CHEYENNE - The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality is an embarrassment to the state by continuing to use a formula for determining pollution limits in certain coal-bed methane discharge water despite a report finding the formula to be scientifically flawed, a conservation group representative said Tuesday.

Robert LeResche, chairman of the Powder River Basin Resource Council, said in a letter to DEQ Director John Corra that his agency is issuing permits that allow too much sodium and salt in coal-bed methane discharge water for agricultural use.

A recent independent report commissioned by the Wyoming Environmental Quality Council, which promulgates state environmental regulations, found that the state's formula for determining pollution limits in the water was scientifically flawed. Other experts also have criticized the formula.

As a result, agriculture land is being damaged by the agency continuing to use the formula, LeResche said.

"DEQ's bullheaded ignoring of science and attempts to walk away from the problems caused by your permitting have become an embarrassment to the state of Wyoming," LeResche said in the letter.

Corra said Tuesday he is still reviewing the report on the formula.

He said the Environmental Quality Council asked for the report and he wasn't sure what the panel would do with it.

LeResche said Corra and his agency have the power to discontinue using the formula.

Still, the Powder River Basin Resource Council last week asked the Environmental Protection Agency to stop the state from issuing any more water discharge permits approved partly under the formula.

Corra said the EPA can intervene if it determines the state's rules and standards conflict with the federal Clean Air Act.

However, he said to his knowledge the EPA has not found any problems with the state's coal-bed methane water discharge permits.

"As we write permits to discharge using that policy, EPA reviews every one of those permits and has basically, by not complaining about those permits, has tacitly approved those permits written under that policy for all of these years," Corra said.

Coal-bed methane development in northeast Wyoming has resulted in large quantities of water being pumped to the surface in order to recover the gas trapped in underground coal seams.