Wyoming ranks among worst, again, in workplace fatalities

Wyoming’s workplace fatality rate in 2010 again was among the worst in the nation with an average 12.9 workplace fatalities per 100,000 workers, according to the most recent data available at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which was released this week.

Only West Virginia’s fatality rate was worse, with 13.7 fatalities per 100,000 workers. Alaska reported a fatality rate of 11.5, North Dakota 8.5, and Montana 8.2, according the agency.

This most recent analysis confirms that Wyoming’s decade-long run as one of those dangerous places to work held firm in 2010. West Virginia’s “worst” ranking can be attributed to the Upper Big Branch mine disaster of April 5, 2010, when 29 miners were killed in an underground mine explosion.

Group lists Hoback among ‘most endangered’ rivers

The Hoback River in northwest Wyoming is one of the most endangered rivers in America due to proposed natural gas development, according to American Rivers. The group issued its annual list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers on Tuesday.

“The America’s Most Endangered Rivers report is a call to action to save rivers that are facing a critical tipping point,” Scott Bosse of American Rivers said in a prepared statement. “We all need healthy rivers for our drinking water, health, economy, and quality of life. We hope citizens will join us to ensure a clean, healthy Hoback River for generations to come.”

Plains Exploration & Production Co. plans to drill 136 natural gas wells from 17 pads near the headwaters of the Hoback in the Bridger Teton National Forest. The project has been under analysis for several years as state and federal agencies weigh the potential impacts of the project, which includes critical wildlife habitat and migration corridors.

— Click here to read a WyoFile feature on wildlife and natural gas development in the region.

Chesapeake blowout; State issues preliminary investigation results

A preliminary investigation of the April 24 blowout of a Chesapeake Energy oil well suggests the cause was a mechanical failure, or “improper engagement of wellhead lockdown pins,” according to the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

There were no injuries reported in the incident, but dozens of nearby residents were asked to voluntarily evacuate their homes during the 66 hour event.

Commission supervisor Tom Doll issued this report Thursday morning:

Summary of the OGCC Incident Investigation Report (Chesapeake Combs Ranch Unit Well 29-33-70 1H, Converse County, WY API 49-009-28568):

OGCC investigators conclude that a mechanical failure of the B section wellhead resulted in the loss of well control.  The B section wellhead and the lockdown pin recovered onsite have been transported by Chesapeake to a metallurgical laboratory in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  Identification of the mechanical failure of the lockdown pin or the B section wellhead itself awaits the metallurgical laboratory analysis.  The B section wellhead is located below the blowout preventer stack, choke spool and blind ram.

The OGCC investigation also identifies contributing factors to the incident:  1) delay in observation of and response to a gain in drilling mud in the pits during the running of the production casing prior to the incident; and 2) improper engagement of wellhead lockdown pins.

The OGCC estimates that the total volume of natural gas released to the atmosphere was less than 2,000 MCF total throughout the entire 66 hour incident.  The OGCC estimates that the total volume of oil based drilling mud displaced from the well as liquid and atomized as mist did not exceed the amount of drilling mud in the well at the time of the incident which is estimated at 750 barrels.  OGCC personnel continue monitoring, sampling and inspection of the ongoing area clean-up.  The affected area is estimated at 4 acres (drill pad site) and the impacted area is estimated at 52.2 acres.

No OGCC regulatory action is planned pending final drill pad and impacted area cleanup, sampling results and site inspection confirmation of proper handling of materials.  Chesapeake continues to cooperate fully with the OGCC investigation.

The full OGCC Incident Investigation Report can be found on the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission web page http://wogcc.state.wy.us by clicking on the Bucking Horse Icon “Notices, Memos and Details” on the upper right side of the page.

— See related WyoFile story from April 25.

Seismic crews working in the Niobrara shale oil play caused serious rutting and other surface damage earlier this year on 10 different ranch properties in southeast Wyoming, resulting in several state-issued citations for the operator, Fidelity Exploration & Production Co., and the seismic contractor, GeoKinetics.

On Tuesday, the 5-member Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (OGCC) board voted unanimously to fine Fidelity up to $500 for failure to follow the approved plan of operations. The board also voted unanimously to fine GeoKinetics $2,000 for each of the 10 ranch properties damaged for a total of $20,000. Originally, OGCC staff had recommended a $10,000 fine, but OGCC board member Gov. Matt Mead successfully added an amendment to double the fine, and suspend the additional $10,000 on the condition that the landowners are satisfied with remediation work.

“I want to make sure the landowners are compensated,” said Mead, whose family owns ranching operations in southeast Wyoming.

For now, there’s no order to compensate the landowners beyond whatever each might have worked out in their individual “surface use” agreements with Fidelity. The state holds a $75,000 bond posted by Fidelity for the project, and GeoKinetics has a $50,000 blanket bond posted with the state, both of which could be used to cover repairs if the companies do not meet their current obligations. However, there’s no compensation for taking significant portions of the ranches out of production as repairs and reclamation take place.

“We haven’t been compensated for it. … I sell my grass to other cattlemen and that’s how I make my living,” Goshen County rancher Darrel Hamilton told WyoFile.

Hamilton and several other ranchers attended the OGCC’s hearing on Tuesday, voicing their concern that the damages to their property may never be fully repaired.

In several areas GeoKinetics used the wrong type of tires for its vibroseis fleet, leaving ruts deeper than six inches, and tearing up hillsides and channels.

Lucas Keeler, natural resource technician for the OGCC, testified that at first the seismic operator downplayed the extent of the damage. “I don’t think the extent of the damages was quite reported,” Keeler told the commission board.

Repairing the damaged surface may be a challenge, and it’s likely to interfere with ranching operations. Hamilton said the biggest concern is erosion from the deep rutting. One option is to haul in topsoil impregnated with seed.

“And hopefully we get the right moisture at the right time to get that to grow,” said Hamilton.

The topsoil amendments must be staked down and fenced off from cattle, which is likely to take a portion of the ranching operations out of production for 3-5 years, according to Hamilton.

