CBM task force struggles with persistent water issues
By DUSTIN BLEIZEFFER
Star-Tribune energy reporter
Thursday, April 26, 2007 2:08 AM MDT
It's been more than 10 years since Wyoming began commercial coal-bed methane gas production, and solutions to several key property and water issues continue to elude the state.
Wednesday, members of the Coal-bed Natural Gas Task Force attempted to tackle the first of four key items on their agenda: Should a landowner have the right not to allow discharge of coal-bed methane water onto his property?
"This is an issue that you as a task force have dodged and dodged so long that it's nauseating," said Aaron Clark, coordinator for the task force.
Three remaining issues on the task force's agenda proved equally controversial: Regulatory gaps regarding water quantity, a proposed mitigation fund or process for unforeseen impacts, and criteria for water storage reservoirs.
It's been a year since the 15-member group was formed by the legislature, and consensus on any one of the issues is difficult to achieve. Part of the difficulty is that as the task force attempts find and refine a position on an issue, the legal and regulatory framework constantly shifts according to ongoing legal actions.
Throughout Wednesday's meeting, task force members attempted to ground the discussion to philosophical goals.
"The purpose for doing this is to eliminate conflict between parties," said Rep. Pat Childers, R-Cody, who serves as task force chairman.
Childers acknowledged that task force members seem to remain respectfully and deeply divided on the water quantity and property rights issues, but urged the group to come to some sort of consensus anyway.
"If we can't agree to disagree, we're going to be bogged down for the rest of the year," Childers said.
Task force member John Pope suggested that the task force shouldn't get bogged down in defining the current set of laws and rules guiding the industry which obviously have not resolved ongoing disputes. Instead, they must come up with over-arching positions on how the state should make value judgments regarding the issues.
"At the end of the day, it's a value decision and you balance value of the land and value of the production of gas," Pope said.
Department of Environmental Quality administrator John Corra suggested the task force focus on what seems to be the common denominator of coal-bed methane gas disputes: "Taking care of excess water."
"This doesn't have to be a regulatory thing, but a damage-control thing," Corra said.
In fact, a possible scheme for an industry-wide water pipeline is among the task force's potential recommendations.
The task force also performed an autopsy on a bill that died in the state senate during the last legislative session. House Bill 212 would have directed the state to recognize the task force's single recommendation from its 2006 interim report; to expedite a general water discharge permit on a watershed basis.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Kermit Brown, R-Laramie, said he suspected that senators wrongly assumed the bill would have addressed water quantity issues in coal-bed methane development.
"I think that portended the death of this bill," said Brown.
The task force agreed it would again put the recommendation forward in the form of a draft bill. Yet task force members, including DEQ administrator John Corra, admit that the watershed permitting program does not include a mechanism to manage water volumes in order to protect downstream or "bottomland" agricultural uses.
Later in the meeting, Brown underscored the need to address water quantity, but not in the watershed permitting program.
"If this task force fails to address water quantity, then we might as well go home right now," Brown said.
During a break, Corra was asked who regulates cumulative coal-bed methane water discharges and how. Corra said he couldn't answer. He said that although the proposed watershed permitting program does not include a water quantity mechanism, it does provide a forum for people to discuss it.
"One thing that's different (about watershed permitting) is we are bringing all the people together to plan," said Corra.
Energy reporter Dustin Bleizeffer can be reached at (307) 577-6069 or dustin.bleizeffer@casperstartribune.net. |
