DENVER—Concerns about the cumulative impact of energy development have prompted federal officials to take a closer look at the potential effects of roughly 3,000 new gas wells on air quality in northwest Colorado.
The move follows issues raised by the regional office of the Environmental Protection Agency in Denver and could bolster a push by conservation groups in Wyoming for more analysis of oil and gas wells there.
The Bureau of Land Management is working with the EPA on an air-quality study as part of the review of development plans for federal land in the Little Snake resource area in Moffat, Rio Blanco and Routt counties.
The study likely will delay oil and gas drilling in the area because it will push back release of the final plan, originally expected in November.
Officials who reviewed the draft plan wanted to see a more in-depth study of potential impacts on air quality, because no such study had ever been done for that part of the state, said Larry Svoboda, director of the National Environmental Policy Act program for the regional EPA.
Of particular concern, Svoboda said, are the five national parks and wilderness areas near the planning area.
Those areas enjoy the highest level of protection under federal clean-air laws.
Environmentalists and community activists who have criticized the BLM plan said the decision to do a thorough air-quality study underscores growing concerns about the effects of energy development in western Colorado. The western part of the state is one of the hot spots in the statewide natural gas boom.
“People are raising concerns about the impacts to air and water,” said Suzanne Jones, regional director of The Wilderness Society. “I think it’s a theme you’re going to see into the future.”
Environmental groups have asked for the same kind of analysis of BLM management plans in Wyoming, said Bruce Pendery, a staff attorney with the Wyoming Outdoor Council. He said there are five plans at different points in the process that could be affected.
“I think the EPA’s actions in Colorado just validate the need for this and the validity of going this route,” Pendery said.
Officials in Colorado’s Moffat County, though, said air-quality studies should be done for specific projects, not as part of the environmental impact statement.
“It looks like we’re being singled out,” Moffat County Commissioner Tom Gray said. “To have a wrench tossed in like this at the end is pretty disappointing.”
The county commissioners recently lashed out at Gov. Bill Ritter and his administration for recommending that no drilling take place in the 81,000-acre Vermillion Basin, a scenic badlands in the planning area.
Commissioners said that would reduce the county’s share of taxes and mineral royalties.
The preliminary management plan, released in February, contains four alternatives. The one backed by the BLM projects 3,031 wells over 1.3 million acres over 20 years.
The BLM says the plan would close about 8.5 percent of the land to oil and gas drilling, up from about 4 percent now. The agency has proposed limiting drilling in the Vermillion basin to just 1 percent of the land at any one time.
But environmentalists note that the BLM said in 2000 that 77,000 acres in the basin contained “wilderness character.” A group of area residents called Friends of Northwest Colorado proposed an alternative that prohibits drilling in Vermillion Basin.
The BLM estimates there entire planning area has 9.9 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas.
