Gas      (Natural Gas, Liquid Natural Gas Terminals, Coal Bed Methane)

Nine Mile Canyon, UT:
Drilling for gas seen as threat to rock art

Concerns about protecting archaeological treasures are pitted against hopes to develop natural gas leases in Nine Mile Canyon.

Drilling gas exploration wells could damage pictographs and other ancient treasures in the canyon and a tributary, according to the curator of archaeology at the College of Eastern Utah museum, Price.

The Bureau of Land Management's Price Field Office recently issued an initial finding that the project would cause no significant environmental impact. A final decision is pending.

BLM approval is required before the Bill Barrett Corp., Denver, can work on the seven exploration wells it wants to drill. The agency's Price office wrote an environmental assessment on the project, yet as of Sunday it had not posted the assessment on the Internet.

Elsewhere on its Internet site, the BLM Price Field Office posts this description of the region: "Nine Mile Canyon has the greatest concentration of rock art sites in the U.S.A."

Nine Mile Canyon is northeast of Wellington, Carbon County, and southwest of Myton, Duchesne County. It is actually much longer than nine miles. The BLM's listing of important archaeological sites alone covers more than 24 miles.

Indian art on the canyon walls covers three cultures - the archaic, Fremont and Ute. The earliest may be 2,000 years old.

Agency officials say they mailed copies of the assessment to 30 groups and individuals. They also posted a brief notice on the state BLM web site.

"It's a 30-day public comment period. It expires June 13," Patrick Gubbins, BLM field manager, told the Deseret News.

Gubbins wrote in a cover letter about the initial finding, "BLM has determined that no significant impacts would occur as a result of the implementation of this project and that an environmental impact statement is not required."

During a 100-day construction period, up to 2,000 trips to the site could be made by "construction crews, drill operators and supper services," says the assessment. The average would be 20 round trips daily. The BLM estimates current traffic at 126 round trips per day.

Archaeological sites are located near three of the proposed wells, the document adds.

Dust kicked up by traffic on the dirt roads "could obscure visibility of the rock art and accelerate the erosion of the rock art surfaces. Due to the narrowness of the road in Dry Canyon and the size of the equipment being transported to the pads, vibrations could also affect rock art," it says.

The assessment calls the dust from the 2,000 round trips "minimal when compared with the estimated 46,000 round trips in the canyon."

Some documented archaeological sites in the region are especially vulnerable "and are more likely to be unintentionally adversely impacted."

One proposed gas well, called the Jack Creek 19-2 well, is adjacent to a well-known petroglyph panel. "In this area, we know habitations are commonly found in association with rock art.

"There is a high probability of affecting subsurface sites in the drilling of this well. . . . The context of the natural landscape around the site will be lost," notes the assessment.

The document recommends that an archaeologist monitor construction and that to protect a site near one well "a fence should be created along the boundary of the site to prohibit travel and access."

Nine Mile Canyon has "probably 10,000 archaeological sites and hundreds of thousands or rock art panels," said Pam Miller, assistant director of the College of Eastern Utah museum in price, and the museum's curator of archaeology.

Having worked in Nine Mile Canyon for many years, she says it is known as the world's longest art gallery.

Increased traffic from the construction project could be a serious problem, she contends. "The dust affects the rock art, it makes animals sick, it makes people sick, it covers the crops."

A proposed gas well in Dry Canyon would be "right adjacent to an archaeology site," she said. "There's rock art there and there're two granaries."

New sections of road would have to be built to accommodate the drilling, she said, and roads draw increased traffic.

"There's probably three of those wells that shouldn't be there at all," Miller said.

"We're not talking about the Bob Marshall Wilderness here," said Dean Nyffeler, BLM geologist and project manager. It's a canyon with a back-country road, he added.

Gubbins said development leases have been in place for a number of years, as has a 20-inch pipeline. Ranching and tourism take place there, and the project's traffic and dust are considered to be capable of mitigation, he added.

Bill Walsh, chairman of the protectionist Nine Mile Canyon Coalition, fears the project would cause major changes to the nature of the canyon. "They may well disturb some archaeological treasure."