In general, farmers and ranchers in the region — especially those who own mineral rights — have embraced the recent search for shale oil in hopes of sharing in the revenue. Some of the landowners who suffered damages in the Rocky Hollow seismic project said they still support the industry. In a letter to the commission, John Kessler of the Kessler Ranch wrote;

“When we were approached by Fidelity about seismography, we agreed without hesitation. Our neighbors’ ranch had been surveyed recently, and they were impressed by their efficiency and lack of impact. We have watched Fidelity build a road and drill two wells in our community. It is obvious that every consideration has been given to their maintenance and reclamation. That is what we expect. We also expect fairness and good representation from our oil and gas commission.”

However, OGCC staff had been dissatisfied with GeoKinetics’ previous work in Wyoming, including the “Little Mitchell” project in northeast Wyoming where state inspectors found “numerous violations of the commissions rules and regulations,” according to state documents. In email correspondence, OGCC’s Keeler explained to a Fidelity representative why he was recommending a higher bond ($75,000) for the Rocky Hollow project; “Truth be told, there are two Geokinetic projects where the work wasn’t satisfactory, and we are having to wait until spring for these projects to be completed correctly.”

Powder River Basin Resource Council (PRBRC), a landowner advocacy group based in Sheridan, said the Rocky Hollow case highlights a profound weakness in Wyoming’s split-estate law.

In many instances, the surface estate is separate from the underlying minerals, yet the owner of the mineral estate has the right to enter the surface to access his minerals. That’s split-estate. If the surface and mineral estate owners don’t come to an agreement and sign a legally-binding “surface use” agreement (which typically includes compensation to the surface owner), then the mineral owner must post a minimum $2,000 bond with the state.

That bond, which resides with the state and not the landowner, is supposed to cover any surface damages by the oil and gas operation. Landowner advocates such as the PRBRC have argued that the $2,000 split-estate bond doesn’t come close to covering the potential surface damage of oil and gas operations, nor does it compel operators to negotiate a surface use agreement in good faith.

The split-estate issue didn’t enter the Rocky Hollow seismic case. However, the extent of the damage is the same that a split-estate surface owner might face — with only a $2,000 bond posted with the state.

“The property damages to these landowners from the seismic operations in this case is another example of what an insult the $2,000 bond is to landowners. That low bond does not begin to address the damages, the cost of reclamation or act as an incentive for industry to act responsibly or negotiate in good faith,” said PRBRC organizer Jill Morrison.

The PRBRC published a report on the state’s split-estate act in 2010, criticizing the $2,000 bond. Industry fought against a measure in 2011 to raise the minimum split-estate bond from $2,000 to $10,000. The Legislative Judiciary Committee is taking up the topic again this summer during the interim.

“At least, the Wyoming Oil and Gas Commission was on top of the damages in this case but only because the landowners forced the issue,” said Morrison. “We need to raise the bond for oil and gas industry for seismic activity and for all oil and gas activity.”

GeoKinetics declined a request by WyoFile to comment on the case. Fidelity didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Contact WyoFile editor-in-chief Dustin Bleizeffer at (307) 577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com

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BLM posts parcels for August oil and gas lease sale

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Wyoming State Office has posted its proposed list of parcels for the quarterly competitive oil and gas lease sale scheduled for August 7, 2012, at the Holiday Inn in Cheyenne. Doors open at 7 a.m. and the auction begins at 8 a.m.

The posted list, which identifies 117 proposed parcels totaling 61,518.66 acres, initiates a 30-day public protest period. Click here to go to the BLM’s page listing more information about the proposed lease parcels. The parcels are located in Big Horn, Campbell, Converse, Crook, Fremont, Natrona, Park, Platte, Washakie, Weston, Goshen, and Niobrara counties in Wyoming.

Are Western Communities Getting a Fair Return on Energy Development?

Reprinted with permission from Stanford University’s Rural West Initiative. Not for republication by Wyoming media.

With sky-high energy prices driving new oil and gas exploration in the American West, states are struggling to keep pace with critical infrastructure and revenue policies. Western North Dakota is in the throes of a raging energy boom, as hydraulic fracking and horizontal drilling techniques coax valuable hydrocarbons out of long-dormant oilfields. But as towns like Williston see their populations double virtually overnight and vital farm-to-market roads crumble under 18-wheel trucks, how best to ensure that local communities can survive the onslaught, and to reap rewards that benefit the whole state, long after the boom is over?

Working with Montana-based Headwaters Economics, The Rural West Initiative has published a comprehensive multimedia report, combining a rigorous economic and policy analysis with a 31-minute interactive video documentary called “An Unquiet Landscape: The American West’s New Energy Frontier.”

The video feature looks at three rural western communities at different stages of the process of energy development: North Dakota, where a recent drilling frenzy has pushed it to the third-highest oil production in the U.S.; western Wyoming, where residents are coping with air pollution and habitat destruction after a decade of oil and gas exploration; and eastern Wyoming, where residents of one of the state’s poorest communities pin their hopes on a boom on the local Niobrara formation.

Click here to view the  full multimedia report.

Workplace safety seminar May 15 in Casper

Wyoming energy and construction trade groups will host a worker safety seminar, “Building the Culture of Safety,” on Tuesday, May 15 at the Parkway Plaza in Casper, from 8:55 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The registration fee is $50, with lunch provided.

Wyoming Workers' Incidence Rate in 2010 (injuries per 200,000 hours worked)

The event is organized by the Wyoming Mining Association (WMA), Wyoming Contractors Association and Petroleum Association of Wyoming. Programs are directed at frontline managers from a wide cross-section of Wyoming industries.

“Safety is paramount in Wyoming industry, and we have a responsibility to address these issues head on to improve worker safety across the state,” said Marion Loomis, WMA executive director.

For more information and to register, contact the Wyoming Contractors Association at 307-632-0573 or the Wyoming Mining Association at 307-635-0331.

FEATURED SPEAKERS

Chad Hymas

Who is responsible for workplace safety? Executives, supervisors, safety department staff, or you? Chad will discuss the critical importance of taking personal responsibility for safety.

Judge Gary Hartman

Policy Advisor to Governor Matt Mead

Tom Hethmon, Hethmon Associates

“The ABCs of Safety Culture” — Many companies are talking about safety culture these days which is good because we know much more today than we did just 10 years ago about what it is, how to measure it, how to improve it, and how it relates to organizational culture, safety leadership and systems. This presentation will summarize the current state of  knowledge and highlight practical steps to improve safety culture.

