Gas permits mire agency
BLM unable to adequately protect land, report says
By Gary Gerhardt, Rocky Mountain News
August 27, 2005
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_4034892,00.html
The Bureau of Land Management is so swamped that it can't adequately protect the environment as the natural gas boom sweeps Colorado and four other western states, according to a report to Congress.
Field offices in some states are falling far short of their mission to minimize environmental damage while caravans of drilling rigs and other heavy equipment roll onto the prairies, mesas and high plains, a Government Accountability Office report concluded.
The agency reviewed offices in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Montana and New Mexico, and found, for instance, that in 2004 the Buffalo, Wyo., field office achieved only 27 percent of its required inspection goals.
It also said half of the other offices have a backlog of idle-well reviews.
Colorado's Glenwood Springs field office and Carlsbad, N.M., were the only offices of eight visited by the GAO that met environmental inspection goals for the past six years.
"It got tight for us the past couple of years because our staff is stretched to the limit," said Steve Bennett, associate field manager of the Glenwood office.
In 1999, the Glenwood office reviewed eight applications for drilling permits. They were handled by one full-time oil and gas staffer .
Last year, the staff had grown to about a dozen, and they processed 403 applications.
So far this year there have been 496 applications, and other office specialists such as air- and water-quality monitors, a wildlife biologist, an archaeologist and others have been pressed into duty working on permits and monitoring operations in the field.
An on-site inspection has to be completed on every application before a permit is issued, but priorities are less clear on follow-up inspections, said Lynn Rust, BLM's deputy state director for energy, lands and minerals.
"For instance, when it comes to the natural resources specifications, we have to decide if we need to go out and inspect every site for noxious weeds," he said.
The GAO report, prepared for Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., said in many cases the BLM is so focused on issuing natural gas permits it is glossing over follow-up inspections to protect land, air, water and wildlife hurt by the drilling operations.
Drilling permits increase
The report indicated that nationwide, drilling permits approved by BLM more than tripled from 1,803 in fiscal year 1999 to 6,399 in fiscal year 2004.
At the same time, the oil and gas management budget rose just 64 percent and staffing levels by only 21 percent, so staff is having to devote increased time to processing drilling permits and less to environmental inspections.
"This administration appears to have lost its sense of balance between granting drilling permits to the oil and gas industry and protecting the natural wonder of the environment," Lieberman responded.
"Striking the right balance is BLM's statutory responsibility. Irresponsible stewardship of public lands while the oil and gas industry profits is not an acceptable balance."
Anu Mittal, director of the Natural Resources and Environment Division who prepared the GAO report, said each office was asked how many more people they needed on their staff and got different answers depending on whether the answer was "realistic" or if funding was not an object.
"Some people were more forthcoming than others. Many were very nervous, but it's obvious the bottom line is they need more people to process their applications," she said.
"Eighteen months ago the Glenwood office wasn't fully operational," Rust said.
"Now it is one of seven pilot offices set up under the energy bill that will be specially funded to include other agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Army Corps of Engineers that work on gas production issues . . .
"We do know Washington sees a need for additional funding for the oil and gas budget and we expect to get a significant staff increase," he said.
There is more fear of what could happen among Colorado environmentalists and state agencies than horror stories of what has happened on the 8.4 million acres managed by the BLM in the state.
The Colorado Division of Wildlife has made its concerns known - including the fear that high concentrations of well sites, roads and pipelines can harm wildlife and its habitat - in a series of Western Slope community meetings.
The Division of Wildlife fears that noise from well heads and compressors and vehicles could disturb sage grouse populations and wintering grounds for mule deer and elk. The agency also is concerned that gas operations will disturb vegetation, pollute fishing streams and disrupt hunting, said spokesman Randy Hampton.
"And recently we came up with a new one," Hampton said. "Bear conflicts at drilling camps. Seems some of the oil workers like to feed the bears, and that will lead to problems."
Interfering with hunting and fishing could have serious economic impact on towns in Garfield and Rio Blanco counties where the wildlife division's latest figures from 2002 indicate those sports generated $81.5 million in direct and secondary expenditures.
Duane Spencer, chief of fluid minerals for the Colorado BLM, agrees that big-game hunting on the Western Slope, and especially in the Piceance Basin northwest of Rifle, is a huge local revenue generator.
