Release of methane protested

Green groups want huge volume from coal mine captured

By Todd Hartman, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Monday, January 21, 2008

A Western Slope coal mine set to belch massive volumes of methane gas will become a major new source of global warming emissions, and government regulators are doing too little to prevent it, environmentalists say.

Several green groups say the gas - perhaps enough to heat 35,000 homes a year for 12 years - should be captured and used instead of vented into the air.

Permission to vent the gas is part of a recent U.S. Forest Service decision allowing the West Elk Mine in Gunnison County to begin excavating coal.

The decision will permit the mine to drill 168 methane wells to ensure that the explosive gas is released so it doesn't build up inside the mine.

But a coalition of environmental groups, including Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action and the Natural Resources Defense Council, says the Forest Service needs to ensure that the methane is captured or - in a worst-case scenario - burned off, so it doesn't increase the buildup of gases many scientists believe are leading to a warming climate.

EPA concerned

In an appeal filed this month, the groups say the Forest Service shrugged off the matter, despite intervention by the Environmental Protection Agency, which also has raised concerns about allowing the methane to escape into the air.

All told, environmental groups say, the estimated 7 million cubic feet of methane to be vented daily by the mine would increase annual greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels in Colorado by 1.3 percent. That doesn't comport with Gov. Bill Ritter's goal of reducing the state's climate-warming emissions 20 percent by 2020.

Further, the groups argue, allowing the gas to spew into the air is wasteful. With natural gas prices soaring, the methane is a valuable fuel that would add to supply and bring revenues not only to energy companies, but also to state and federal taxpayers who receive a share of the mineral wealth removed from federal land.

"Why is the Forest Service turning its back on options to recover the methane?" asked Jeremy Nichols of Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action. "The victims here are the citizens of this country. This is methane that the U.S. owns."

Lee Ann Loupe, a spokeswoman for the Forest Service in southwestern Colorado, cited numerous legal and jurisdictional issues that make it difficult for the agency to ensure that the methane is captured.

For starters, the coal mine owns the lease to the coal, but not the methane gas.

"The mining company would have to have a lease for that purpose - and those leases are auctioned by the Bureau of Land Management," Loupe said. "It's illegal for the company and others to capture the gas without a lease."

Other hurdles include what Forest Service and BLM officials say are safety and logistical concerns raised by having one company drilling gas wells on the surface, while the mining company is working in the earth below.

Drilling lease discussed

A solution to the problem may be in the works, however.

BLM spokesman Jim Sample said the agency could put the area up for lease to gas drilling sometime this year. The lease would include a host of requirements to satisfy coal company concerns.

A spokeswoman for the mine's parent company, St. Louis-based Arch Coal, declined to comment, citing legal concerns around the appeal filed by environmental groups.

But Larry Svoboda, a top environmental analyst for the EPA, said the company has concerns that some other company would win the bid to extract the gas and Arch Coal's "ability to develop the mine would become complicated by having to coordinate with another company."

Svoboda was optimistic the agencies might be able to work through the problem.

"It seems to us (at the EPA) like there were different ways to skin this cat," Svoboda said. "I think the BLM has shown a willingness to follow through on this - there's no disagreement on the need to get this done."

Even so, environmentalists fear the company could begin mining coal and venting gas long before the matter is resolved.

"The Forest Service is saying full speed ahead on the mining . . . which includes pumping the methane into the atmosphere, while at the same time moving ahead with a bureaucratic process to get the area leased," said Ted Zukoski, a lawyer representing environmental groups.

hartmant@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5048