Bruce Watzman, National Mining Association

“NMA Safety Initiative” — In 2010 the National Mining Association established a task force to examine the challenges to achieve a goal of zero fatalities and a 50 percent reduction in the rate of injuries in U.S. mining within five years. The initiative involves development of a scalable, customizable, mining-specific safety and health management system to improve safety and health performance at mining operations.

Danielle Liles, DuPont Stop Training

“Why Behavior-Based Safety? The Business Case for Implementation” — A discussion on the business case for the implementation of Behavior-Based Safety Process and why it is important to the future of your organization.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was updated at 11:56 a.m. Friday April 27, 2012.

Natural gas is no longer venting from the Combs Ranch Unit 29-33-70 1H well north of Douglas as of 11:05 a.m. today (Friday), according to a state official.

The Combs Ranch well north of Douglas has been brought under control. (Amanda Smith/The Glenrock Bird Central — click to enlarge)

Well control specialists Boots & Coots and oilfield services company Halliburton had initiated well-plugging efforts at 9:25 a.m. today at the Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK) drilling location 10 miles north of Douglas, according to the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (WOGCC). The well had been venting gas since a blowout on Tuesday afternoon.

Chesapeake is one of several operators testing the Niobrara and other deep formations in the southern Powder River Basin for shale oil potential. The rig is owned by Canadian-based Trinidad Drilling (TSX:TDG).

“At 11:05 am April 27 OGCC field inspector reported that pumping of drilling mud continues into the Combs Ranch well and that the natural gas venting to the atmosphere as ceased, approximately 68 hours after the loss of well control and venting of natural gas occurred,” commission supervisor Tom Doll said in a prepared statement this morning. ” I will get another report before 2:00 pm today confirming the time venting ceased and the duration.  It is expected by then that the well capacity should be filled with drilling mud.”

No workers were injured in Tuesday’s blowout, according to company officials. The incident occurred at about 4 p.m. Tuesday as a crew was installing steel casing. Venting occurred at the mouth of the well below the rig. According to Chesapeake, the well also spewed oil-based drilling mud, which is mostly contained on location.

Well control specialists Boots & Coots (a division of Halliburton) was on location and prepared to implement plugging operations on Thursday morning, but had to delay the operation due to variable wind conditions that day, Chesapeake spokeswoman Kelsey Campbell told WyoFile. No local fire crews are on hand, said Converse County Emergency Management coordinator Russ Dalgarn, because Boots & Coots is prepared to fight a fire if there is an ignition.

Approximately 50 of the 70 residents living within a 2.5 mile radius of the Chesapeake well had voluntarily evacuated their homes on Tuesday evening. Some have returned to their homes since, however. Campbell said on Thursday that the company was still offering to pay for evacuees to stay at local hotels.

Random air quality testing — performed by Chesapeake — within the 2.5 mile radius of the venting well indicates no human health risk, according to Campbell. She said Chesapeake called for the voluntary evacuation out of an abundance of caution.

Chesapeake officials are not saying how much gas vented from the well or what constituents — besides natural gas — were vented.

A spokesman for the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) said the agency stands ready to help conduct air quality monitoring in the area if requested by Chesapeake, but so far DEQ is relying on Chesapeake to provide most all information about the blowout. According to state officials, primary jurisdiction of the well blowout response lies with the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

Doll had said that the rate of venting from the well is yet to be determined. Public health officials are relying on the commission and Chesapeake itself for any information.

“At this time, we do not have specific information on that blowout near Douglas regarding emissions,” Wyoming Department of Health spokeswoman Kim Deti told WyoFile via email on Thursday. “We wouldn’t expect to have such information unless the agencies responsible for monitoring indicate to us that a public health problem may exist due to emissions. We are aware of the situation and have been in contact with local health representatives. As always, we will watch for evidence of a public health concern.”

The last major well blowout in Wyoming was in August 2006 in the Line Creek subdivision near the tiny town of Clark in northern Wyoming. Gas escaped a wellbore and migrated through the ground and vented at the surface at a distance away from the drilling rig. That blowout forced the evacuation of approximately 25 nearby residents. The well, owned by Windsor Energy Group LLC, vented for several days before it was successfully plugged.

According to a follow-up investigation, the Crosby 25-3 gas well blowout spewed an estimated 97 tons of volatile organic compounds, 2 tons of benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, xylene, 101 tons of methane (a potent greenhouse gas), and 43 tons of ethane.

Deb Thomas was one of the residents who had to evacuate her home because of the Crosby well blowout in 2006. Thomas is now coordinator for the Clark Resource Council.

“Those who are living in close proximity should know what they’re being exposed to,” Thomas told WyoFile. “And anybody with health concerns — asthma or other respiratory difficulties — I would think that it’s important to know what exposures there are.”

Wyoming’s unconventional oil play

Any blowout is extremely dangerous, especially if there’s an ignition. There are occasional “kicks” of gas in the wellbore during the drilling process. But full blowouts are relatively rare in the industry these days.

Jimmy Goolsby is a longtime Wyoming geologist, and managing partner with Casper-based Goolsby, Finley & Associates LLC. He said today’s drilling technology and blowout prevention (BOP) equipment is highly sophisticated.

“I hate to see anyone make it sound as though this sort of thing could happen anytime, anywhere,” Goolsby told WyoFile. “We drill a lot of wells and this doesn’t happen often at all.”

Chesapeake’s Combs Ranch Unit 29-33-70 1H was drilled vertically approximately 11,500 feet, then drilled horizontally for several thousand feet targeting the Niobrara formation, according to WOGCC data.

Although there was a mineral lease rush on the Niobrara in southeast Wyoming two years ago, most of the action to prove up shale oil in the state so far has been in the central-eastern portion of Wyoming known as the southern Powder River Basin. Here, operators are sinking wells into the Mowry, Sussex, Shannon and Niobrara formations.