INDIGENOUS ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK
PRESS RELEASE

ENERGY DEVELOPMENT IN INDIAN COUNTRY
ON THE UPSURGE WITH CONCERNS FROM TRIBAL GROUPS

Bemidji, Minnesota - Energy development in Indian country is again becoming big business. The Osage in Oklahoma and Crow tribes are pursuing coal-bed methane projects, while the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold reservation in North Dakota are entering the oil refinery business. The Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute tribes in Colorado are pursuing oil development with an eye towards coal-bed methane development. The Fort Mohave tribe along the lower Colorado River in Arizona and California are leasing their land to California based energy company, Calpine Corporation, to build a natural gas electrical generating plant. Easements allowing the building of electrical transmission lines throughout Indian country are being negotiated, often without adequate input from grassroots tribal members.

Tribal members at the Fort Berthold Indian reservation in North Dakota are organizing to stop the proposed development of a petroleum refinery within their reservation boundary. They are concerned the refinery would negatively affect their human health and environment. Petroleum refinery facilities release and transfer over 600 toxic chemicals into the air, water and land contributing to cancer and birth defects for communities living near refineries. "I just don't understand why our own tribal council representatives want to initiate an industry proven to adversely and detrimentally affect our human health and all aspects of the environment. Within our reservation, we already have an extreme number of cancer illnesses and deaths and asthma. I believe this is due to our direct proximity to the lignite industries adjacent to us. Building an oil refinery is just another polluting industry that will increase more toxic burden on our children and people. The detrimental effects will reach far beyond our reservation and impact Indians and non-Indians alike," said Jody White, a concerned tribal member.

On the Navajo reservation, a Texas-based energy firm recently announced its intention to build a new 1,500-megawatt coal fired power generating station in northwest New Mexico, more likely to be located on the Navajo reservation in New Mexico. Coal mining on the Navajo and Hopi reservation, would feed the expansion of these power plants. Coal mining has caused water depletion and uprooted Navajo and Hopi families that live in the Big Mountain and Black Mesa area.

Planning for the transmission of electricity has been a challenge by both the energy developers and tribal authorities. The tribal Navajo Transmission Project proposes to build the energy highway that would feed the insatiable cities of the southwest. "We strongly oppose the Navajo Transmission Project and any new fossil fuel power plants on or near our peoples traditional land base," said, Enei Begaye, a member of Black Mesa Water Coalition. "These projects would not provide any sustainable future for our people. The burning of coal and gas emits many toxic chemicals that harm our land, water, animals, our people and our future. We can not allow our lands to be the battery that is powering an unsustainable colonial energy system."

"In our view, these locally proposed projects are the reflection of unsustainable international and federal energy policies and legislation. Policies, such as Senate energy bill S.14, and its section on Indian energy, Title III, and the House energy bill HR.6, are meant to allow industry greater access to our land under the guise of sovereignty," said Tom Goldtooth, director of the Indigenous Environmental Network. Begaye added, "As Indigenous peoples, we are the first nations to this continent and we cannot allow federal energy policies that promote continued fossil fuel dependence to be reflected within our tribal energy policies. We cannot allow our people to be the exploited labor force for these industries. We can not compromise the future of our children and grandchildren."

Energy policy in the U.S. does not recognize the protection of sacred sites. The Bush administration in late 2002, gave Calpine Corporation permission to develop a 48-megawatt geothermal power plant beside the sacred Medicine Lake in California's volcanic far north, reversing President Clinton 2000 decision that blocked the project. Bush administration officials stressed the project's potential role towards the U.S. getting closer to energy independence. Tribes in the area say they worry that the drilling will drain spiritual energy from a land they have used for hundreds of generations as a sacred healing place.

The Zuni tribe of New Mexico are waging a battle with Salt River Project (SRP), an Arizona-based electric power company that wants to destroy the sacred Zuni Salt Lake, by mining over 80 million tons of coal from 18,000 acres of federal, state, and private lands. The lake is a sacred place, home to Zuni's very important deity, the Salt Mother. SRP will pump 85 gallons per minute of groundwater from the same aquifer that feeds the lake. Since time immemorial, the Zuni, Acoma, Laguna, Hopi, Navajo, Apache and other Southwestern tribes have traveled to the lake over pilgrimage trails to collect salt for ceremonial and domestic purposes. SRP will also construct a 44-mile railroad from the mine in Fence Lake, New Mexico, to the Coronado Generating Station in St. John's, Arizona. The railroad will destroy many sections of pilgrimage trails and prevent access over those trails. SRP wants to destroy all of this so that Arizona consumers can have cheap electricity from dirty coal. The costs to the environment and tribes are too high.

