A second lawsuit has been filed against the federal government over plans to develop some 2,000 new oil and gas wells in the Atlantic Rim in south-central Wyoming.

This time, conservationists are seeking an immediate injunction against drilling activities.

The Natural Resources Defense Council filed suit in federal court in the District of Columbia on Tuesday, joined by the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, Wyoming Outdoor Council, Western Watersheds Project and the Wyoming Wilderness Association.

The lawsuit alleges the Bureau of Land Management failed to consider a more phased plan of development to avoid significant impacts to wildlife, wildlife habitat and existing recreational uses, including hunting.

The estimated 1,000 miles of new roads and 1,000 miles of new pipelines associated with the development will transform the high-value wildlife area "to an industrial setting," according to the BLM.

Even with mitigation measures spelled out in the document, the development will "have adverse impact to suitable habitat for many wildlife species," including iconic big game species including mule deer, elk and antelope, the agency concluded.

"We could not stand idly by while the BLM permitted the destruction of some of Wyoming's most important wildlife habitats," Erik Molvar, wildlife biologist with Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, said in a prepared statement.

Anadarko Petroleum is one of the major developers in the Atlantic Rim. Spokesman John Christiansen said the company is working closely with the BLM and wildlife managers to better understand mule deer, elk and antelope migration patterns in the area, as well as other aspects of wildlife and wildlife habitat.

"The BLM has put a lot of things in place to try to minimize the impact," Christiansen said. "The important thing to remember is this development will take place over the next 10 to 20 years."

One important stipulation in the Atlantic Rim development plan is that reclamation must occur quickly to maintain a surface disturbance footprint no larger than 7,600 acres at any one time. Christiansen said that means all 2,000 wells and their associated facilities will not be under construction at the same time, giving land and wildlife managers an opportunity to manage a "phased" type of development.

Conservationists have argued that not all of the disturbance can be reclaimed in such a manner as industry suggests is possible with the 7,600-acre maximum disturbance stipulation. The 1,000 miles of new roads are a big concern, for example, because even ruts of the Overland Trail are still clearly visible nearly 150 years later.

Rawlins resident Chuck Mollica said many locals like to hunt "out south," as they refer to the Atlantic Rim area. He said the scope of development would devastate the character of the landscape.

"Fathers and mothers take their sons and daughters out there to hunt," Mollica said during a Tuesday teleconference. "It's one of the few nearby pleasures we have here. We don't want to see it ripped for pipelines, bulldozed for roads and drilled for short-term gain."

Wyoming BLM spokesman Steven Hall noted that the state of Wyoming filed as an intervenor in favor of the project in federal appeals of the Atlantic Rim project. He said that speaks to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department's confidence of the wildlife mitigation measures in place.

"We've come up with an adaptive management framework with mitigation we worked on with the Wyoming Game and Fish," Hall said. "I think in the Pinedale Anticline it's worked well, and it's been an incredible boon to the local economy."

This summer, the Wyoming Outdoor Council and several other groups filed a number of appeals of the Atlantic Rim project to the Interior Board of Land Appeals. When the appeals board failed to respond this summer to an appeal filed by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, that group filed suit against the Interior Department.

That lawsuit remains separate from the one filed this week.

Energy reporter Dustin Bleizeffer can be reached at (307) 577-6069 or dustin.bleizeffer@casperstartribune.net.