“You get both oil and gas with these wells in the southern Powder River Basin. One of the reasons the southern Powder River Basin is hot right now is because it’s primarily oil,” said Goolsby. “Most everything we’re drilling in the southern Powder River Basin is what we’re calling over-pressured. So we’re dealing with something that, at one time, was very dangerous.”

However, the pressures that operators must control are not out of the ordinary, said Goolsby. The industry has managed higher pressures in formations in the Wind River Basin for decades, for example.

Goolsby said that it’s normal for wells in the southern Powder River Basin to flow with natural gas after first being drilled. It isn’t until hydraulic fracturing — or “fracking — and other completion techniques are performed that oil begins to flow in larger volumes.

Contact Dustin Bleizeffer at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

If you enjoyed this article and would like to see more quality Wyoming journalism, please consider supporting WyoFile: a non-partisan, non-profit news organization dedicated to in-depth reporting on Wyoming’s people, places and policy.

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Mead; More budget cuts needed due to falling natural gas prices

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead announced today he will ask state agencies to double budget cuts for fiscal year 2014 — from the recommended 4 percent to 8 percent — due to the continuing low price of natural gas. As one of the largest natural gas suppliers in the nation, Wyoming’s economy rises and falls on the price of natural gas.

“This year I submitted a budget that held ongoing spending flat, but looking ahead we need to be ready to reduce our spending in line with anticipated reductions in revenue,” Mead said in a prepared statement Monday afternoon. “If we see a turnaround and revenue increases, we may not have to make deep cuts going forward, but this advance planning allows for a more surgical approach if a reduction in spending is needed.”

The 8 percent cut means state agencies, collectively, will have to trim $74.5 million dollars. Mead ordered state agencies to immediately freeze all hiring.

Wyoming analysts, in January, predicted that natural gas would average $3.25 per thousand cubic feet (mcf) in 2012. Natural gas is now at a 10 year low, below $2 per mcf. If the current price holds through the year, it will be a $125 million loss of revenue to the general fund, according to the governor’s office.

“My approach is to try to stay in front of potential pitfalls and be proactive,” Mead said. “What my office and other state agencies will do over the coming months is come up with a plan to ensure we are prepared if revenue decreases. This is how any business owner would act and it is in the best interest of the people of Wyoming.”

Sleeping Giant Ski Area expansion up for public comment

The Shoshone National Forest is asking for public input on the proposed expansion of the Sleeping Giant Ski area. The proposal would expand the special use permit granted to the managers of the ski area, and allow the addition of a zip line course for summer recreation and a snow tubing area for winter use. The changes also include the building of a caretaker’s residence at the site.

Comments on the proposed expansion – or requests for more details about it – can be sent to:

Andrea Barbknecht, Wapiti Ranger District, 203A Yellowstone Ave., Cody, WY 82414

Or by email: comments-rocky-mountain-shoshone-wapiti@fs.fed.us

Comments must be submitted by May 18, 2012.

 I could drink a whole glass of vodka, but …

One of my favorite memories of the coal-bed methane boom in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin was a junket of ordinaries, industry folk, government regulators and television media. We’d all gathered around a pipe spewing water pumped from a coal-bed methane well, expecting somebody to say something. Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming) sipped from a cup that had been dipped in the water — and he declared it good. The television guys went nuts with satisfaction. An old rancher standing next to me stuck an elbow in my ribs and said, Hell, I could drink a whole glass of vodka, but I wouldn’t pour it on my plants every day.

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer at (307) 577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com

Former Wyo Attorney General Salzburg joins Freudenthal at international firm

Bruce A. Salzburg, who served as Wyoming Attorney General from 2007 to 2011, has joined the international law firm Crowell & Moring LLP. Salzburg is senior counsel of the firm’s Environmental & Natural Resources Group. Now at Crowell & Moring, Salzburg joins former Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal, who appointed Salzburg to the Attorney General post.

“I’m pleased to be working alongside Bruce once again,” Freudenthal said in a prepared statement. “As Wyoming’s Attorney General, he was a trusted advisor and a tireless advocate for our state. He will bring his extensive trial and litigation experience to Crowell & Moring’s clients, particularly in the energy and natural resources field where we continue to grow in the West.”

Ron Paul Prediction

— Editor’s note: In advance of Super Tuesday, WyoFile’s “Sage Grouse” offers this special commentary.

So far The Sage Grouse’s political predictions have been about as useful as a stock tip from a drunk. But, never bashful, here’s another one:

Ron Paul will mount an independent campaign after being rejected by the GOP; he has too much invested in this game to just quit. Why do I keep thinking he looks like Ross Perot; oh, that’s because he will be remembered as another Ross Perot when the incumbent Democrat wins re-election.

Can we create a Spoilers Club: Ross Perot, Ralph Nader, Ron Paul.

George Wallace didn’t make it into the then emerging club where the sole admission criterion is whether you cratered a Presidential election in favor of the candidate you most hated.

Ron Paul is well on the way to membership.

— For more social and political commentary, read WyoFile’s The Sage Grouse.

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Wyoming officials forecast elevated ozone

   — Editor’s note: This story was updated on Monday, March 5.

The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality recently warned Wyoming residents in the upper Green River Basin that conditions were favorable for elevated ground-level ozone concentrations — a threat to human health. The warnings were in place for Sunday March 4 and Monday March 5.

Separation facilities in the Pinedale Anticline have been consolidated to reduce emissions, but occasional ozone spikes remain a threat to human health in the region. (Dustin Bleizeffer/WyoFile - click to enlarge)

DEQ spokesman Keith Guille said that monitoring readings indicate the 8-hour federal standard for ozone was not exceeded on Sunday. The agency was still monitoring conditions on Monday.

Ozone is a pollutant that, in high concentrations, poses serious health risks to children, the elderly and those with respiratory conditions. During high ozone events, health officials advise staying indoors. For more information, go to Wyoming DEQ’s web site.

When there’s a wintertime temperature inversion, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from natural gas facilities and nitrogen oxides (NOx) from tailpipe emissions are suspended low in the Upper Green River Basin valley — along with smoke from wood-burning stoves and other background pollution. When the valley is blanketed in snow, the VOCs and NOx are exposed to direct sunlight and light reflected from snow, causing a photochemical reaction that creates ground-level ozone — a serious human health threat.

