Well, Well, Well - 4,000 New Gas Wells in the Upper Green
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Upper Green River Valley, WY - It's a plan with "loose ends" when it comes to the environment. That's according to expert analysis of the Bureau of Land Management plan to add more than 4,000 gas wells in the Upper Green River Valley. Air quality, wildlife and livability professionals say the BLM plan is missing specifics on how to repair environmental damage that comes along with drilling wells. Megan Williams is an air quality consultant who has worked for the Environmental Protection Agency.
"If the BLM authorizes this project, its actions will not protect, and will not restore, air quality in the Upper Green River Valley."
The BLM defends the plan as the best mix of development and environmental protection.
Dr. William Alldredge is a wildlife biologist who has studied the Upper Green since the 1970s. He says the drilling would expand to traditionally protected seasonal areas for big game and sage grouse. While the BLM plan mentions rehabilitation, but Dr. Alldredge says the public needs to understand rehab is not immediate, so animals will disappear.
"Reclamation in these sagebrush communities will take 50 to 100 years."
Dr. Alldredge notes that mule deer populations in the area have declined 50 percent in just five years - and he blames drilling activity.
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