Pollution regulations for coalbed methane wells in
Wyoming are severely under-enforced, a state task force says.
“Basically, there’s one full-time (inspector) covering all
coalbed methane activity (in Wyoming),” says Todd Parfitt, who
represented the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) on
the task force. The department’s lone field inspector
monitors 3,924 permitted discharge points from 10,000 active
methane wells in the Powder River Basin. With a workload like that,
the inspector is likely to see a site only once in five years.
The task force, formed by the Legislature to evaluate the
handling of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System,
concluded that the DEQ needs more inspectors, better laboratory
facilities and an improved system for gas companies to report their
own pollution levels. The federal Bureau of Land Management will
approve 40,000 new wells in the basin over the next
decade.
Some environmentalists and landowners say the task
force reflects the willingness of Gov. Dave Freudenthal’s
administration to address the problems of the methane boom.
Wastewater from methane drilling contains sodium and other minerals
that pollute irrigation water and threaten fish habitat downstream.
Task force members presented their findings to the
Legislature’s minerals committee Nov. 19. They hope that
lawmakers will spend some of Wyoming’s projected $1 billion
surplus for 2005-06 — revenues from energy and mineral
development — to flesh out the DEQ’s skeleton
crew.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline State struggling to keep up with CBM.
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