For more background on Wyoming’s ozone problem, read this WyoFile feature from 2011; “Pristine to Polluted,” and this update; “Ozone Dilemma” from September 2011.

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

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Meeting set to discuss revision of Shoshone National Forest plan

The Shoshone National Forest and representatives of cooperating agencies have organized a public meeting next week regarding revision of the Shoshone National Forest plan.

The discussion will focus on six alternatives the agency has developed. Forest Service specialists have been reviewing public comments the agency received on the proposed draft plan. Over the past month, those comments were used to develop a range of alternatives to the current plan. The effects of the alternatives will be analyzed in a draft environmental impact statement (EIS). The public comment period on the EIS will begin in June, 2012, and will last for 90 days.

The meeting will take place on March 7 and 8 at Big Horn Federal in Thermopolis. Meeting times are 10 am to 5:30 pm on March 7 and 8 am to noon on March 8.

The public is invited to attend both days.

For more information about the Shoshone National Forest or the plan revision, go to http://www.fs.usda.gov/shoshone, or contact Susie Douglas at (307) 578-5114.

BLM sets public meetings on oil shale development

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will host several public meetings to answer questions about its oil shale and tar sands Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (Draft PEIS). The Draft PEIS being prepared by the BLM will address various management alternatives for future oil-shale and tar-sands activities on public lands. The Notice of Availability of the Draft PEIS was issued in the Federal Register on February 3, 2012. A 90-day public comment period began that day and will close on May 4, 2012.

A meeting in Rock Springs, Wyo., will be held on Thursday, March 15 at the BLM Rock Springs Field Office, where BLM officials will be on hand to take written comments, as well as assist with the commenting process.

An online comment form can be found on the Draft PEIS Website at http://ostseis.anl.gov. Comments may also be submitted by regular mail to: Oil Shale and Tar Sands Draft Programmatic EIS, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, EVS 240, Argonne, IL 60439. Written comments on the Draft PEIS must be submitted by May 4.

Meetings will also be held in Colorado and Utah. The complete list of meetings is below:

Monday, March 12
BLM Colorado River Valley Office
2300 River Frontage Road, Silt, Colorado
7:00 p.m.-9:30 p.m.

Tuesday, March 13
Westin Plaza Hotel
1684 West Highway 40, Vernal, Utah
7:00 p.m.-9:30 p.m.

Wednesday, March 14
Grand America Hotel
555 South Main Street, Salt Lake City, Utah
7:00 p.m.-9:30 p.m.

Thursday, March 15
BLM Rock Springs Field Office
280 Highway 191 North, Rock Springs, Wyoming
7:00 p.m.-9:30 p.m.

For more information, contact Megan Crandall at 202-912-7411.

Another Legend Leaves Us; Remembering Gene George

By R.T. Cox

My friend Gene George died on February 4 in Casper (click to read his obituary in the Casper Star-Tribune).

Gene, trained as a geologist, knew more about petroleum geology than most. I knew him as a generous donor of information; he spoke for no fee at several programs I organized to educate attorneys about oil and gas issues. Gene, a modest person, spoke well and tolerated questioning with grace. He laid out the geologic facts in elegant style; everyone understood his presentations.

Gene George was a good listener, a loyal friend and a good judge of credibility. While he was a success in business, he volunteered a lot of time to organizations in Casper and around the state.

Gene was always a tireless advocate for the oil and gas industry, a role which may have ruffled some feathers in the environmental community. I always knew him to be rational, fact-based, credible and fair.

I will miss his analytical skills but mostly I will miss his winsome smile.

UW’s Jeffrey Lockwood featured on WNYC Radiolab

WNYC Radiolab’s latest “short” podcast features University of Wyoming professor Jeffrey Lockwood. “Killer Empathy” (run time 18 minutes 33 seconds) explores the mysterious nature of violence in both the human and animal worlds.

Jeffrey Lockwood formerly studied grasshoppers, locusts and other insects, but now teaches creative writing and philosophy at the University of Wyoming. (Ted Brummond - click to enlarge)

Lockwood, a WyoFile contributor, is a renowned entomologist, author, and is a professor of creative writing and philosophy. He tells the story of how he discovered what he believes is some level of self-awareness among a particularly fierce breed of cricket, which got him to thinking about violent behavior. Then the senseless, violent death of a mentor only made the quest for understanding more difficult.

You can download the podcast for free at iTunes, or go straight to Radiolab.org.

Read a WyoFile feature about Jeffrey Lockwood.

Read Lockwood’s essays published by WyoFile: “Six-Legged Teachers,” and “Art & Energy.”

— Contact WyoFile editor-in-chief Dustin Bleizeffer at (307) 577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

Power to the People; New interactive site features Cowboy State’s electrical generation

The Wyoming State Geological Survey recently launched an interactive web site featuring electrical generation in the Cowboy State. Among the offerings is a map of electrical generation facilities and an extensive database of each facility ranging from the Happy Jack windfarm in Laramie County to the 2-megawatt capacity Old Faithful fuel-oil facility in — you guessed it — Yellowstone National Park.

SOURCE: Wyoming State Geological Survey

“We developed this website as an information portal for management and policy decisions related to Wyoming’s energy resources and electrical generation,” State Geologist Tom Drean, director of the WSGS, said in a prepared statement.

Wyoming coal powers 77 percent of all electricity generated in Wyoming, according to WSGS. But other resources show steady increases over the last two decades. Renewable wind power generation now accounts for 16 percent of Wyoming’s electric generation portfolio, hydropower 3 percent, and natural gas 3 percent. Oil accounts for 1 percent of the total power generation in Wyoming.

In 2011, Wyoming’s 53 electrical generation facilities had a combined maximum capacity of  8,744.4 megawatts, according to WSGS. The vast majority of that electricity is shipped out of state.

“This information is important to track because while oil and natural gas represents a smaller portion of generation compared to coal, the use of these fuel sources has remained constant,” Drean said. “Based on the data, we have also noticed an increase in wind power capacity in Wyoming, an increase in small hydropower projects, and that a significant amount of power is generated by companies for their use,” he said.

