By Lindy J. Gwinn
The Gas and Oil Collaborative group met on Wednesday, Jan. 25 to share information and discuss the August 2012 BLM gas lease sale.
The group is comprised of representatives from BLM, Forest Service, Delta County, Gunnison County, Colorado Division of Wildlife, NFRIA/ WSERC Conservation Center, Gunnison Energy Corporation and SG Interests, and for the purposes of this meeting Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission staff was involved.
Chair of the group, Delta County Commissioner Olen Lund opened the meeting with an agenda that revolved around aspects of the BLM proposed gas lease sale in the North Fork area.
Barb Sharrow, manager for the Uncompahgre Field Office of BLM and district manager Lori Armstrong updated the group on the recent new changes to the BLM leasing process.
“We have implemented a new process for the leasing that includes much earlier announcement of the lease and adds two additional public comment periods to the process,” said Sharrow.
These changes to the process resulted after amendments to the Leasing Reform Act in 2011.
“The first thing that is different is the process is now very transparent. Lease sale proposals are now taking about nine months, as opposed to just a couple of months, because of the early notices and additional public comment periods.
Sharrow went on to say that the BLM is working on an environmental assesment of the 22 proposed parcels and have extended to public comment period from Jan. 9 to Feb. 9. After the draft EA has been prepared and released, there will be another 30-day public comment period.
“We are looking for true and meaningful comments as opposed to some of the comments we are getting right now. The staff will then make changes that are necessary to the EA as a result of further specific comments, and release the findings. There is a 90 day protest period following that and at that point the decision will be made at the Washington level,” said Sharrow.
“At this time I have received five or six petitions saying no to oil and gas from the North Fork; one petition from the Fruita area and one from the Grand Junction area that are proponents. I have had over 2500 respondents in whole. Of all those comments, I have received 100 to 400 comments that were very specific and helpful to the process. We appreciate all of you for helping people get those kinds of comments to us,” she said.
Delta County Commissioners said that their emails have been flooded by comments in opposition as well and that they are getting comments from all over the world including emails from Boston, Bosnia and other places that will not be impacted by these proposed leases.
When asked if there could be development stipulations placed by BLM on the lease parcels, Sharrow said, “Not stipulations, but we would put notices on them as a buyer to beware of these potential areas of concern that would have to be dealt with at the permitting stage of any development process. We have the opportunity to put conditions for approval on a drill and development plan.”
An outdated Resource Management Plan has been the basis for a lot of the opposition that BLM is getting on these proposed parcels. “We are in the process of updating the RMP which includes the requirement of an Environmental Impact Study,” said Sharrow.
Lee Fyock from GEC asked if there was any action that would cause an EIS to be done on the proposed parcels. Sharrow said that there was not anything that could trigger that mandate at this time in the process. “This is an administrative decision to lease, there is no development plan and it is odd to do an EA prior to an action plan for development.”
At this juncture of the meeting Sharrow asked the gas companies to talk about the activity already in the area and update the group on their plans to continue development.
“We are doing some modest work in 2012. We are going to drill two wells and re-enter a well on Spaulding Peak. We are also working on the completion of a well about a mile north of one of the coal mines and hope to put it into production this year,” said Brad Robinson, president of GEC.
SG Interests told the group that they are working on two wells in the Bull Mountain Unit, which is in very close proximity to some of the parcels and in fact overlap that unit in places. They are completing three shale wells and are waiting for the completion of the Bull Mountain pipeline before they complete those wells. They have completed their water storage facility and recently completed four wells that are scheduled to go online. They are working on gathering line construction plans and infrastructure as well.
“Hopefully soon, we can release the complete EA for the unit for 36 well pads and 150 potential wells,” said Robbie Guinn, president of SG Interests.
Sharrow said that she expects the EA in February 2012.
Guinn explained the reason she does not want disclosure of nominations. “There are companies out there that monitor lease sales. That is just inviting competition. We don’t like to talk about our interest in lease parcels. In this case however, due to the interest in the community, we are acknowledging that we did nominate one 200 acre parcel that adjoins our current lease for this sale,” said Guinn.
Fyock said that although GEC did not nominate any of the parcels in Delta County, they did nominate a parcel just east of Paonia Reservoir in Gunnison County. “We don’t know who nominated the others and we did not pay anyone to nominate the others,” said Fyock.
Sarah Sauter from NFRIA WSERC said, “We don’t care who nominated and we were not a formal party to the request for that information.”
BLM noted that all of the proposed lease parcels were adjacent to already leased parcels and that the nominated leases were by majority to fill in and square up already existing leases. “There are maps on our website that show where the existing leases are and where the proposed leases are in relation to the existing parcels,” said Sharrow.
Sharrow told the group that, in terms of conflict between coal mining operations and gas operations, “Coal always takes precedence over gas and oil.”
The group agreed that the time has come to develop a public education forum and get the forum scheduled.
“In the last six weeks I have seen lots of misinformation in the North Fork. The fear factor is unbelievable. There are people trying to leave the area because they think that drill rigs are going to be lined up the minute that lease goes through and that drilling will start that minute. There are also people out there that only want to raise the fear, but there are others who really want to know the facts about this so they can make an informed decision,” said Sharrow.
Everyone at the table agreed that this was a project that they were willing to undertake and participate in.
Robinson said, “We are supportive and will participate. I think that this should be driven by the regulatory agencies not industry because there is a pre-existing mistrust of the industry. I think that COGCC should be involved and is a huge part of helping people by giving them accurate information about the regulatory burden that companies must follow.”
Lori Molitar with NFRIA WSERC said, “There is complete ignorance in the population about the regulations and who regulates what, how development is regulated, and what is regulated at the federal, state and local levels.”
The group has set a tentative date for the educational forum in March. The group has identified topics that need to be addressed at the forum. Those topics include, fracking, geology, water air and pollution concerns. The potential water supply issues and basic land education as it relates to split estates also should be addressed, as should wastewater and health issues.
