EPA seeks drilling review

BLM to redo Vermillion Basin air impact study

Todd Hartman, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 25, 2007 at midnight

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The EPA has intervened in a plan to allow gas drilling in northwestern Colorado's Vermillion Basin, concerned the project could drive up air pollution in surrounding wilderness and national park areas.

The Bureau of Land Management agreed to conduct a more thorough review of the project's effects on air quality, a move that could delay drilling in the region by a year.

The move marks the latest pushback against Colorado's galloping natural gas boom, as environmentalists, politicians and now regulators fret about the industry's impact on the state's air, water, wildlife and scenery.

"Given the paucity of information (on air pollution effects), we sat down with BLM and expressed concern, and they agreed some additional analysis needed to be done," said Larry Svoboda, who oversees environmental reviews for the Environmental Protection Agency's Denver office.

The Vermillion Basin made headlines this summer when Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter angered pro-drilling Moffat County commissioners by saying he wants the rugged 77,000-acre basin off-limits to energy development because of its wilderness qualities.

The EPA's push for more review of environmental impacts follows a related development earlier this month. In that case, a federal judge in Denver said the BLM didn't sufficiently study the effects of drilling on a rare wildflower in a region near Grand Junction.

U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, of Colorado, meanwhile, recently won a 120-day delay from the BLM before it would lease land for gas drilling atop the Roan Plateau near Rifle. Ritter sought more time to study the BLM's drilling plan on the Roan, an area popular with hunters and hikers.

Environmentalists have long complained that the BLM, in trying to fulfill the Bush administration's efforts to open up more federal land for energy development, has failed to take into account the effects on wildlife, water and air quality throughout the Rocky Mountain region.

"People are overwhelmed on the Western Slope and places like Weld County about what (the gas boom) is doing to quality of life," said Suzanne Jones, of the Wilderness Society. "They're saying, 'Hey, wait a minute, there's some huge costs to what you're doing and there's a lot at stake.' "

Jim Sample, a spokesman for the Colorado BLM office, said the agency conducted an air quality analysis as part of its study of drilling impacts in the Vermillion Basin and nearby areas, but that the EPA was looking for something "more extensive."

"We had done what we normally did in the past, but it became obvious things are ratcheting up a couple notches in terms of what they want us to do these days, so we said we'd better do that," Sample said.

hartmant@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5048

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