Suit filed to prevent specific oil and gas development on federal land

Forest Service may have taken illegal shortcut in granting approval

A lawsuit was filed this week to stop the development of new oil and gas wells in the Little Henderson Creek area. The development would require several miles of new pipeline and road infrastructure and could affect water quality and winter wildlife habitat.

Gunnison Valley energy company SG Interests recently received approval from the United States Forest Service to develop up to five new gas wells in the area, which is located near the headwaters of the North Fork of the Gunnison River.
However, according to local environmental advocacy group High Country Citizens’ Alliance (HCCA), the approval was granted under a categorical exclusion that circumvented the need for external review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
It was an unlawful move, said HCCA, and one that they and the group Citizens for Healthy Communities chose to file suit over in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.
“The Forest Service failed to consider any of the impacts from this project and instead misapplied agency regulations in order to avoid doing any analysis altogether,” said the groups in a media statement.
“A categorical exclusion is used when a project is so small it will not have an impact on the surrounding area,” added HCCA’s public lands director Ali Melton. “SG Interests is looking to do some pretty major industrial expansion in the area. They are behind the neighboring Bull Mountain project that has 150 wells, and they also have quite a few other single wells. There is also a separate company that is proposing a 50-well multi-development plan in the area. In total the area is projected to see 200 new wells, and that doesn’t account for the impact of updates and renovation of existing wells.”
According to Melton, the goal of the lawsuit is to overturn the Forest Service’s decision authorizing the gas wells, and to force the developers to pursue “proper environmental analysis” of the project should they wish to continue.
If the lawsuit is decided in favor of the Forest Service and the exclusion allowed to stand, it could set a precedent that goes against NEPA protocol, said Melton. On the other hand, if the lawsuit is decided in favor of the plaintiffs, the developers would be required to take part in either an Environmental Assessment or an Environmental Impact Statement as determined by NEPA.
“The Forest Service has relied upon a faulty piecemeal approval system that is allowing for unsuitable industrialized oil and gas development on the Gunnison National Forest,” said Kyle Tisdel, lead attorney from the Western Environmental Law Center, which filed the suit on behalf of the advocacy groups. “The resources that North Fork communities rely on—clean water, clean air, a healthy hunting economy—are all at risk because the Forest Service has failed to do a legally required, thorough analysis of the impacts.”