"The U.S. energy policy has been at the expense of our Indian people that has left whole communities devastated and living in terror. It is an oppressive colonial system that feeds off the blood of the earth and blood of our people. We need to stop this colonial mindset that clouds our tribal leadership to think we could become partners with the fossil fuel and nuclear energy industry and still maintain our cultural and spiritual integrity," said Goldtooth.

IEN promotes the concept of tribal energy sovereignty whereby tribal governments could promote the use of clean renewable energy, such as wind power or solar. As sovereigns, tribes could help reshape the electric power system. Tribes could develop their own renewable energy systems, both to meet the needs of tribal facilities and to sell power over the grid.

The Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota has embarked on a wind energy project that is already providing a model for tribal reservations throughout South Dakota. The tribe has partnered with Native Energy of Vermont, with the assistance of the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy to build the first tribally owned large scale 750 Kw wind turbine in Indian country. The tribe recently held a dedication for the historical wind turbine in May. Tribes in South Dakota could become major generators of clean renewable energy in the production of wind energy. Studies show that on the Rosebud alone, the average wind speed is 18 miles per hour, enough to supply 2.4 million kilowatt-hours of electricity a year.

There is a need for the energy legislation to include measures to diversify U.S. energy supplies with renewable power sources. A U.S. clean energy policy helps both the economy and protects wildlife, environment, refuge areas, Indian lands and public health. The U.S. energy legislation must fund continued advances in renewable energy technology, clean renewable power, energy conservation and energy-saving programs. Development of these initiatives will reduce U.S. dependence on imported oil.

American Indian environmental and economic justice groups like the Black Mesa Water Coalition calls for a just transition to clean renewable energy sources and sustainable economic development practices that reflect the Navajo and Hopi traditional beliefs of respect for each other and the earth - both at the tribal level and across the country.

"We call for a more sustainable and culturally appropriate development that is guided by the values and teachings of our ancestors. We call for an economic base that would truly empower our people rather then the pockets of transnational corporations, western cities, tribal, state and federal government. We call for an end to the colonization of our lands for energy purposes and we demand a better government that is more accountable to the people," said Roberto Nutlouis, of the Indigenous Youth Coalition of Pinon, a small community on the Navajo reservation, a member of the Black Mesa Water Coalition and part of the IEN youth committee.

Coal bed methane project worries ranchers, irrigators

Some South Dakota and Wyoming ranchers and irrigators are worried about an oil company's proposal to dump millions of gallons of water from Wyoming coal bed methane wells into the Cheyenne River drainage.

They say the water will be high in sodium bicarbonate and other salts, which could ruin irrigated land and harm aquatic life, streamside vegetation and wildlife. They also say the higher water levels would disrupt river crossings for landowners.

ConocoPhillips, the company proposing the coal bed methane project, disputes the allegations, saying the water it will discharge has lower salt levels than the water already in the Cheyenne.

ConocoPhillips wants to drill 200-300 new coal bed methane wells in the southern part of the Powder River Basin southwest of Gillette, Wyo.

To get to the methane, drillers must first pump out water from on top of the coal seam. That water must be disposed of.

If the state of Wyoming approves a permit, the company will develop the wells and pipe the water from the Pumpkin Buttes area near Wright, about 20 miles south to Antelope Creek, which feeds into the Cheyenne River, Conoco-Phillips project manager David Jones of Houston said. Water would be held in two reservoirs before being dumped into Antelope Creek. Construction wouldn't begin for at least a year, Jones said.

About 100 wells are operating in the Cheyenne River basin.

Federal energy officials estimate the entire basin between Gillette and Buffalo has the potential for 39,000 new wells.

The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality is now sifting through public comments on the ConocoPhillips proposal. Department director John Corra will decide on the permit, in April at the earliest. His decision can be appealed to the Wyoming Environmental Quality Council.

Argument over impact

Assessments vary widely on the impact of coal bed methane water on the Cheyenne River, the plants and animals in and around it and on irrigation land.

Tom Cook, a former chemistry professor from Black Hills State University who lives on the Cheyenne River near Hot Springs, says the discharge's high sodium content would devastate irrigated land, the river and surrounding land.

"I believe this is going to kill this place off," Cook said.

Keith Andersen, who ranches on the Cheyenne River on both sides of the Wyoming-South Dakota border, is also concerned about the quality of discharge water that would be dumped into the Cheyenne. Most of his irrigated land is on the Wyoming side.

Normally, irrigators would welcome more water, Andersen, who is also chairman of the Fall River Conservation District board, said.

