Wyoming's watersheds,
wetlands, rivers, plant and aquatic communities."
The general permit at issue in court allows the construction of in-channel
reservoirs to hold coal bed methane produced water.
"The result is that natural run-off and rainfall then flow into these
reservoirs and are contaminated by the polluted coal bed methane water,"
Earthjustice argues. "During the first 10 months of 2001 alone, coal bed
methane drilling in Wyoming resulted in the withdrawal of 17.9 billion
gallons of produced coal bed methane water from underground coal seams to
the surface."
"By issuing a general permit, the Corps of Engineers is treating these
reservoirs like stock watering ponds. But they contain contaminated water
from coal bed methane wells and are more like wastewater treatment ponds
than livestock ponds," said Steve Jones of the Wyoming Outdoor Council.
The Army Corps of Engineers says that permittees are "required to conduct
authorized activities to "avoid and minimize adverse effects on water
quality and the aquatic environment."
People operating under General Permit 98-08 must, "control the storage and
disposal of petroleum products, chemicals and other deleterious materials
in such a way that it cannot enter the waters of the U.S., including
wetlands."
 Coal bed methane
water discharge pond in the Powder River Basin (Photo by Jeff Blend
courtesy Montana DEQ)
Permittees must "control all construction debris, fill and other materials
disposed on upland in such a way that it cannot enter the waters of the
U.S., including wetlands."
But Jill Morrison, of the Powder River Basin Resource Council, says those
directives are not enough to protect Wyoming's waters.
"All of these ponds are unlined. That is part of their design," said
Morrison. "They are intentionally built to leak into the groundwater. Not
only will this potentially contaminate the alluvial aquifers, the water
flows downstream during flood events or when the reservoirs overflow and
kills the native vegetation and trees in ephemeral draws, floods out the
meadows on downstream land owners destroying vegetation and pollutes the
major streams and rivers it flows into."
The Corps says no activity is authorized that would impact more than a
tenth of an acre of wetland covered with peat, forest or scrub-shrub, and
in any case no activity is authorized within 100 feet of the source of
natural springs.
The environmental groups are concerned about damage to Wyoming fish and
their habitat. "The unique fish and aquatic plant communities in Wyoming's
streams are threatened by both the quantity and quality of coal bed methane
produced water allowed by this ill conceived and illegal general permit,"
said Jeff Kessler of Biodiversity Associates.
But the general permit specifically does not allow activities that are
"likely to jeopardize the continued existence" of endangered species or
their habitats or even species proposed for designation.
No activities are allowed in active spawning areas during the spawning
seasons of indigenous fish and other aquatic life, "unless the activity's
purpose is to impound water," the Corps says.
That protection does nothing to address the problem of too much salt in
waters affected by coal bed methane production. Earthjustice maintains that
the high salinity levels not only threaten the aquatic habitat of the
rivers and streams, but also threaten agricultural uses of the water, such
as irrigation, since many plants are sensitive to salinity levels in the
water and soils.
Over time, if not immediately, these soils can lose their productivity, as
the salts begin to saturate the soils, and many Wyoming ranchers are upset
about this.
Last year a Congressional committee heard from Ed Swartz, a third
generation rancher from the basin who said, "Myself and other ranchers and
landowners in the Powder River Basin are facing very real and destructive
impacts." He told the committee that water pumped from coal bed methane
wells threatens to destroy his hay fields. It has already destroyed the
vegetation in the creek bottom of Wild Cat Creek, he said.
 Coal bed methane
drilling rig in the Powder River Basin
The lawsuit lists three problems associated with the general permit. First,
a general permit is only to be issued if it covers similar activities that
have only minimal impacts upon the environment. In this case, the
activities are not similar. Road and pipeline crossings are not at all
similar to coal bed methane reservoirs. Plus, the notion that these
activities do not have significant environmental impacts is preposterous,
the groups contend.
Second, general permits are not allowed where there is an alternative to
the proposed activity - in this case, the construction of the in-channel
reservoirs - in the permit.
There are definitely alternatives to the construction of so many in-channel
reservoirs, the groups point out. "These include reinjection of the coal
bed methane produced water into the groundwater, treatment of the produced
water prior to discharging, and proper construction of treatment ponds that
are lined and designed not to leak to and contaminate the groundwater."
Third, Earthjustice argues, the Corps of Engineers did not comply with the
National Environmental Policy Act when it issued the general permit. "The
Corps of Engineers should have prepared a pre-decisional Environmental
Assessment allowing for the public to comment, or an Environmental Impact
Statement. It did not do either, leaving these organizations and concerned
citizens unable to effectively comment on the impacts of this general
permit before it was issued."
But the Corps says the general permit was issued in accordance with the
Clean Water Act. In addition, the Wyoming Department of Environmental
Quality and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have issued the
required water quality certifications.
Now both sides will have to tell it to the judge.
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2002. All rights reserved. |
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