Help Determine the Future of the Powder River Basin

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is seeking public comments on a plan that will establish how oil, gas, coal, grazing, wildlife and other resources are managed for the next 20 years in the Powder River Basin. All comments by the public or any interested agencies made during the next 30 days will be used to guide the BLM on how it sets priorities. Comments are due by January 5, 2009.

The BLM manages more than 800,000 acres of surface land and 4.7 million acres of mineral estate holdings for the public in Wyoming's Powder River Basin. These resources are under extreme pressure to be developed since much of the private energy resources in the area have already been developed.

Oil, gas and coal development in the Powder River Basin has put the wildlife, water resources, farmers & ranchers and historic and cultural sites at risk (see below). We need hunters, anglers, outdoor enthusiasts and anyone who values our public land to tell the BLM that all of our resources are valuable and that oil and gas development should not take precedence over wildlife, water and farmers & ranchers.

Written comments and data submissions  are due January 5, 2009 and should be submitted to:

BFO RMP Revision Project Manager BLM Buffalo Field Office 1425 Fort Street Buffalo, Wyoming 82834.

Electronic comments may be sent to BRMP_Rev_WYMail@blm.gov.

To have your name added to the RMP mailing list, contact Linda Slone at (307) 261-7520.

For more information about NWF's work in the Montana and Wyoming's Powder River Basin email Alexis Bongofsky, bonogofsky@nwf.org 

Background

The story of the Powder River Basin is the story of America. It is a region rich in traditions, culture, history and wildlife but it is also the setting of America’s relentless thirst for energy. The drive for coal, oil and a newer form of natural gas, coal bed methane is quickly transforming the region into a National Sacrifice Area and threatens to permanently change the region for the farmers, ranchers, tribes and wildlife that call it home.

The Powder River Basin stretches for over 14 million acres from the peaks of Wyoming's Bighorn Mountains to the Yellowstone River in Montana. The region is a landscape of grass covered plains, rolling hills, wide, flat streambeds and broad floodplains. For centuries, Native Americans lived and hunted here and for nearly 200 years, generations of homesteaders have ranched and farmed these high plains and continue to do so today.

Coal bed methane mining has been identified as the single largest threat to the environmental health of this region. The region has recently become the most active area in the country for such gas development (USGS 2002, Klinkenborg 2003). However, the region is also experiencing extreme drought, water shortages, habitat fragmentation and a push to develop the unprecedented coal resources that are found in the Basin.

Coal bed methane (CBM) is methane gas (natural gas) trapped within coal deposits. Production of CBM requires wells, access roads, utility lines, pipelines, containment ponds, generators, and compressor stations. CBM production affects water quantity and quality and disturbs the landscape, and it has implications for dust, fire, noise, light pollution, spread of noxious weeds, impacts on schools, housing, and the well being of fish and wildlife populations (Montana Game and Fish).

The most devastating aspect of this rush for a new source of natural gas is what it does to the region's water table. The extraction of CBM requires larger amounts of water. According to the Powder River Basin Resource Council, CBM wells pump water 24 hours a day, 365 days a year at an average of 12 gallons per minute per well. The wells can produce as much as 70 gallons per minute. Artesian wells that have supplied humans and livestock with warm but potable water for generations dry up almost overnight when water is pumped off the coal to release methane in addition to methane contaminated wells. Earth scientists offer predictions of ten to a hundred years for recovery of these wells which is unacceptable to ranchers and farmers who rely on that water for their livelihoods.

In addition to human impacts, wildlife is under great stress from energy development in the region. Studies show that the Greater Sage Grouse populations have plunged 68 percent from 2000 to 2005 in areas of coal-bed methane activity in the Powder River Basin. Discharging CBM water into rivers and streams may harm fisheries, depending on the tolerance of the fish (and the insects and organisms they eat) for increased salinity and changing water temperature. Some 45 fish species live in the Powder, Tongue, and Rosebud rivers (Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks). CBM produced water also has the potential for adverse impacts on plant species of cultural significance to the tribes, such as chokecherry.

The Powder River Basin's historical sites are also under pressure of energy development. Rosebud Battlefield, Deer Medicine Rock, Reynolds Battlefield, Wolf Mountain Battlefield are all in the region. These sites are important culturally, ecologically and historically to the tribes and the citizens of the region.

Stories

ROSEBUD BATTLEFIELD RECIEVES NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK STATUS

The Great Sioux War of 1876-1877 was the largest and widest ranging war between the U.S. Army and the American Indians in the country’s history. Through the work of two dedicated and persistent Northern Cheyenne tribal members and with the help of the National Wildlife Federation’s Tribal Lands Conservation Program and many other groups and agencies, one of the greatest battles in this war, “Where the Girl Saved Her Brother” also known as Rosebud Battle, was named a National Historic Landmark on October 7, 2008 by Dick Kempthorne, Secretary of the Interior, elevating it to a status that less than 2,500 historic sites in the United States share. National Historic Landmarks are buildings, sites, districts, structures, and objects that have been determined by the Secretary of the Interior to be nationally significant in American history and culture.

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