DENVER—Gas development on leases in the South Shale Ridge area in northwest Colorado is on hold after a federal judge’s ruling Monday in a lawsuit filed by environmental groups.
The groups, including The Wilderness Society and Sierra Club, sued after the Bureau of Land Management sold oil and gas leases on about 20,000 acres of the South Shale Ridge, near DeBeque. The area is home to the Uinta Basin hookless cactus, a threatened wildflower.
In a ruling Monday, U.S. District Judge Marcia Krieger set aside the decision by the BLM and Fish and Wildlife that found leasing would not adversely affect the hookless cactus, saying the decision was “arbitrary and capricious.” She ruled the two agencies did not fully confer on effects of drilling in the affected area.
Krieger also concluded that the BLM improperly ruled out an option for the land that would have prevented any disturbance of the land’s surface.
Greg Schnacke, executive vice president of the trade group, Colorado Oil and Gas Association, said he wasn’t aware about this specific lawsuit but called it results “troubling.”
“We see these types of groups that are challenging any type of development, filing actions based on the cause at hand,” he said. “But it’s a legal process… and we’ll be watching that very closely.”
The BLM in 2001 recommended the area be considered for protection as a Wilderness Study Area, but then in November 2005 leased nearly the entire area for oil and gas drilling, according to a statement from Earthjustice, the environmental law firm that filed the suit.
“The court said that was a mistake,” said Keith Bauerle, an attorney for Earthjustice.
A BLM spokesman did not return a phone message seeking comment after business hours Monday.
South Shale Ridge has 32,000 roadless acres. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., has included the land in areas she has proposed for listing as wilderness areas.
