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Wyoming News
Wyoming News
EPA official defends Pavillion fracking report
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in no way contends that a draft report on groundwater pollution in Wyoming could apply to hydraulic fracturing in any other part of the U.S., an EPA official told a U.S. House subcommittee.
That includes the Marcellus Shale, a vast area of booming gas drilling in Pennsylvania and other northeastern states, EPA Regional Administrator James Martin said Wednesday.
“The geologic conditions that exist with the Marcellus Shale are significantly different,” Martin told the House Science Committee’s energy and environment subcommittee, which held a hearing in Washington on the draft EPA report.
The report, released Dec. 8, theorized that gas industry activity including hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, may have caused groundwater pollution in Pavillion.
Read full text: Wyoming Trib
Printer-friendly versionExperts: California demand for Wyoming wind is a 'gamble'
JACKSON -- It's no secret that Wyoming wants to sell its wind power to California. But its chances are still up in the air, said some participants at a state Infrastructure Authority meeting here Tuesday.
"It's a big question mark, and a gamble," said Bill Boyd, executive vice president and chief operating officer of TransWest Express LLC, a subsidiary of Denver-based Anschutz Corp. and developer of a high-voltage power line to carry wind power from Wyoming to California.
Yet Boyd and others at the Wyoming Infrastructure Authority meeting, including a top adviser to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, say they're hopeful Wyoming can make a case for its wind energy, arguably cheaper by the megawatt for California customers.
Read full text: Wyoming Trib
Finding answers for Pavillion residents
Several recent news and opinion pieces in this newspaper have mischaracterized the Environmental Protection Agency’s work in Pavillion. I’d like to take this opportunity to clarify some key facts about our science.
First, the editorial page of this paper wrote that EPA has “poisoned the public debate by releasing its report” and a recent opinion piece claimed that the report release was “rushed.” These assertions do a disservice to the rigorous scientific process EPA conducted and the vital interest in informing the public and scientific community of the results of EPA’s work.
Our investigation of drinking water safety in Pavillion has been under way for three years. We have conducted four rounds of sampling. After the sampling phase, our career scientists conducted a meticulous evaluation of the data. Their conclusions were thoroughly reviewed by EPA career managers and subjected to an initial peer review by independent experts. The draft report exhaustively describes the evidence supporting EPA’s conclusions and how that evidence was evaluated.
Importantly, we have been clear that the report is a draft, that we expect and want public feedback, and that we are asking independent experts to publicly peer review our work, which is the accepted method of resolving questions about scientific validity.
Read full text: Wyoming Trib
Encana asks EPA to suspend Wyoming fracking comment period
CHEYENNE, Wyo. - The owner of a central Wyoming gas field where federal regulators suggested a link between a drilling technique and groundwater pollution asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday to suspend public comment on the draft report.
Gov. Matt Mead, meanwhile, was back in Cheyenne on Monday after making a secret trip to Pavillion last week to talk to locals about their well water.
EPA moves on ozone regs in western Wyoming, elsewhere
CHEYENNE — The Environmental Protection Agency is moving ahead with a proposed regulatory designation that could increase pressure on the gas industry to limit emissions that have led to severe wintertime ozone pollution in western Wyoming.
The EPA is doing so while it settles a nationwide lawsuit over ozone filed by an environmental group, WildEarth Guardians.
Former Gov. Dave Freudenthal in 2009 recommended that the EPA enact what’s known as “nonattainment status” for ozone in the Upper Green River Basin. In a letter Dec. 8, the EPA told Gov. Matt Mead it is now prepared to support that recommendation.
“The EPA will continue to work with state officials regarding the appropriate boundary for the area in Wyoming,” EPA Region 8 Administrator James Martin wrote.
Wyoming golden eagle study considers diet, reproduction in relation to land use
CODY — Golden eagle breeding numbers and nest success rates declined across the eastern edge of the Yellowstone ecosystem in 2011, a trend that researchers believe may be linked to a drop in the rabbit population.
