GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo.—Opponents of drilling for natural gas on the Roan Plateau have turned in more than 17,000 protests of the federal plan to open public land on the western Colorado landmark to energy development.
Opponents of the plan said Wednesday the protests show that area communities want stronger protection for the Roan.
The Bureau of Land Management is offering oil and gas leases on 55,186 acres of public land on the plateau in an Aug. 14 auction in Denver. Wednesday was the deadline for filing protests.
A coalition of 10 environmental groups has filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking an injunction to block the lease sale.
Sen. Ken Salazar and congressmen Mark Udall and John Salazar have asked Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to exclude the public land on the Roan from leasing so they can pursue a bill that would include protections favored by Gov. Bill Ritter and other Coloradans.
The Salazars, Udall and Ritter all Democrats.
The Ritter administration also submitted a protest to leasing the top of the Roan. Harris Sherman, the state’s natural resources director, said the BLM’s plan doesn’t protect fish and wildlife habitat and could short change Colorado economically.
The BLM in March rejected a proposal by the Ritter administration that recommended more restrictions on drilling on the Roan Plateau and phasing in leases rather than offering them all at once.
State officials have said leasing the land in phases would increase what companies would pay. The BLM plan calls for the development to occur in stages, and Ritter has said companies are unlikely to pay a lot of money for leases they can’t develop for a while.
The state and federal governments split the revenue from federal leases offered in auctions.
BLM officials have said their plan, about seven years in the making, provides strong safeguards because it requires that one operator oversee the development of several companies’ leases in one group. The hope is that impacts will be reduced because fewer roads, pipelines and facilities will be required if only one company is taking care of on-the-ground operations.
The BLM’s plan projects 1,570 wells drilled from 193 sites, or well pads, on the public land on the plateau over 20 years. That includes 210 wells from 13 pads on top, where the BLM calls for oil and gas drilling to be done in stages and clusters to limit disturbance to 1 percent of the federal land at any time.
The plateau, about 180 miles west of Denver, looms over the Colorado River and alternates between open flat spots, deep canyons and rugged peaks as high as 9,000 feet. It has become a focus as Colorado’s natural drilling has increased.
The BLM estimates the plateau contains 9 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas and could generate between $428 million and $565 million in royalties and lease payments for the state.
Conservationists have questioned the BLM’s estimates, saying the amount of gas is likely lower. They also say the Roan provides crucial winter habitat for some of the country’s largest elk and mule deer herds and is home to mountain lions, peregrine falcons, bears, rare plants and genetically pure native cutthroat trout dating to the last ice age.
“The Roan Plateau is prime hunting and angling ground, and drilling there will irreparably harm elk and deer habitat, industrializing one of the last unspoiled refuges for prized big game species,” said Bill Dvorak with Sportsmen for the Roan Plateau.
“This is a historic moment in our efforts to protect the Roan because it’s the only time in recent memory, maybe ever, that so many people have voiced their opposition to a single lease sale,” he said.