However, the high level of sodium bicarbonate relative to calcium and magnesium in coal bed methane water can make clay soil impervious to water, ruining it for irrigation, Andersen said. "It turns it into hardpan."

ConocoPhillips' Jones said sodium bicarbonate and other salts would be diluted during irrigation periods, keeping the sodium absorption rate (SAR) within permitted levels.

Jones says the discharge water will contain lower salt content than the water in the river as it enters South Dakota now. "Effectively, we'll be reducing the salt content on an average basis," Jones said.

All of the discharged water will meet state standards for downstream uses, company officials say.

Angostura Irrigation District Manager Mick Jenniges said he is counting on the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which owns Angostura Reservoir and the water in it, and the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources, to make sure the coal bed methane water isn't harmful. "I am trusting that they are making sure the water is going to be suitable for crops."

The Bureau of Reclamation isn't aware of any negative effects from the current coal bed methane discharge, either in the Cheyenne River drainage or the Belle Fourche River drainage, according to BOR civil engineer Curt Anderson in Rapid City.

Anderson said the bureau hasn't heard from many people worried about the discharge into either drainage.

In fact, Pat Trask, chairman of the Cheyenne River Water Users Association, favors the project. Trask ranches on the Cheyenne River near Elm Springs and uses river water for irrigation. He agrees with the company's assessment that the coal bed methane discharge water will be of higher quality than the water currently in the river. "It will be a net benefit to the Lower Cheyenne," he said.

Trask also said he appreciates the willingness of ConocoPhillips to work with landowners to try to arbitrate problems.

Belle Fourche Irrigation District members are concerned about the discharge, but tests in the inlet have found water to be within limits so far, according to district manager Renel Hall-Beck. Wyoming coal bed methane wells have been discharging water into the Belle Fourche for several years.

DENR satisfied

The South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources voiced its concerns to Wyoming officials about an earlier ConocoPhillips proposal to discharge up to 57 cfs of coal bed methane into the Cheyenne drainage. As a result of that and other comments, Phillips withdrew its permit request and submitted its latest proposal â?" to release 35.7 cfs.

The department's main concerns were damage to irrigation land, increased stream flows and increased sediment in the water, according to Jeanne Goodman, DENR water-quality program administrator

DENR is satisfied with the changes in Phillips' revised permit request, Goodman said. "We are happy with the changes they made, but we are going to do our own monitoring," she said.

Any discharge will have to meet South Dakota standards, Kelli Buscher, engineering director for the water-quality progra, said.

The department has received many queries from South Dakota residents on the latest Phillips proposal, Buscher said.

Cook said the department's acceptance of the new permit is a big mistake. He said coal bed methane water already has damaged the Tongue River in Montana.

Coal bed methane water discharged into the Tongue River from Fidelity Exploration and Production at Decker, Mont., has doubled the SAR levels in the Tongue, according to rancher Art Hayes of Birney, Mont., head of the Tongue River Water Users Association. The 75-member association has sued the state of Montana to stop the discharge.

Hayes said not much irrigation land has been damaged yet, except for a few spots on the lower end of the Tongue. But he said the company's high-sodium discharge water has killed cottonwood trees around the Tongue River Reservoir.

He fears the impact of the discharge on the Tongue is just beginning. Like Cook, Hayes says sodium from high SAR discharge water accumulates in soils. "It would be criminal for South Dakota to allow the company to discharge water," he said.

Wyoming opposition

The Niobrara County (Wyoming) Conservation District, based in Lusk, also opposes Phillips' proposal. Discharge of high salinity coal bed methane water would hurt eight or 10 irrigators plus 30 to 40 ranchers and other landowners along the Cheyenne River in Niobrara County alone, Heidi Sturman, water-quality technician for the district, said.

One of the district's objections is that Phillips plans to drill into the deeper Big George coal seam between Gillette and Buffalo. "The deeper you go, the worse the water is," Sturman said.

She said the reduction of flow in the new proposal to 35.7 cfs would not be enough to mitigate the damage.

She said the Cheyenne River at low flow already has a high sodium absorption ratio, so irrigators wait for storms or other runoff to dilute the sodium befo re using water for irrigation. But if the new water coming in also has high SAR, it could damage irrigated land, Sturman said.

"This water is extremely high in sodium and higher in SAR than the irrigation water they use now," Sturman said. "Also, you can end up with a buildup of salts down at the root zone, so plants can't function properly."

