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The Bureau of Land Management has allowed oil and gas companies to routinely forgo seasonal restrictions on oil and gas drilling in winter range for elk and other ungulates in the San Juan Basin, an environmental group alleges in a lawsuit filed last week.
The suit, filed by WildEarth Guardians on May 12, contends BLM's Farmington, N.M., office has repeatedly granted waivers of lease stipulations aimed at protecting habitat used by elk, mule deer and pronghorn in the wintertime. On average, the Farmington BLM office approves about 89 percent of the waiver requests it receives for wildlife closures, issuing about 110 exceptions per year without public notice, according to the group. In all, WildEarth Guardians says it has documented 441 breaches of seasonal closures since BLM adopted the closure policy in a 2003 resource management plan. The group says the lack of public input violates the National Environmental Policy Act.
"Just an e-mail or phone call from an oil company, and the Bureau of Land Management brushes aside key wildlife protections that it promised on public land," said Robert Ukeiley, climate and energy director at WildEarth Guardians. "It's not just a few exceptions. The feds are consistently telling oil and gas companies that they don't have to worry about wildlife."
BLM maintains that waivers are only granted when conditions on a leased area have changed and a site analysis suggests drilling would not harm wildlife.
Hans Stuart, a spokesman for BLM's New Mexico state office, said the agency only uses exceptions sparingly. "I would have to say that when they say BLM brushes them aside routinely, that is not true and they know it," he said. "We're regulators of oil and gas, and we have very strict standards for oil and gas development. Exceptions are granted very rarely."
BLM's 'Gold Book'
According to BLM's newly revised "Gold Book," which lays out operating guidelines for oil and gas development, companies can submit a written request for a waiver or exception that demonstrates that the protection provided by the stipulation is no longer necessary or that the proposed activity would not cause "unacceptable impacts." A company can make a verbal request once drilling starts, but has to follow up with a written request within seven days, according to the guidelines, which were updated last year.
Stuart said BLM in New Mexico developed the criteria for granting exceptions with the help and input of the New Mexico Game and Fish Department, conservation groups and industry representatives.
"Those apply if the habitat conditions are good -- say, there's no snow, and wildlife is not present in the closure areas," Stuart said.
But Matt Wunder, chief of the New Mexico Game and Fish Department's Conservation Services Division, said his agency met with BLM in February 2007 to express its concerns about the waivers. The department was especially worried about the cumulative effect of granting several exceptions in the same area, he said.
"We said because we felt multiple exceptions were causing an impact to wildlife, we'd like them to take that into consideration," Wunder said. "As of the last winter, 2007-2008, we have not seen any changes."
Wunder said he believes BLM biologists share Game and Fish's concerns but that "they're driven by other forces," such as guidance issued by BLM managers.
"We are working with BLM, we're just not sure how it's going to play out," he said.
Wunder said he was not familiar with the lawsuit and could not comment on it.
WildEarth Guardians' predecessor, Forest Guardians, filed a similar lawsuit against BLM a few years ago for its use of such waivers in the Carlsbad, N.M., office within the Permian Basin, New Mexico's other major oil and gas hot spot. Under a 2006 settlement resolving that lawsuit, which requires BLM to conduct surveys for lesser prairie chickens and gather public input prior to issuing a waiver, the number of exceptions in the Carlsbad office has dropped to less than 10 per year, Ukeiley said.
Ukeiley added that he is hopeful a similar settlement will be reached with the Farmington office. "We want to get this resolved before the next winter comes, when they might start granting exceptions again," he said.
Taking on ConocoPhillips
Also last week, a shareholder resolution proposed by WildEarth Guardians urging ConocoPhillips to secure permission from the Navajo Nation and other tribes before drilling was rejected at the company's annual shareholder meeting held May 14 in Houston. ConocoPhillips is the largest operator in the natural gas-rich San Juan Basin, holding about 75 percent of leases there.
Stockholders also voted against several other environmental proposals, including a measure to adopt quantitative goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and another that would have required the company to produce a report on global warming.
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