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BLM plan for Utah's Tavaputs Plateau under fire

Important wildlife habitat, two wilderness study areas and thousands of petroglyphs in eastern Utah could be degraded under a recently unveiled BLM plan that would allow an energy company to drill hundreds of natural gas wells in the area, critics say.

Denver, Colo.-based Bill Barrett Corp. wants to drill up to 807 wells on the West Tavaputs Plateau, on the edge of the highly productive Uinta Basin. The year-round operation would harm wildlife habitat and damage Nine Mile Canyon's ancient petroglyphs, which are already corroding from dust and chemicals, critics say. The critics are also concerned about the company's plans to drill in the Jack Canyon and Desolation Canyon wilderness study areas.

"It's industrialization of a remote corner of the state," said Steve Bloch, an attorney with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, which unsuccessfully sued BLM four years ago over seismic testing in the area.

But Duane Zavadil, Bill Barrett Corp.'s vice president of government and regulatory affairs, said, "It's a regionally important supply of natural gas."

Zavadil said the project would yield about 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, about 25 percent of the gas that will be produced in Utah over the next decade. The wilderness study area leases, which predate the areas' protective designations, contain the richest gas deposits, according to Zavadil.

The draft EIS for the proposal, released earlier this month, acknowledges potential risks to wildlife and the petroglyphs, but says a wildlife mitigation plan crafted by BLM and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources will address those concerns. For every acre of habitat disturbed, the company would have to improve 4 acres of habitat, according to BLM.

The agency's preferred alternative would allow up to 807 wells and limit surface disturbance to a total of 2,310 acres at a time. The company could drill year-round and would not be limited in the number of drill rigs it could use. Zavadil said the company is likely to use three.

BLM would require "no surface occupancy" on the wilderness study areas, meaning the company would have to access the gas under those areas from adjacent well pads. The preferred alternative would also require reclamation of roads that are harmful to natural or cultural resources.

The draft EIS lays out four other alternatives, including a conservation alternative and one that calls for reduced truck traffic. Under that proposal, the company would be limited to six drill rigs, with only two allowed to operate during the winter, and development would be phased in over a longer period.

Under the conservation alternative, development would also be phased in, and the company could drill only 558 wells from 348 well pads. Surface disturbance would be limited to 180 acres per year, and no more than 1,440 acres would be disturbed at any one time.

Damage to rock art

About 100 gas wells already exist on the West Tavaputs Plateau, which began being developed in the 1950s, according to BLM. Existing operations are already harming the petroglyphs, which are becoming caked with dust kicked up by truck traffic and drilling rigs and damaged by chemicals used to control the dust, according to the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition.

"The rock art is covered with dust and magnesium-chloride," said Pam Miller, chair of the coalition. "They've got to find other ways for the traffic to get in there." Several rock art sites are right next to the road, added Miller, an archaeology and anthropology professor at the College of Eastern Utah.

BLM should require operators to use an alternate route, such as nearby Trail Canyon, she said.

But Brad Higdon, planning and environmental coordinator, said the Nine Mile Canyon route is the best option. Because of the canyon-and-mesa topography of the area, no other route allows direct access to the project site, he said.

Zavadil said the company plans to control the dust, and that truck traffic will have little effect on the rock art.

"There will be less dust in that canyon as a consequence of natural gas development than there was before," he said. The company is still in discussions with BLM and the county, which maintains the road, on the best way to manage the dust, he said.

Furthermore, being able to access the project site year-round will reduce traffic by spreading it out over the entire year, he added. "That's really a mitigation activity in itself," Zavadil said. "For the last few years, we've had to scramble in and out of this area in the summertime."

The company plans to achieve "no net loss" of wildlife habitat and has agreed to move a road to bypass important sage grouse habitat, he said.

Higdon said BLM may impose some winter restrictions on some areas when it issues drilling permits, and locate wells and roads in a way that reduces fragmentation. The agency also plans to "more aggressively" monitor sage grouse, he added.

BLM expects to issue the final EIS in late summer, Higdon said.

Click here to read BLM's plan.

April Reese writes from Santa Fe, N.M.

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