"There really could be some problems once development really gets going in areas like the Piceance Basin," Spencer said.
"That is going to take some thought."
Enforcement questioned
Mike Chiropolos, lands program director for Western Resource Advocates, says the federal staff is buried under paperwork and can't keep up with environmental compliance and regulations.
"It takes a day to make a site visit and, no matter how much manpower, there is a tipping point," he said.
"Most of the resources are given to processing and little to enforcement or monitoring the wells after they are in."
Ken Wonstolen, senior vice president of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, said the BLM needs additional funding to meet its deadlines.
"They should approve or deny a permit application in 30 days, but the average is 90, and sometimes it's up to three years," Wonstolen said.
He said the industry is frustrated not only by the wait, but because it appears that every plan will lead to a lawsuit by an environmental group, the strategy being to litigate every step of a project to try to block it, which adds to delays.
"We are sympathetic for them because conservation groups have said they will sue on any lease on federal land," Wonstolen said.
Duke Cox of the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance in western Colorado has a different viewpoint.
"The perception has been since the Bush administration came into office that scientists in the BLM have been replaced by political appointees to streamline energy development," he said.
"They have only one mission, that is to approve permits, and I know people in the BLM who say they are told 'comply or lose your job.' "
Key GAO findings:
• The two field offices with the largest increases in permit applications - Buffalo, Wyo., and Vernal, Utah - were each able to meet their environmental inspection goals only once in the past six years. Furthermore, the Buffalo field office was able to achieve only 27 percent of its required environmental inspection goals in fiscal year 2004.
• BLM staff from the field offices that had difficulty meeting their environmental protection responsibilities attributed the problem to staff spending more time processing drilling permits and less time performing environmental mitigation activities.
• Visual resources can be degraded by high densities of drilling and production equipment, and in extreme situations can change the appearance of the landscape from a natural setting to an industrial zone.
• Officials in seven of the eight BLM field offices visited stated that the workload associated with processing drilling permits has affected their ability to complete their reclamation work.
• Six of the eight field offices visited reported they were able to obtain the additional resources to hire 44 new enforcement personnel.
BLM unable to adequately protect land, report says
By Gary Gerhardt, Rocky Mountain News
August 27, 2005
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_4034892,00.html
The Bureau of Land Management is so swamped that it can't adequately protect the environment as the natural gas boom sweeps Colorado and four other western states, according to a report to Congress.
Field offices in some states are falling far short of their mission to minimize environmental damage while caravans of drilling rigs and other heavy equipment roll onto the prairies, mesas and high plains, a Government Accountability Office report concluded.
The agency reviewed offices in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Montana and New Mexico, and found, for instance, that in 2004 the Buffalo, Wyo., field office achieved only 27 percent of its required inspection goals.
It also said half of the other offices have a backlog of idle-well reviews.
Colorado's Glenwood Springs field office and Carlsbad, N.M., were the only offices of eight visited by the GAO that met environmental inspection goals for the past six years.
"It got tight for us the past couple of years because our staff is stretched to the limit," said Steve Bennett, associate field manager of the Glenwood office.
In 1999, the Glenwood office reviewed eight applications for drilling permits. They were handled by one full-time oil and gas staffer .
Last year, the staff had grown to about a dozen, and they processed 403 applications.
So far this year there have been 496 applications, and other office specialists such as air- and water-quality monitors, a wildlife biologist, an archaeologist and others have been pressed into duty working on permits and monitoring operations in the field.
An on-site inspection has to be completed on every application before a permit is issued, but priorities are less clear on follow-up inspections, said Lynn Rust, BLM's deputy state director for energy, lands and minerals.
"For instance, when it comes to the natural resources specifications, we have to decide if we need to go out and inspect every site for noxious weeds," he said.
The GAO report, prepared for Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., said in many cases the BLM is so focused on issuing natural gas permits it is glossing over follow-up inspections to protect land, air, water and wildlife hurt by the drilling operations.
Drilling permits increase
The report indicated that nationwide, drilling permits approved by BLM more than tripled from 1,803 in fiscal year 1999 to 6,399 in fiscal year 2004.
At the same time, the oil and gas management budget rose just 64 percent and staffing levels by only 21 percent, so staff is having to devote increased time to processing drilling permits and less to environmental inspections.