Also available on the website is a WSGS Summary Report on Wyoming’s Electrical Generation, with data compiled by Jim Stafford, a WSGS geohydrologist. The four-page full-color brochure covers coal, wind, hydropower, and natural gas and includes graphics on the production and capacity of each fuel source, as well as a state map on the locations of electrical generators and power lines.

“This summary serves as a snapshot on the current state of electrical generation in Wyoming, and is intended as a reference guide,” Stafford said. “The website is the main tool that we will routinely update with current and relevant information on all the energy resources that provide for Wyoming’s electrical generation, and in comparison to other states,” he said. “The primary focus of the website is the data on Wyoming’s electrical generation production and capacity,” Stafford added.

— Contact WyoFile editor-in-chief Dustin Bleizeffer at (307) 577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

Grand Teton rangers rescue lost snowboarders in Granite Canyon

YellowstoneGate.com reports that rangers from Grand Teton National Park rescued two snowboarders Monday night after the pair took a wrong turn and ended up in the park’s Granite Canyon area.

A helicopter heads toward Garnet Canyon in April during a search for two lost skiers in Grand Teton National Park. (National Park Service photo by Jackie Skaggs — click to enlarge)

Snowboarders Joe Tauro, 55, from Brick, N.J. and Mike Fasciolli, 36, from Toms River, N.J. left through a ski area boundary gate at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort just before 3 p.m. Monday, according to information released from the Grand Teton National Park public affairs office.

The snowboarders told rangers at the time they planned to board in Rock Springs Bowl. But they instead mistakenly ended up in Grand Teton National Park via Granite Canyon.

Authorities said the two men were “not prepared for backcountry travel.”

Click here to read the rest of the story at YellowstoneGate.com.

Click here to read a WyoFile feature about the cost of search and rescue efforts, “What Price Rescue?”

Wyoming’s winter ozone in check, so far

It’s ozone season in Wyoming’s Upper Green River Basin, but so far the region has avoided any prolonged spikes of high ozone concentrations, according to officials at the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality.

“We have not exceeded the 8 hour ozone standard so far this year (January 1 through Feb. 8 data). In fact, we have not recorded an 8 hour value greater than 60 ppb yet this year,” Cara Keslar, DEQ’s Ambient and Emissions Monitoring Program Manager, told WyoFile via email.

Separation facilities in the Pinedale Anticline have been consolidated to reduce emissions. (Dustin Bleizeffer/WyoFile - click to enlarge)

At ground-level, ozone can cause nose, throat and eye irritation, and shortness of breath. It can be extremely dangerous — even deadly — to the elderly, children and those with respiratory problems. Last winter, ground-level ozone concentrations in the basin area spiked above the federal 8 hour standard of 75 parts per billion on 13 occasions. The highest 8 hour average ozone concentration was measured on March 2, 2011, at 124 ppb — higher than Los Angeles’ worst ozone day.

The ozone spikes are the result of pollution emissions from natural gas drilling and production activity in the Pinedale Anticline and Jonah fields. When there’s an inversion, volatile organic compounds (VOC) from natural gas facilities and nitrogen oxides (NOx) from tailpipe emissions are suspended low in the valley — along with smoke from wood-burning stoves and other background pollution. If the valley is blanketed in snow, then the VOCs and NOx are exposed to direct sunlight and light reflected from snow, causing a photochemical reaction that creates ozone.

DEQ currently provides daily forecasts to determine the probability of high ozone days. Click here to sign up for daily email updates.

So far this year there have been six days that the hourly ozone was measured at greater than 60 ppb, according to Keslar. Two of those days the hourly ozone was greater than 70 ppb.

“The highest values are occurring at the Boulder monitor, however, the Juel Springs, Daniel, and Big Piney monitors have also recorded slightly elevated ozone this year,” Keslar said. “It should be noted that these values have not gone through the data validation process yet, however, all stations have undergone independent quality assurance audits for this quarter and have passed.”

Keslar said there have been some issues with communications and power outages at some of the Sublette County monitoring stations this winter, and DEQ staff is working to rectify the problems.

Last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was expected to lower the 8 hour ozone standard to 60 or 70 ppb, but the Obama administration backed off of the ruling. Sublette County is currently in “non-attainment” status for ozone, which means state regulatory officials must draft a plan that will bring the region back into compliance with federal air quality laws.

— Contact WyoFile editor-in-chief Dustin Bleizeffer at (307) 577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

BLM sets meetings for Gateway West sage grouse analysis

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is planning two informational meetings in February to present information and answer questions about the sage grouse habitat equivalency analysis (HEA) for the proposed Gateway West Transmission Line Project.

The HEA serves as one part of the Framework for Sage-Grouse Analysis for Interstate Transmission Lines, developed by the BLM, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

The Gateway West Transmission Line project is jointly proposed by Idaho Power and Rocky Mountain Power. The project, if completed, would include the construction of nearly 1,100 miles of high voltage transmission lines across southern Wyoming and southern Idaho. The project applicants have applied to the BLM and U.S. Forest Service for right of way grants to construct, operate and maintain these transmission lines from the proposed Windstar substation near Glenrock, Wyo. to the proposed Hemingway substation near Melba, Idaho, approximately 20 miles southwest of Boise.

The informational meetings will be held in Wyoming and Idaho, as follows:

Cheyenne, Wyoming
Wednesday, Feb. 15
Noon – 4 p.m.
BLM Wyoming State Office
First Floor Conference Room
5353 Yellowstone Road

Boise, Idaho
Friday, Feb. 17
Noon – 4 p.m.
Red Lion Boise Hotel
Cottonwood Room
1800 Fairview Ave.

For more information, contact Walt George, BLM project manager, at 307-775-6116, or wgeorge@blm.gov.

BLM posts lease parcels for oil and gas sale

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Wyoming State Office has posted its proposed list of parcels to offer up to oil and gas companies for lease in the quarterly competitive oil and gas lease sale. The list includes 153 parcels in Albany, Carbon, Lincoln, Sweetwater and Uinta counties. The parcels represent 231,846,920 acres of public land. The posting of this list initiates the 30-day public protest period.