The latest findings mark the third year of an ongoing study looking at habitat quality across a swath of the greater Yellowstone ecosystem and how golden eagles are responding to changes in land use.
Chuck Preston, a research biologist specializing in raptor ecology, said his team has monitored golden eagles during the nesting season, focusing on nesting ecology and how it relates to landscape.
Australian coal co. names Wyo. lawmaker to board
GILLETTE, Wyo. (AP) — A Wyoming state lawmaker has become a director of an Australian coal company that wants to mine Powder River Basin coal.
Republican Rep. David Miller, of Riverton, sold his Campbell County mineral rights to Sydney-based County Coal Ltd. for $200,000 on March 11. Miller, a geologist, became a director of the company on April 29, the Gillette News Record (http://bit.ly/rrhxjt ) reported Sunday.
He now holds 1 million shares in the company and will get 3 percent royalty payments on coal mined in the basin, one of the richest coal sources in the United States.
"They asked me if I would be a director of the company," Miller said. "I said 'I think I can.'"
Miller said he will recuse himself from any votes in the Legislature that directly affect County Coal projects, but he said votes on coal issues in general aren't as clear cut.
County Coal didn't respond to the newspaper's request for more information about its Powder River Basin plans.
Click here to read the full story by the Gillette News Record
Interior Secretary to talk sage grouse in Wyo.
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has scheduled a Friday meeting with representatives from 10 western states to discuss development of a comprehensive strategy intended to protect sage grouse while maintaining a strong economy, a spokesman said Thursday.
Adam Fetcher, a spokesman for Salazar in Washington, said the meeting will include Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead. Renny MacKay, a Mead spokesman, said the governor and Salazar plan a press conference on the sage grouse issue on Friday.
EPA report: Pavillion well water tainted with chemicals consistent with fracking
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today released draft findings in its ongoing investigation of contaminated well water near natural gas drilling in Pavillion, Wyo. The draft report “indicates detection of synthetic chemicals … consistent with gas production and hydraulic fracturing fluids.”
The EPA is publishing the draft findings in order to obtain public comment and independent scientific review, but the report is sure to be used as the most solid piece of evidence to date that hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” can taint groundwater. The oil and gas industry maintains the process has never been proven to communicate with drinking water supplies.
Click here to read the full story on the Colorado Independent
Wildlife officials update public on Wyoming mule deer herd
PINEDALE — Dozens of people gathered Tuesday and Wednesday nights in southwest Wyoming to hear updates on the Wyoming Range mule deer herd.
It was the first round of annual meetings since the Wyoming Range mule deer herd plan was unveiled in June.
Wyoming Game and Fish Department officials told people about new habitat projects, possible new research and changes in hunting seasons that are happening as part of the Wyoming Mule Deer Initiative.
BLM fast-tracks three Wyoming wind energy projects
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management says it will fast-track three Wyoming wind energy projects in 2012, although representatives from the BLM’s state office say the projects were already considered priorities.
The BLM named the Sand Hills Ranch, Chokecherry/Sierra Madre and White Mountain projects among 17 renewable energy priority projects in four states due to receive increased focus next year.
The BLM’s 2012 priority list also includes solar, wind and hydropower projects in Arizona, Nevada and California.
The 1,000-turbine Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project is proposed by Denver-based Anschutz Corp. subsidiary Power Co. of Wyoming for south of Rawlins. It is the largest wind farm on the BLM’s list.
No sale of Wyo. gas field with polluted well water
A company has called off its purchase of a central Wyoming gas field where the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been investigating groundwater pollution and is preparing to release a report soon on the possible sources.
Midland, Texas-based Legacy Reserves LP announced earlier this month it was buying an undisclosed number of gas wells and related assets in the Pavillion area in Fremont County from Calgary, Alberta-based Encana Corp. for $45 million.