"This administration appears to have lost its sense of balance between granting drilling permits to the oil and gas industry and protecting the natural wonder of the environment," Lieberman responded.
"Striking the right balance is BLM's statutory responsibility. Irresponsible stewardship of public lands while the oil and gas industry profits is not an acceptable balance."
Anu Mittal, director of the Natural Resources and Environment Division who prepared the GAO report, said each office was asked how many more people they needed on their staff and got different answers depending on whether the answer was "realistic" or if funding was not an object.
"Some people were more forthcoming than others. Many were very nervous, but it's obvious the bottom line is they need more people to process their applications," she said.
"Eighteen months ago the Glenwood office wasn't fully operational," Rust said.
"Now it is one of seven pilot offices set up under the energy bill that will be specially funded to include other agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Army Corps of Engineers that work on gas production issues . . .
"We do know Washington sees a need for additional funding for the oil and gas budget and we expect to get a significant staff increase," he said.
There is more fear of what could happen among Colorado environmentalists and state agencies than horror stories of what has happened on the 8.4 million acres managed by the BLM in the state.
The Colorado Division of Wildlife has made its concerns known - including the fear that high concentrations of well sites, roads and pipelines can harm wildlife and its habitat - in a series of Western Slope community meetings.
The Division of Wildlife fears that noise from well heads and compressors and vehicles could disturb sage grouse populations and wintering grounds for mule deer and elk. The agency also is concerned that gas operations will disturb vegetation, pollute fishing streams and disrupt hunting, said spokesman Randy Hampton.
"And recently we came up with a new one," Hampton said. "Bear conflicts at drilling camps. Seems some of the oil workers like to feed the bears, and that will lead to problems."
Interfering with hunting and fishing could have serious economic impact on towns in Garfield and Rio Blanco counties where the wildlife division's latest figures from 2002 indicate those sports generated $81.5 million in direct and secondary expenditures.
Duane Spencer, chief of fluid minerals for the Colorado BLM, agrees that big-game hunting on the Western Slope, and especially in the Piceance Basin northwest of Rifle, is a huge local revenue generator.
"There really could be some problems once development really gets going in areas like the Piceance Basin," Spencer said.
"That is going to take some thought."
Enforcement questioned
Mike Chiropolos, lands program director for Western Resource Advocates, says the federal staff is buried under paperwork and can't keep up with environmental compliance and regulations.
"It takes a day to make a site visit and, no matter how much manpower, there is a tipping point," he said.
"Most of the resources are given to processing and little to enforcement or monitoring the wells after they are in."
Ken Wonstolen, senior vice president of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, said the BLM needs additional funding to meet its deadlines.
"They should approve or deny a permit application in 30 days, but the average is 90, and sometimes it's up to three years," Wonstolen said.
He said the industry is frustrated not only by the wait, but because it appears that every plan will lead to a lawsuit by an environmental group, the strategy being to litigate every step of a project to try to block it, which adds to delays.
"We are sympathetic for them because conservation groups have said they will sue on any lease on federal land," Wonstolen said.
Duke Cox of the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance in western Colorado has a different viewpoint.
"The perception has been since the Bush administration came into office that scientists in the BLM have been replaced by political appointees to streamline energy development," he said.
"They have only one mission, that is to approve permits, and I know people in the BLM who say they are told 'comply or lose your job.' "
Key GAO findings:
• The two field offices with the largest increases in permit applications - Buffalo, Wyo., and Vernal, Utah - were each able to meet their environmental inspection goals only once in the past six years. Furthermore, the Buffalo field office was able to achieve only 27 percent of its required environmental inspection goals in fiscal year 2004.
• BLM staff from the field offices that had difficulty meeting their environmental protection responsibilities attributed the problem to staff spending more time processing drilling permits and less time performing environmental mitigation activities.
• Visual resources can be degraded by high densities of drilling and production equipment, and in extreme situations can change the appearance of the landscape from a natural setting to an industrial zone.
• Officials in seven of the eight BLM field offices visited stated that the workload associated with processing drilling permits has affected their ability to complete their reclamation work.
• Six of the eight field offices visited reported they were able to obtain the additional resources to hire 44 new enforcement personnel.
