Conservation groups fight BLM’s OK
A coalition of local and national conservation groups have filed a legal challenge to force the Bureau of Land Management to reconsider an oil and gas development plan approved this month in the North Fork Valley near Paonia.
The complaint, filed in the District of Colorado Court in Denver on Friday, seeks to have the BLM reconsider its approval of the Bull Mountain Unit Master Development Plan sought by Houston-based SG Interests. The BLM approval, issued Oct. 4, allows for the construction of 33 well pads, 146 natural gas wells and four wastewater disposal wells across 19,670 acres of mineral estate. It also includes approval of a drilling permit for an initial well.
“The relief we would be seeking would be to remand the decision back to the agency for it to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act,” said Kyle Tisdel, an attorney based in Taos, N.M., with the Western Environmental Law Center. “We have not at this point moved for a preliminary injunction on the plan. We could do so down the line if it looks like development is imminent.”
Tisdel said the area targeted for oil and gas development is located in a critical headwaters area that supplies drinking and irrigation water to one of the state’s most prolific agricultural regions.
It is also a habitat for deer and elk that could be harmed if proper safeguards aren’t taken.
“There are more rigorous mitigation requirements and conditions of approval that could be applied that would make development safer,” Tisdel said.
The conflict has been brewing since developers began pursuing approval to drill nearly a decade ago.
The groups challenging the BLM decision include the Western Environmental Law Center and its Center for Biological Diversity, Citizens for a Healthy Community, High Country Conservation Advocates and WildEarth Guardians.
Supporters of the drilling plan argue it would generate 470 jobs and $100 million in income during the drilling phase, with 135 jobs and $14 million a year in income in the years that followed. The state also would receive 49 percent of the royalties from the oil and gas produced.