State engineer gets hot potato ********************
By DUSTIN BLEIZEFFER
Star-Tribune energy reporter
Sunday, May 13, 2007 2:11 AM MDT
In the wake of Gov. Dave Freudenthal's veto of new Department of Environmental Quality rules to address flooding and the waste of groundwater in coal-bed methane development, State Engineer Patrick Tyrrell has been asked to explain his authority related to water quantity issues.
Freudenthal and Wyoming Attorney General Pat Crank maintain that water quality issues lie with DEQ, while water quantity issues are under the authority of the state engineer.
In a letter to Tyrrell, Coal-Bed Methane Task Force chairman Rep. Pat Childers, R-Cody, said, "It appears from our initial discussions that the Wyoming State Engineer's Office may have existing authority to manage discharged CBM-produced water quantity."
So why such a formal request when Tyrrell and Childers have served on the same Coal-Bed Methane Task Force for more than a year now? It appears the issue has festered for so long under a nebulous set of split state authorities that no one is eager to touch it.
"It seems like an unwieldy way to do it. Why not just sit down with the state engineer and ask for a solution? Let's not complicate things too much," said Sen. John Schiffer, R-Kaycee.
But the stickiness of the issue is not lost on Schiffer. In the absence of direct action from the governor's office, the 2006 Legislature agreed to establish the Coal-Bed Methane Task Force to deal with the issue. Schiffer, who has authority over two Senate positions on the task force, recently pulled Sen. Kit Jennings, R-Casper, and replaced him with Sen. Bruce Burns, R-Sheridan.
"The lack of success of its first year prompted me to say we needed a different voice at the table," Schiffer said. "Whether it (the task force) will ultimately be successful, the jury is still out."
For more than a year, the task force has struggled to reach consensus on a number of issues regarding coal-bed methane water. The one piece of legislation that the group did put forward suffered a quick death in the Senate this past legislative session.
Given the apparent lack of appetite at the Capitol to address coal-bed methane water issues, some worry the task force may fight an even steeper battle to introduce successful legislation during the upcoming budget session.
"Part of the solution needs to be that the state tell us clearly, what is their authority? What is the authority of the state engineer's office to handle quantity?" Childers said.
Tyrrell said he's working on his reply. So far, it goes something like this: The state engineer does regulate volumes of water in irrigation, but not so much when the water originates from oil and gas wells.
"Traditionally, we have regulated water quantity on the use side -- when the water supply is scarce," Tyrrell said.
Wyoming water law experts agree that a nebulous set of statutes and case law guides water management, so it's not as though the state engineer's office is blamed for hiding under a rock during coal-bed methane's first 10 years of commercial production.
Even those who have argued for some limits of industrial discharges of groundwater admit they would like to keep Wyoming's water laws somewhat "fluid." Clearly defining "beneficial use" and "waste" is seen by some as a threat to diversions for aesthetic ponds to agricultural uses of water produced from oil and gas wells.
For now, those discussions are slated with the Coal-Bed Methane Task Force, despite the fact that Freudenthal could choose to take them on directly at any time.
Freudenthal's press secretary, Cara Eastwood, said the governor prefers having all the stakeholders involved in discussing potential solutions.
"We've been working with ... the task force committee members and believe that this is a great step forward. We look forward to discussions with the state engineer when he submits his report," Eastwood said.
Energy reporter Dustin Bleizeffer can be reached at (307) 577-6069 or dustin.bleizeffer@casperstartribune.net. |
