Deal ends plan to drill in potential White River wilderness

[stefan]

Deal ends plan to drill in potential White River wilderness area
The Salt Lake Tribune


A natural gas drilling company and a conservation organization have agreed to halt a plan to develop wells in a potential Uinta Basin wilderness site.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance announced the agreement Monday, heading off a court battle over development within the citizen-proposed White River wilderness area.

Anadarko will proceed with planned infill development in the Natural Buttes natural gas field, while SUWA will have assurances that Anadarko won't pursue its Bonanza development north of the White River.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management in February approved the Bonanza project based on an environmental assessment.

SUWA appealed the decision to the state director of the BLM in Utah.

After several weeks of negotiations, SUWA and Anadarko reached their agreement and SUWA withdrew its challenge, said SUWA staff attorney Stephen Bloch.

"Because this area was already under lease, we see this agreement as a win-win solution for SUWA and Anadarko -- as well as the stunning White River," Bloch said in a statement.

Ramsey Fahel, Anadarko General Manager of Business Services, said the agreement "recognizes the importance of producing the significant natural gas resources under the White River area to provide America with a secure and consistent energy supply while protecting the interests of stakeholders in the area."

[stefan]

Conservation group, gas firm reach a Uinta Basin drilling compromise
Company, SUWA agree on drilling project and protection of an area of wilderness quality
By Patty Henetz
The Salt Lake Tribune

A conservation group that challenged a natural gas drilling plan that had received federal approval decided to try another way to protect a wilderness-quality area in the Uinta Basin: a phone call.

On Monday, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance announced they had reached an agreement that would protect a citizen-proposed wilderness area near the White River while also assuring natural gas development in the vicinity would continue.

Anadarko will proceed with planned infill development in the Natural Buttes natural gas field, while SUWA will have assurances that Anadarko won't pursue its Bonanza development north of the White River, about 40 miles south of Vernal.

"This was a very sensible way to solve this amicably," said Anadarko's Houston-based spokesman John Christiansen.

The dispute over the Bonanza development followed the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's February approval of the project based on an environmental assessment. SUWA appealed the decision to the state director of the BLM in Utah.

Then, SUWA reached out.

"We called the company up and asked if they'd be willing to talk to us, and they were," said the organization's staff attorney, Stephen Bloch.

After several weeks of negotiations, including face-to-face meetings in Salt Lake City and Denver, SUWA and Anadarko reached their agreement and SUWA withdrew its challenge.

The 36-square-mile Natural Buttes gas field is more developed in the north section than the south. Bloch said the BLM has determined a small area nearest the White River is wilderness quality. That's the area Anadarko agreed largely to leave alone; in exchange, SUWA won't challenge drilling plans for the rest of the gas field.

Despite popular perception that SUWA is obstructionist, Bloch says SUWA has legally challenged roughly less than one-half of 1 percent of Utah drilling projects in the past six years.
"Here, the company has a property right, so we're trying to deal with that reality," Bloch said.

In a statement, Ramsey Fahel, Anadarko general manager of Business Services, said the company appreciated the negotiations and agreement "that recognizes the importance of producing the significant natural gas resources under the White River area to provide America with a secure and consistent energy supply while protecting the interests of stakeholders in the area."

Anadarko is one of the world's largest independent exploration and production companies. In August 2006, Anadarko acquired Kerr-McGee Corporation. Its negotiations with SUWA were on behalf of Kerr-McGee, according to a news release.

[stefan]

read this a few days ago ...

Eastern Utah
Negative comments fail to halt White River drill plan
Foes say the area's scenic, wilderness qualities will be compromised
By Patty Henetz
The Salt Lake Tribune

More than 55,000 negative comments on a company's gas development plans along the White River in eastern Utah probably won't be enough to change the Bureau of Land Management's decision to speed along the lease - despite the agency's own description of the river's surroundings as unique and wilderness-worthy.

A Denver-based firm, Enduring Resources, wants to drill 60 natural gas wells on federal and state lands just south of the river in the Uinta Basin, an area the BLM Vernal Field Office in 1999 identified as having wilderness characteristics.

A draft environmental assessment drew 55,611 comments, only 300 of which were positive, said Stephanie Howard, environmental coordinator in the BLM's Vernal Field Office. But in two months, when the environmental study is made final, it probably will find that the drilling project will pose no significant impacts to the river and its surrounding state and federal land.

That's because 55,300 comments probably won't turn up any information the BLM might have missed during its previous two analyses of the drilling lease proposal, Howard said Tuesday. Drilling likely will commence within three months, she said.

An earlier version of Enduring Resource's proposal drew 30,000 comments last December, Howard said. The new assessment was necessary because of tweaks to the proposal that required another look. The comment period that closed last week was for the third environmental assessment of the proposal.

Conservation groups have demanded that BLM do a full-blown environmental impact statement on the project that would include analyses of cumulative impacts of a drilling project that likely will last five to seven years and leave permanent scars, said Steve Bloch, staff attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

Bloch pointed out that the BLM described the White River area as having exceptional scenic beauty.

"This is one of the quiet places, where solitude and a sense of adventure are still very much part of the outdoor experience," a BLM brochure says.

The river is also under consideration for wild and scenic status.

"This is a special place. The type of activity that would be allowed by [the Enduring Resources] project would fundamentally change the landscape," Bloch said.

