County tells BLM to look closer at gas lease sale

“To act on the incomplete information … will indeed result in a regrettable decision.”

The Gunnison Board of County Commissioners isn’t mincing words when it comes to a proposed expansion of gas wells in the county on the other side of Kebler Pass. The commissioners this week approved a letter stating several major concerns over the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) proposal to move forward with a lease sale this summer.

The BLM’s Uncompahgre Field Office (UFO) delivered its Draft Environmental Assessment  (EA) the first week of March, along with a Draft Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for 21 of the 22 parcels proposed for oil and gas development in the North Fork Valley. Unlike the majority of development already in the area, which has taken place on private land, this round of proposed leases covers about 28,950 acres of public land and not quite 860 privately owned acres. The parcels also nearly surround parts of several towns and farms and their respective sources of drinking water.
But the foundations of the BLM’s proposal for the lease sale are old (some would say outdated) and a cause of concern for many.
The first paragraph of the County’s letter says it all about the BOCC’s feelings related to the sale. In italics, the letter starts by quoting a court decision explaining why the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is so important. It says, “The fundamental objective of NEPA is to ensure that an agency will not act on incomplete information only to regret its decision after it is too late to correct.”
And the commissioners think the BLM will regret its decision to let the August 2012 lease sale go forward unchanged. But the commissioners’ hopes were muted, and their sense of concern heightened, after the draft EA suggested that all but one of the 22 parcels being considered as appropriate for gas drilling.
The BOCC’s letter to Uncompahgre Field Manager Barb Sharrow is a formal request to “defer the proposed August 9, 2012 Oil and Gas Lease Sale until an Environmental Impact Statement process and the current revision of the BLM Uncompahgre Basin Resource management Plan and Record of Decision (UBRA RMP) are completed.”
The Resource Management Plan being used to justify the lease sale was completed in 1989 and critics of the sale from the North Fork and across the county point out the changes that have happened in the area’s economy and demographics since that time. They argue the new paradigm doesn’t support a development that could potentially pollute air and water, let alone gas wells popping up on the horizon.
According to Pete Kolbenschlag of Mountain West Strategies, an environmental consulting firm, the public’s response to the BLM’s call for comments on the proposed lease sale was overwhelmingly against going forward.
Kolbenschlag looked at more than 1,500 comments received by the BLM during his analysis and found 99 percent of the comments received from organizations, governments, agencies, associations and businesses did not support the proposal; 98 percent of the comments received from individuals in Delta and Gunnison County didn’t support the proposal; and 97 percent of the comments received from individuals around Colorado didn’t support the proposal.
In addition to what is largely seen as an outdated EA, the UFO based its decision to support leasing the 21 parcels, themselves comprised of almost 25,000 acres, for exploration and development this summer after an ID Team of BLM resource specialists looked at records, maps and the actual sites to determine if they are appropriate for development.
Still, just as they did when they sent a letter to the BLM in February, the commissioners have concerns that the proposed lease sale is premature, unsupported by the necessary NEPA analysis and “lacks critical foundational information and includes proposed locations in Gunnison County that may be inappropriate,” the letter says. “The draft Environmental Assessment only affirms those concerns. We respectfully suggest that to act on the incomplete information included in the draft EA and FONSI will indeed result in a regrettable decision.”
The county argues that the size of the area being considered for leasing is large enough that, “this proposed lease sale—in whole or in part—warrants the depth of research and analysis afforded by a full Environmental Impact Statement process rather than an Environmental Assessment.”
The commissioners take issue with the way the draft EA specifically assesses the impacts of issuing the leases and then switches to assessing the impacts of development, which the county sees as inseparable. “Because the decision to lease inevitably will lead to development, the EA is flawed: It does not analyze currently identifiable development issues.”
They also say the FONSI isn’t warranted as the EA “is based upon information, assumptions and conclusions, many of which are 25 years old” and that even if the EA were to use current information, the assessment process by itself isn’t rigorous enough to say leasing will have no significant impact. But the BLM didn’t even look at the currently available information that could have impacted its decision, the letter says. Some of that information is related to geologic hazards like rockslides and water quality monitoring.
“The BLM preferred alternative does not fulfill BLM’s statutory mission and responsibilities “… to sustain the health, diversity and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.
“The data on which the draft EA and FONSI are based is insufficient to determine that the preferred Alternative ‘ … will not significantly affect the quality of the human environment.’”
More specifically, the commissioners say the parcels inside Gunnison County being proposed for leasing need to be revisited for a number of reasons, including limited accessibility or inappropriate geology in the lease parcels, proximity to surface water and the potential for impacts to wildlife and recreation.
“Again, the [BOCC] respectfully requests that the Bureau not proceed with the proposed August 2012 Oil and Gas Lease Sale unless and until both an Environmental Impact Statement and the current revision of the UBRA RMP are completed,” the letter says.
The commissioners’ letter will also coincide with a letter from Senators Bennett and Udall, which takes a more subdued tone and a different approach, but asks the BLM to extend the public scoping period for the draft EA and FONSI.
Public comments on the proposed lease sale can still be directed to the UFO at http://on.doi.gov/UFOAugustLeaseSale or mailed to BLM Uncompahgre Field Office, Attn: Oil and Gas Lease EA, 2465 S. Townsend Ave, Montrose, CO 81401 through April 20.