A western Colorado congressman has asked the federal government to delay a Thursday auction that includes leasing more than 26,000 acres of land for natural-gas drilling in Delta, Ouray, San Miguel and Montrose counties.
Rep. John Salazar, D-Manassa, said that with the Bureau of Land Management’s website down for the last month, his constituents have not had enough opportunity to learn about the proposed leases.
“The idea that the government can drill in someone’s backyard with such little notice is simply unacceptable,” said Salazar.
In response to complaints from local officials and residents, Salazar asked the agency to delay leasing 47,000 acres – 70 parcels statewide – until the next sale in August.
Postponing the sale entirely is not possible, said state BLM spokesman Vaughan Whately.
But state director Ron Wenker could opt to defer leasing of 45 parcels statewide, covering 34,000 acres, where the surface is owned by private citizens but the minerals below are owned by the government.
Those parcels could involve significant public opposition, as the so-called “split estate” issue has led to increasing resistance to energy development in the rural West.
The BLM does not notify individual surface owners that mineral rights under their property are being offered for lease.
Normally, the agency posts information on leasing sales on its website 45 days before the sale. But the site was shut down April 8 by Interior Secretary Gale Norton.
That meant information on the Web was available for only 11 days.
Since then, anyone from Ouray or San Miguel counties who wanted advance warning of drilling near their homes would have had to drive to the BLM’s Uncompaghre field office in Montrose. For residents of western Montrose or San Miguel counties, that could mean more than two hours on the road.
Whately said the agency is legally required to post information only at its headquarters and field offices. The agency posts information on its oil and gas website as a convenience, not because it is a legal requirement.
The shuttered BLM website has led to complaints in Utah and Wyoming.
Staff writer Theo Stein can be reached at 303-820-1657 or tstein@denverpost.com.