The complete May competitive oil and gas lease sale notice can be viewed and downloaded for free at: www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/programs/energy/Oil_and_Gas/Leasing.html. Also available at this website are the oil and gas leasing environmental assessments, including public comments, for the May oil and gas lease sale.

The oil and gas lease sale is scheduled for Tuesday, May 1, 2012, at the Holiday Inn in Cheyenne, Wyo. Doors open at 7 a.m. with the auction beginning at 8 a.m.

For more information, contact Beverly Gorny at (307) 775-6158.

Meetings set to discuss sage grouse conservation

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Wyoming, the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests, and the Thunder Basin National Grassland will be holding a series of public meetings to discuss greater sage-grouse conservation measures in Wyoming.

Topics discussed will include how the new National Sage Grouse strategy will be incorporated into management practices, as well as updates on the status of BLM’s current sage grouse amendments and BLM Wyoming’s resource management plan revisions.

These meetings will also be a public forum to collect input regarding the amendment process for Land and Resource Management Plans. If you’d like to attend these meeting to hear the informational updates or to comment on proposed changes, the schedule for the meetings is below.

For more information on the Forest Service meetings contact the Douglas Ranger District at 307-358-4690. For information on the BLM meetings, contact Chuck Otto at (307) 775-6105.

BLM informational meetings will be held at the following locations, dates, and times:

BLM Casper Field Office Conference Room
2987 Prospector Drive, Casper, WY 82604
Monday, Jan. 30, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

BLM Buffalo Field Office Conference Room
1425 Fort Street, Buffalo, WY 82834
Tuesday, Jan. 31, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

BLM Worland Field Office Conference Room
101 South 23rd, Worland, WY 82401
Wednesday, Feb. 1, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

BLM Rock Springs Field Office Conference Room
280 Highway 191 North, Rock Springs, WY 82901
Thursday, Feb. 2, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Forest Service scoping meetings will be held at the following locations, dates, and times:

National Guard Armory Meeting Room
315 North Pearson Douglas, WY 82633
Tuesday, Feb. 7, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Meeting Room
1225 Washington Blvd., Suite 2, Newcastle, WY 82701
Thursday, Feb. 9, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Campbell County Public Library
2101 South 4J Road, Gillette, WY 82718
Wednesday, Feb. 15, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Follow state budget hearings via live streaming audio

The Wyoming Legislature will provide live audio streaming of the 2013-2014 Joint Appropriations Committee (JAC) agency budget hearings beginning Monday January 9. The audio can be heard by using any computer with an Internet connection that has the ability to play audio files. A link to the live and archived audio from previous day’s business will be prominently displayed under “Announcements” on the Legislature’s homepage at http://legisweb.state.wy.us.

The JAC is scheduled to conduct agency budget hearings January 9-20 and then “markup” the agency budgets the week of January 23. Click here to download a PDF of the budget hearing schedule. The Legislature’s 2012 Budget Session will begin February 13.

Check out a summary of committee-sponsored bills here.

Industry safety group seeks board candidates

The Wyoming Oil and Gas Industry Safety Alliance (WOGISA) has a board vacancy to fill. If you are interested in becoming a member of the WOGISA board, submit a letter of intent with a short bio to WOGISA@vcn.com. Deadline for submission of letters is January 31. Nominees will be voted on by the general membership at the group’s quarterly meeting February 23 in Cheyenne (location TBA).

WOGISA encourages participation from all employees in the oil and gas industry. Nominations will also be accepted from the floor during the meeting on February 23.  However, nominees must be in attendance.

Mead sets seven town halls to solicit ideas on health care

Gov. Matt Mead has set seven town hall meetings to solicit ideas from citizens on health care issues, including the concept of health benefit exchanges. The town hall series will launch at the Park County Library in Cody, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. January 10. The series will continue in Gillette, Casper, Rock Springs, Jackson, Riverton and Cheyenne. But dates and times for those meetings are not yet set.

Gov. Mead’s health care policy advisor Elizabeth Hoy will take part in the meetings.

“We want citizens to come out and give us their input about health care in Wyoming and any ideas, concerns or comments they have about possible solutions including concepts of a Health Benefit Exchange,” Hoy said in a prepared statement.

For more information, contact Hoy at elizabeth.hoy@wyo.gov.

 WyoFile editor discusses fracking in radio interview

My apologies for this late post of my December 13 radio interview on Canadian Public Broadcasting about hydraulic fracturing and the EPA investigation in Pavillion. Click this link to listen to the interview, which is a little over eight minutes. Although the comment period has closed on the CBC web site, you can still comment here.

The investigation has been a long slog, and frustrating for many people involved. And ever since the EPA report was released earlier this month, there’s been a tornado of headlines. WyoFile is tracking developments and will soon post a landing page for links to the latest articles and other resources related to the Pavillion case.

In the meantime, please check out these two WyoFile reports on the EPA Pavillion case:

Find the Source in Pavillion (column)

EPA Pavillion report stokes fire over fracking (breaking news)

— Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile editor-in-chief

Salazar wants Wyo-style sage grouse management across the West

At a press conference in Cheyenne today Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wyoming’s “core areas” sage grouse habitat management plan could be applied across the West to protect the iconic bird. He said that in 2012 the largest wind energy project in the nation will be permitted in Wyoming — a feat only possibly because of the state’s pro-active efforts to protect sage grouse habitat.

“We need to be doing that across the 11 western states,” said Salazar.

Greater sage-grouse (click to enlarge)

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has until 2015 to decide whether the greater sage grouse requires a full listing under the Endangered Species Act. If the bird is listed, it would devastate agriculture, energy, recreational and myriad other activities across much of the West, and would impact about 80 percent of Wyoming.

The joint news conference today between Salazar and Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead coincided with a meeting in Cheyenne of representatives from 11 western states. Mead said the goal is to form a cooperative strategy to avoid a sage grouse listing based on habitat conservation. “We also need to recognize that by doing a good job of protecting habitat for sage grouse, we’re also protecting habitat for 80 other species,” said Mead.

Salazar added that the health of the greater sage grouse is a litmus test for the health of the western lifestyle.

