DUSTIN BLEIZEFFER Star-Tribune energy reporter | Posted: Monday, July 24, 2006 12:00 am
GILLETTE - There's twice as much sand as there is water between the Powder River's banks this summer, yet Wyoming environmental quality regulators remain vigilant about keeping water produced from coal-bed methane wells from reaching the flaccid Montana-bound waterway.
"Usually the (coal-bed methane) water goes into the intermittent draws, and most doesn't reach the Powder River," said John Wagner of the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality's water quality division.
Coal-bed methane drilling continues in earnest in the Powder River drainage, relying mostly on hundreds of large impoundments and surface discharges far up the drainages to hold the large volumes of byproduct water. Those drainages eventually lead to the Powder River.
Wagner said DEQ is being careful not to overstep rules established in Montana that have effectively prescribed water management strategies upstream in Wyoming.
The industry, Montana and Wyoming are involved in several lawsuits regarding water management in the Powder River Basin, which straddles the states' common boundary. Wagner said that as those lawsuits play out in the courts, Wyoming DEQ will continue to keep its permitting process for coal-bed methane water discharges open to Montana regulators for review.
"Montana is reviewing every draft (water discharge) permit we put out. So far, they have not had a problem with any permit we've put out," Wagner said.
In 2002, Montana passed "numeric standards" setting limits on salinity and electrical conductivity concentrations for Montana waterways. Montana's standards extend into Wyoming because the upstream state is obligated to comply with the downstream state's water quality laws, though industry and Wyoming officials have argued that interstate commerce rights seem to play a role in the matter.
Wyoming officials want to be able to regulate coal-bed methane water discharges on a "narrative" standard, which they say gives them more flexibility to adapt to highly varied water and soil conditions throughout the Powder River Basin and still protect existing agriculture and other uses on both sides of the state border.
Wagner said Montana's numeric standards did provide wriggle room to discharge some coal-bed methane water into Montana-bound waterways during spring runoff season. However, a non-degradation rule passed in Montana last year would erase even much of that capacity for discharges.
Marathon Oil Co. is one of three coal-bed methane operators that filed suit against Montana regarding its water quality rules and have asked the Environmental Protection Agency to rescind its approval of the non-degradation rule.
In a prepared statement, the company said, "Over 20,000 wells have been drilled in the Powder River Basin and these (coal-bed methane gas) operations have not degraded our rivers. All of the evidence demonstrates that water quality is preserved. The opposition wants to portray the (coal-bed methane) industry as something that has caused harm in our watersheds. Nothing could be further from truth."
Even under completely natural conditions, Marathon noted, the Powder River doesn't meet Montana's established water quality thresholds most of the year.
But until several legal questions are played out, operators on this side of the state line are holding a lot of water in hundreds of freshly scooped reservoirs, hoping it seeps back into the subsurface or evaporates into the air.
"We're permitting to protect Wyoming's uses, so we feel we are also meeting the criteria that were set up in Montana's 2002 (numeric) standards," Wagner said.
Energy reporter Dustin Bleizeffer can be reached at (307) 682-3388 or dustin.bleizeffer@casperstartribune.net.