The week after the sale announcement, the EPA said it had found high levels of benzene and other contaminants in two wells drilled to test for groundwater pollution in the Pavillion area. Previous EPA investigations found hydrocarbons in 17 local water wells.
The quest for elk forage
In August, a nearly decade-long analysis of wildlife management on the National Elk Refuge finally concluded.
In a sweeping environmental study, officials decided they would reduce the elk population wintering on the refuge from roughly 7,000 to 5,000. The move is designed to bring the herd more in balance with the available habitat and let the animals spread out — helpful in stemming the spread of diseases.
Click here to read the full story on the Jackson Hole News and Guide
Pinedale irrigator first in Wyoming to convert water right for fish
For the first time ever, a Wyoming rancher has given his irrigation water right to the state to become an in-stream flow right to support fish.
To the rancher, the successful donation means keeping a water right in his community that would otherwise be lost. And to both state water officials and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, that is a sign of Wyoming people coming around to accepting the once fiercely-fought concept of protecting water to stay flowing in-stream for fish.
A Fracking Chemical Appears in Wyoming Aquifer
An EPA study found cancerous compounds, including one used in hydraulic fracturing to harvest natural gas, in an aquifer in Wyoming, ProPublica reports.
The findings come from monitoring wells near Pavillion, Wy., an area where residents have long complained about contaminated drinking water, which some have long blamed on the hundreds of hydraulic fracturing operations in the area.
The area's residents "have alleged for nearly a decade that the drilling -- and hydraulic fracturing in particular -- has caused their water to turn black and smell like gasoline," writes Abrahm Lustgarten, who has covered the fracking debate for ProPublica. "Some residents say they suffer neurological impairment, loss of smell, and nerve pain they associate with exposure to pollutants."
BLM conducts own wind, transmission study
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is a year into a study meant to identify the most suitable areas to put wind turbines and transmission lines in Wyoming.
Mike Valle, a program analyst with the state BLM office in Cheyenne, said the BLM is in Phase I of a three-phase study, which could be completed in three to four years.
By that time, construction of the Chokecherry Sierra Madre Wind Farm, the TransWest Transmission Line and the Gateway West Transmission Line could all be under way in Carbon County.
Texas firm to buy controversial natural gas assets in Wyoming
A Texas company says it will buy natural gas assets in Fremont County, some of which landowners suspect are responsible for polluting water wells.
Legacy Reserves LP of Midland, Texas, announced Tuesday it will buy the assets in the county for $45 million in cash, but it didn't identify the seller.
The purchase, which is set to close Dec. 1, includes properties, a natural gas gathering system, gas processing plant and related compression facilities, the company said.
"There are also multiple locations included in this acquisition that will be evaluated for future drilling," Legacy Reserves said in a media release.
Wyoming Game and Fish hosts mule deer meetings
SARATOGA — The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is planning more public meetings to discuss what to do about declining mule deer numbers in the Platte Valley in southern Wyoming.
An earlier series of meetings focused on what's contributing to the decline in mule deer. Upcoming meetings will focus on possible ways to improve the situation.
Meetings are scheduled for Nov. 14 in Cheyenne, Nov. 15 in Laramie, Nov. 16 in Rawlins and Nov. 17 in Saratoga
University of Wyoming study finds songbird declines in high-density well sites
CODY — Drilling wells at high densities may contribute to a decline in some bird species that depend upon sagebrush habitat, a new study from the University of Wyoming has found.
Directed by Anna Chalfoun of the Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at the University of Wyoming, the study found that sagebrush habitat surrounded by high well densities — especially natural gas wells — supports lower densities of certain songbirds.
Completed over two years, the study encompassed the Pinedale Anticline and Jonah gas fields and the LaBarge oilfield in western Wyoming, where pad densities reach more than 16 wells per square mile.
Yellowstone hits 3 million summer visitors for 3rd year
"BILLINGS, Mont. — Yellowstone National Park administrators are reporting that more than 3 million people visited the park over the summer."