Howard said Enduring Resources would take steps to reduce its environmental impacts. The company is proposing a water pumping system that would cut heavy truck traffic during the project from 70,000 miles to 7,000 miles.

The company also will use directional drilling, which means more wells will be drilled from fewer pads.

Seven well pads already exist, Howard said.

The 60 wells proposed would require 24 pads.

Conservationists have strenuously opposed Enduring Resources' plans to place wells below the Goblin City overlook, named during John Wesley Powell's 19th-century exploration of Western rivers.

Howard said two of the company's wells would be visible from the overlook during the actual drilling, which would take a few weeks. After that, the wellheads would not be visible.

Bloch said industry is taking "commendable steps" to limit impacts in the Uinta Basin, including directional drilling and less truck traffic.

But the water pump that would supply the project would be next to the river's most popular take-out spot for family trips, he said.

And Goblin City is one of the most popular hikes in the area. During the drilling trucks and rigs would make industrial-level noise and "fundamentally change the landscape."


Associated Press
Utah: White River Gas Wells Protested
By PAUL FOY

SALT LAKE CITY - Plans for natural gas wells along the White River in eastern Utah have drawn objections from more than 50,000 people.

Conservation groups rallied members and others across the country to register the complaints as part of an environmental analysis being completed by the Bureau of Land Management. Only a few hundred people supported development.

The south side of the White River, which flows from the Rocky Mountains of Colorado into Utah's Green River, is largely undeveloped with just a few scattered gas wells on parcels of state trust lands.

The BLM could approve 60 more gas wells on federal land proposed for wilderness, with deep canyons, high ridges and an area of incised rock that surveyor John Wesley Powell dubbed Goblin City in 1869.

The White River, a free-flowing river for much of its length, is a favorite for rafting and canoeing. It marks a boundary of sorts between intensive oil and gas development to the north, in the Uinta basin, and wildlife-rich wilderness in Utah's remote Book Cliffs region.

"Who would float down a river littered with the sights and sounds of natural gas development? No one," said Marty Genereux, who runs a river guide service out of Centennial, Colo.

Opposing the gas development are the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Natural Resources Defense Council and The Wilderness Society.

"We got the word out to the country that this is one of the special places - that's what the BLM calls it - in the American West that's at risk. You ignore 50,000 citizens at your own peril," said Stephen Bloch, staff attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

A BLM assessment of potential wilderness called the scenery along the Whiter River "exceptional."

Utah has 7,378 producing oil and gas wells, and energy companies are sitting on 3,357 drill permits approved over the year, said Bloch, who contends enough land has been made available for oil and gas development.

Copyright 2007 Associated Press.

[stefan]

Protect the land: BLM following Bush orders to promote drilling
SL Tribune Editorial

The Bureau of Land Management is sticking strictly to the Bush administration's rapacious rules in allowing drilling for natural gas along the scenic White River in eastern Utah.

Yet even the less-damaging drilling methods proposed for the project could have lasting ill effects on this land of solitude and stark beauty that is worth far more to generations of Americans than any fossil fuel beneath it.

The BLM has done three environmental assessments on a development plan submitted by Denver-based Enduring Resources. And, even though more than 55,000 public comments were critical of drilling and the BLM itself has identified the area as "wilderness quality," the plan is likely to be approved.

That's because the comments would have to turn up something the BLM missed in its analysis of the proposal, and that's not apt to happen. So the agency will probably permit Enduring Resources - an ironic name for a company that explores for a finite and dwindling resource - to drill 60 new wells and build a water pump next to the river's most popular take-out spot.

The question is, should the agency's analysis be weighted more heavily toward protection or development? Under the Bush administration, the BLM must always lean toward development, and that egregious policy is doing serious damage to the outdoor jewels of the West.

A BLM assessment called the scenery along the White River "exceptional." The river, at the edge of the Uinta Basin, where intense oil and gas development is occurring, is popular as a quiet place for canoeing and rafting. The remote river is being considered for "wild and scenic" federal designation.

This special place for outdoor recreation isn't the first scenic Utah land turned over to oil and gas developers. Lands around Strawberry Reservoir and near Utah's national and state parks have been targeted. The courts have slapped the BLM for ignoring environmental law in several instances.

But the BLM is not the ogre here. The agency is following directions from the White House to err on the side of development as it defines "significant impacts" that should be prevented.

Congress is considering ways to counter the White House's determination to drill the West, a course correction that can't come too soon, for the sake of the land and all who love it.







White River drilling
Public Forum Letter
SL Tribune

Every day we're reminded of the tremendous toll that oil and gas development is taking on the West. Just this week, we've learned of industry's plans to drill along northeastern Utah's unspoiled White River, despite more than 50,000 public comments in opposition.

The U.S. House of Representatives is considering a bill that contains moderate but much-needed reforms to Western oil and gas development policies. It would restore a sense of balance to the way our public lands are managed, but won't raise gas prices or cut off industry access. Unfortunately, the oil and gas lobby is misrepresenting the bill's provisions in a desperate effort to kill it.

My company, my employees and the health of our long-term economy depend on the protection of clean air, clean water and the quality of our public lands. Right now, these values are being sacrificed for the short-term benefit of an industry that doesn't care about our future.

Tell our congressmen to support this bill. It's time for us to restore balance to the development of our public lands.

Peter Metcalf
President, Black Diamond
Equipment Ltd.
Park City