Rancher Andersen said the SAR would be 15 at the discharge point, above the level of 10 that South Dakota allows.

ConocoPhillips' Jones said, however, that the Wyoming permit would require the company to further dilute the water during irrigation periods, bringing the SAR down to 10.

Sturman said the increased water would also damage aquatic life in Antelope Creek and the Cheyenne River, and damage plants along the streams as well as wildlife.

The higher flows also could ruin river crossings for cattle and for landowners.

She said ice jams could cause spillovers of the high-salinity water, which could damage surrounding soil and plants.

Jones said ConocoPhillips would try to work with landowners to compensate them for access problems caused by higher water.

But Sturman said she knew of no positive comments on the Phillips proposal from within Wyoming. "There is no economic benefit here, from any of this. If we have to start dealing with problems with the discharge, that will be long term," she said.

Deciding the permit

The comment period ended Feb. 17 on the proposed permit. Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality staffers are sifting through those comments now, Gary Beach, administrator of DEQ's water-quality division, said.

Beach said the department would look at existing uses of the water downstream, including irrigation, before a decision on the permit is made. "We cannot authorize releases of water from the industry that would adversely affect current uses of water in the natural system," Beach said.

Both the sodium absorption ratio and the total salinity will be taken into account before deciding on the permit, he said.

"In my mind, they're both a concern," Beach said, although the SAR could have longer-term impact on irrigated land. "If you break down soil structure, you'll never reclaim them," Beach said.

High total salinity doesn't affect the soil as much but it hurts plant growth, he said. However, that could be treated with better quality water.

Beach said DEQ told Phillips more than a year ago that it would have trouble approving its original request to release 57 cfs into Antelope Creek. He said 35.7 cfs would reduce the concentration of salinity downstream.

"The question that still exists is, when you get down to the base flow and levels they use to irrigate, are you still going to have concentrations too high?" Beach said.

But he said not all of the water released would reach far downstream. He said about .1 cfs is lost per mile of stream.

Water discharged into Antelope Creek would have to travel more than 100 stream miles before reaching South Dakota, Beach said.

Higher flows

Beach said he doubted whether any of the current discharge from the coal bed methane wells into the Cheyenne River drainage is reaching South Dakota.

However, some irrigators and ranchers say parts of the river are running now that didn't before, despite drought, Sturman said.

Keith Andersen, who grew up on his ranch on the South Dakota-Wyoming border, says the river has continued to flow there during the past three winters, something that it does not normally do. He said the company told him the peak flows under the new permit would raise the river 10 inches through his ranch.

And he worries that, because of evaporation, the water will have a higher salt content the closer it gets to South Dakota.

Andersen and Sturman would like more study of the river flows and water quality before a permit is approved.

They say they don't oppose energy development. "The challenge is to find a better way to handle the water," Andersen said.

ConocoPhillips' Jones, however, says reasonable predictions can be made with U.S. Geological Service data on the river going back 70 years.

And he said the permit would require the company to gather baseline data before beginning construction on the pipeline. He also said ConocoPhillips is willing to look at alternative uses for the water if it is economically feasible for the company.

Cook, who holds a doctorate in chemistry, says his calculations show that the additional permitted discharge, along with the existing permits, would allow dumping of up to 40 million gallons of water a day into the Cheyenne River. He says the water would bring at least 600,000 pounds per day of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). Sodium bicarbonate interferes with fish reproduction, and coal bed methane water dramatically reduces aquatic bug counts, Cook says.

The new permit would allow ConocoPhillips to dump about 23 million gallons a day at peak flows.

"And guess where it's coming?" Cook said. "It's going to come down the Cheyenne since Montana is trying to close it off."

Cook says Montana has limited the amount of coal bed methane water it will accept, so Conoco-Phillips is looking to dump its water into the Cheyenne heading east to South Dakota.

Beach said Wyoming's DEQ is cautiously approving permits to dump into the Powder River because Wyoming has an interim agreement with the state of Montana not to degrade the Powder River or the Tongue River, both of which flow into Montana. He said after Montana settles on specific numeric standards, another agreement will be worked out.

Beach said the DEQ is more concerned about concentrations of salts rather than the total amounts.

Cook says he doesn't trust Wyoming officials to protect the river drainages, either by rejecting the permit or by monitoring the allowed discharges. "I h

ave a very bad feeling about this. I think this may be the biggest environmental economic war that we're going to see in the western states."

Contact Steve Miller at 394-8417 or steve.miller@rapidcityjournal.com