ASPEN — Citing concerns about everything from air pollution to road impacts and potential harm to wildlife and water, Pitkin County is urging vigilant monitoring if drilling takes place in the Thompson Divide area within its borders.The county submitted comments Friday to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in response to SG Interests’ recent permit application to drill a new gas well in Thompson Divide, in an area west of Carbondale where the prospect of new drilling has triggered a heated local campaign to extinguish gas leases and prohibit future gas and oil development.

The permit application is one of two the Houston-based company filed last month; the other was for a well in Garfield County, near the Pitkin County line. More are anticipated. The county, in its comments, contends that eventual SG development in the 28,824-acre Lake Ridge Unit in Thompson Divide could number roughly 180 well pads and, with four wells per pad, 720 wells. It draws that conclusion based on SG’s plans for a different unit, containing about 146 proposed wells on 36 pads in a 19,645-acre area.

“Assuming a very conservative estimate of 600 truck trips per well, the traffic impacts alone from this apparent development scenario would have a transformative impact on the Thompson Divide and affected communities,” the county’s comment letter reads.

The county has asked that the state commission require a visit to the site of the proposed well, between North and Middle Thompson creeks west of Highway 133, once the snow has melted, and accept additional comments after the visit, before making any decision.

The remoteness of the site is of concern on various fronts, the county noted. Emergency response to accidents, for example, might be too late to prevent mishaps from seriously contaminating vulnerable surface waters.

“In remote areas like the Thompson Divide, it can be very difficult to have assurances that permit conditions are in fact being implemented faithfully, and that resources are not damaged,” the letter adds.

The county describes the importance of Thompson Divide to the area watershed and makes a number of recommendations related to analyzing the potential for groundwater contamination. It also lists conditions it wants the state to require related to groundwater protection, including long-term monitoring.

“Thompson Creek, including North, Middle, and South branches, is a pristine watershed with usable groundwater, good stream health, and the most favorable conditions for aquatic life in the broader area,” the letter says.

The county also called for long-term air/ozone monitoring and a plan to curtail development as necessary to protect air quality.

“The importance of maintaining good visibility in Pitkin County cannot be overstated. People do not travel long distances to come here and view mountains shrouded in haze,” the letter states. “They come here for the crisp, breathtaking views for which Colorado is famous.”

The letter also addresses the county’s concerns about potential impacts on wildlife, noting that Colorado Parks and Wildlife described Thompson Divide as the “elk factory” of the area.

The county said it shares the concerns raised by other jurisdictions, namely Glenwood Springs and Garfield County, regarding the route SG would use to access the wells, including Four Mile Road past Sunlight Mountain Resort.

“Until the access issue is resolved, it will not be possible to accurately understand other impacts flowing from SG’s proposals on water, wildlife and other values,” the letter states. “This only emphasizes the need to first have a site visit after the snow melts to address access and other resource issues.”

The county comments were due with the state commission on Friday, but county commissioners will host a community meeting regarding Thompson Divide on Wednesday at 6 p.m. in Carbondale Town Hall. The meeting is a chance to bring all sides on the drilling issue together to educate, and hear from, the public, according to the county.

janet@aspentimes.com

By Scot Kersgaard
Monday, January 30, 2012 at 12:20 pm

Can a person be both pro-business and pro-environment? In Colorado and surrounding states, the answer is a resounding “yes” according to a poll released today by Colorado College.

A bill signed into law Monday will make it easier for ski resorts to expand their menu of summer activities.

The results from the 2012 Colorado College State of the Rockies Conservation in the West poll find that Western voters across the political spectrum – from Tea Party supporters to those who identify with the Occupy Wall Street movement and voters in-between – support upholding and strengthening protections for clean air, clean water, natural areas and wildlife.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Opponents of natural gas drilling in the Thompson Divide area met last week for the first time with the company seeking to break ground there, as federal authorities continue to review a drilling request despite objections of both of Colorado’s U.S. Senators.
 
Staffers from Sens. Michael Bennet and Mark Udall’s offices also sat in on the meeting in Carbondale last Friday between the Thompson Divide Coalition and natural gas company SG Interests. The meeting was organized by Rep. Scott Tipton.
 
Bennet and Udall last month wrote a letter to the nation’s top two public lands officials, asking to delay a decision that could pave the way for drilling in the area. The senators asked it be put off so that discussions between public officials, SG and concerned locals could move forward and perhaps reach a compromised resolution.
 
Specifically, the senators asked that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) delay reviewing a request from SG to “unitize” 18 of its Divide leases. If approved, it would enable the company to drill wells on a 32,000-acre area, if SG could drill one successful test well there within six months of approval.
 
SG and other gas companies hold more than 70 natural gas drilling leases in the area, which stretches across a rugged forested area from Carbondale to McClure Pass.
 
On Wednesday, BLM director Robert V. Abbey sent a response to Bennet and Udall explaining the unitization process, and stating that it was moving forward. He noted that the already-leased lands are open for development, but that specific drilling sites would require more permits and more extensive review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
 
“Unitization is an administrative action that is categorically excluded from NEPA analysis,” he added. “However, in accordance with Federal regulations, the BLM will continue to accept comments from the public as it evaluates the unit application.”
 
