Gov. Bill Ritter and energy industry leaders plan to announce deals today aimed at minimizing harm to wildlife from oil and gas drilling in western Colorado.
Wildlife advocates familiar with negotiations between Colorado officials and companies, including EnCana Oil and Gas and Williams Companies Inc., said the deals involve activities on about 150,000 acres of wildlife habitat.
“We’re glad that wildlife mitigation plans have been negotiated. We’re hopeful they will minimize adverse impacts to wildlife,” said Suzanne O’Neill, executive director of the Colorado Wildlife Federation. “This shows that companies are quite willing and able to comply with reasonable rules.”
The new rules Colorado implemented to regulate oil and gas drilling, which took effect in April 2009, encourage development of plans to protect wildlife. Companies that do so can avoid lengthy reviews.
Some industry officials have called Colorado’s regulatory system onerous, drawing support from Republican political candidates.
Yet Colorado remains the regional leader in issuing drilling permits and new activity, with 819 new wells this year. The state is expected to have its second- busiest year for issuing oil and gas drilling permits – with more than 3,100 drilling permits issued through the first six months of the year. That’s on pace to reach 6,500 permits by the end of the year – which would be 30 percent more than last year.
Drilling on wildlife-rich tracts of public land has been identified as a growing threat to the state’s heritage, economy and ecosystems. Oil and gas companies have reported nearly 1,000 spills involving 5.2 million gallons of drilling liquids and oil over the past two years.
EnCana spokesman Doug Hock said the agreement Encana negotiated with the state involves 45,000 acres on its North Parachute Ranch area. It reflects EnCana’s good working relationship with state and federal land managers aimed at “having a viable drilling program that at the same time protects habitat and minimizes impacts,” Hock said.
Under the deal, “Encana will assesss potential impacts and plan avoidance and mitigation strategies,” he said.
Wildlife in the area include elk, deer, bear, bobcats and sage grouse.
“This is something that naturally flows from work we already were doing with the (Colorado) Division of Wildlife,” he said. “This just formalizes a lot of what we were doing.”
Bruce Finley: 303.954.1700 or bfinley@denverpost.com