David Boyd, spokesman for the BLM in Colorado, confirmed the review is proceeding.
 
“We are continuing to carefully review and discuss it,” he said.
 
Meanwhile, last week’s meeting brought together SG vice president Robbie Guinn, who traveled to Carbondale from Houston, and Thompson Divide Coalition members for their first meeting.
 
“It was a very positive meeting, in that we were just listening to each other,” Divide Coalition chair Dorothea Farris said. “They are not negotiations. They are conversations.”
 
The largely informational meeting included a geologist’s presentation from SG that mirrored one the company gave to the BLM for the unitization request. The coalition countered with a specialized geologist of its own, who focused on alleged adverse environmental impact.
 
Farris said they hope to meet again after the new year.
 
Bennet and Udall’s letter last month was hopeful such meetings would be fruitful: “After further discussions between parties, it may well be that a viable, consensus-based development plan for the area may emerge.”
 
The complex bureaucratic cast of characters converging on the Thompson Divide controversy also includes the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, which last month issued a ruling upholding the 2001 “roadless rule” restricting road-building on undeveloped public lands including much of the Thompson Divide area.
 
That rule, enacted by President Bill Clinton as he left office, was later tweaked by President George W. Bush to allow more development. The Divide leases were issued under Bush’s less stringent roadless rule. But it’s still unclear how, if at all, the court decision will affect drilling or the unitization request.

 

The red rectangle shows the 22,500 acres of the proposed Lake Ridge Unit, an aggregation of 18 gas leases proposed by SG Interests of Houston. Most of the land is part of the White River National Forest.

Map courtesy Community for Thompson Divide

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado — A meeting meant to begin organizing Glenwood Springs and Four Mile residents about possible gas drilling in Thompson Divide drew more than 30 people Wednesday.

For many, the meeting was an eye-opener about the potential for modern gas drilling along the western edge of the Roaring Fork Valley, along with the use of Grand Avenue, Midland Avenue and Four Mile Road as a possible access route for gas industry trucks.

“When you talk about truck traffic, boy, Glenwood will be at the hub. All of these trucks will originate from I-70 and come across the bridge into Glenwood Springs,” said Judy Fox-Perry, secretary of the Carbondale-based Thompson Divide Coalition.

Coalition board members originally called the meeting with a few Glenwood Springs and Four Mile residents to plan an outreach campaign. But after news of the meeting hit the local media, a much larger crowd of residents turned out.

They came loaded with questions about drilling and its potential impacts on air and water quality, and the impacts of industry truck traffic on city and county roads.

“Are our waters going to get polluted?” asked John Traul, a Four Mile resident. What would be the recourse, he asked, if Four Mile Creek or the water table underlying Four Mile neighborhoods were to become polluted?

The Coalition leaders urged residents to send comments to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management opposing the current hot issue related to drilling in the Thompson Divide area — the unitization request filed with BLM by Houston-based SG Interests.

While the Thompson Divide area sprawls across 221,500 acres of national forest and BLM lands west of Carbondale, the unitization request is focused on a rectangular swath of 32,000 acres extending from the ridge just west of the Oak Meadows subdivision south to the Thompson Creek drainage southwest of Carbondale.

SG Interests is seeking unitization of 18 leases into what is called the Lake Ridge Unit. The company owns 16 of the leases, while Encana Oil and Gas (USA) owns the other two. All are due to expire in mid-2013, according to BLM spokesman David Boyd.

Unitization is normally a routine approval granted by BLM to place many adjacent gas leases into a common unit. Once unitized, companies can take a regional and long-term approach to gas development.

By developing one producing gas well somewhere in the unit, leases in the entire unit are secured for development any time in the future. Leases that would normally expire if they hadn’t been developed within 10 years are extended indefinitely, giving companies the option to resume drilling anywhere in the unit when market conditions are favorable, Fox-Perry told the group in her presentation.

The Coalition is working to stymie the unitization request. Colorado’s two U.S. senators have asked BLM to slow down the unitization approval and consider public comment, and the Coalition is asking citizens to send comments to the BLM urging denial.

Boyd said the agency is “carefully reviewing” the unitization request and the public comments, and continues to accept letters on the subject.

The time frame for issuing a decision on the Lake Ridge unitization remains uncertain, he said, but BLM will make a public announcement once it issues a decision.

Boyd noted that if industry filed an actual gas well development proposal, it must go through a public review process.

Stopping the unitization is part of a larger campaign by the Thompson Divide Coalition, which has been working since 2008 to prevent drilling in the entire Thompson Divide area before it starts. Members are working on a two-pronged campaign:

• Pass a bill in Congress to permanently withdraw the Thompson Divide area from gas leasing.

• Raise funds to buy out the area’s 81 existing but as yet undeveloped gas leases.

Fox-Perry noted that there’s no point in buying out leases unless the permanent withdrawal is enacted, because current rules require BLM to issue new leases whenever older leases expire.

Buoyed by the high level of interest at the organizing meeting Wednesday, Coalition leaders now plan to host another educational meeting in a larger venue, said board member Jock Jacober.

hmcgregor@postindependent.com