Also this week, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced it would begin the process of amending all of its Resource Management Plans across the West to improve protections for sage grouse. The announcement was welcome by some in the environmental community. But with praise for the BLM’s decision also came criticism that the BLM had been dragging its feet on the issue for years.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, center, and Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead, right, discuss strategies to conserve sage grouse habitat with representatives from 11 western states on Friday. (courtesy — click to enlarge)

“We are pleased that the BLM is finally recognizing that its standard operating procedures on sage grouse are failing, particularly with regard to oil and gas development,” Biodiversity Conservation Alliance wildlife biologist Erik Molvar said in a prepared statement. “The sage grouse plan amendments offer an opportunity not only to replace inadequate BLM protections, but also to close the loopholes in state Core Area policies that prevent them from protecting sage grouse in the face of industrial development.”

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer at (307) 577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

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Windsor drops bid for #26-2 well near Clark

This week Windsor Energy Group notified Shoshone National Forest and Wyoming Bureau of Land Management officials that it will not proceed with its proposal to drill “Federal Well #26-2″ near Clark, effectively stopping a federal review of the proposal. A draft environmental assessment for public comment had been due in January, 2012.

Christina Denney, chairwoman of the Clark Resource Council issued a written statement:

“Clark Resource Council is very relieved that Windsor Energy has withdrawn their plans for drilling on the Shoshone National Forest.  Clearly the complex hydrology and geology of the Line Creek drainage coupled with the serious contamination already present makes this area inappropriate for oil and gas development.

However, we remain very concerned about how viable Windsor is and their ability to clean up or remediate the serious groundwater contamination from the gas well blowout and Windsor’s other development in Clark.”

Wyoming Outdoor Council;

We’ve advocated for more than five years that this proposed project would have been undesirable on the Shoshone, our country’s first national forest and one of the Wyoming Outdoor Council’s heritage landscapes.We and our members were instrumental in urging the Forest Service to take this project seriously and not to bypass thorough environmental review, as the agency had initially planned to do.

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer at (307) 577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

New rules for royalty-free gas flares up for comment

The Wyoming Office of State Lands and Investments has issued its proposed policy changes regarding royalty-free flaring of natural gas. Written comments are due to the agency by the close of November 29, and should be emailed to Harold Kemp, harold.kemp@wyo.gov.

Flaring — or setting natural gas ablaze — is a common practice in the production of oil and natural gas, typically reserved to a short period of time after a well is completed. Operators flare to get rid of impure streams of gas that do not meet pipeline specifications, and sometimes commercial-grade natural gas is flared in establishing initial flows from new oil wells — particularly when there are no gas-gathering pipelines available.

While the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission occasionally permits flaring for periods longer than the standard 15 days after completion of the well, it’s up to the Office of State Lands and Investments to determine whether a royalty will be applied to gas flared from wells tapping “school trust lands.” The State Land Board — made up of Wyoming’s top five elected officials — hold in trust millions of surface acres and mineral estate acres and is required to oversee those lands for dedicated beneficiaries, primarily Wyoming’s K-12 students.

In light of recent requests for extended flaring in southeast Wyoming — where there are few pipeline systems to serve the Niobrara oil exploration play — the Office of State Lands and Investments staff recommended that policy be updated to address when royalties would be applied to gas flared from wells tapping state minerals.

After meeting with oil and gas industry representatives and members of the public, the Office of State Lands and Investments issued its proposed policy update. If approved as written, royalties would be applied to state gas flared beyond 15 days after a well is completed. The director of the Office of State Lands and Investments, Ryan Lance, would be authorized to administratively approve flaring beyond 15 days if the State Land Board doesn’t meet to review the request within that time. However, the board may choose to apply royalties on those volumes of gas retroactively once it does review the request.

Here are some highlights of the proposed flaring policy:

While regulatory authorization to flare or vent gas is addressed by Oil and Gas Conservation Commission Rules and Regulations, (Chapter 3, Section 40), the Office of State Lands & Investments, as trustee for the beneficiaries of Wyoming State Land production royalties, will not sanction royalty-free disposition of State’s interest gas for a period greater than fifteen (15) days from the date of completion of a well, regardless of regulatory approval by the Oil and Gas Commission or any other body, to flare or vent for a greater period, without prior approval by the Board of Land Commissioners to do so.

… All production on State land during any period requiring flaring or venting upon reaching total well depth must be recorded by a meter installed on the flare stack and the recorded volume and composition information provided to the Office of State Lands & Investments through the current operator reporting system on the regular monthly basis cycle set for the production type.

Click here to download a PDF of the proposed policy change.

For more information regarding this issue, read these WyoFile reports: Up In Smoke; How much state gas will be flared without royalties?, and State royalties go up in smoke with gas flares.

— Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile editor-in-chief, can be reached at (307) 577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

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BLM extends review/comment period for Lander area public lands plan

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has extended the public review and comment period for the Lander Resource Management Plan (RMP) revision to January 20, 2012. The planning document will guide management of agriculture, recreation, energy and other activities on some 2.5 million acres of federal public lands spanning most of Fremont County and portions of Natrona, Sweetwater, Carbon and Hot Springs counties.

Click here to learn more about the Lander Draft RMP and Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Comments on the Lander Draft RMP and Draft EIS can be emailed to LRMP_WYMail@blm.go  or mailed to; Lander Field Office, Attn: RMP Project Manager, 1335 Main Street, Lander, WY 82520.

For more information, call Kristin Yannone, BLM Lander Draft EIS project lead, at 307-332-8400.

Great new tool for access to state lands

The Office of State Lands and Investments just launched a great new online mapping application to navigate access to state lands, which are open to the public. Here’s the url for the site; http://onanypc.com/statelandaccess

The state administers about 3.5 million acres of surface estate held in-trust and managed almost exclusively for the benefit of Wyoming schools. State lands are typically located on Sections 16 and 36 of each township, and are represented as blue squares on maps as part of a complex checkerboard of surface ownership. In addition to energy development, logging and agriculture, state lands provide myriad hunting and recreational opportunities. But access is tricky, because you MAY NOT cross private lands to access state lands without specific approval.

According to a news release today, the new interactive mapping tool on the Office of State Lands and Investments web site is intended to help determine where state lands are located, and where potential access points exist.

“Access to state lands is very important to the people of the state. These maps will hopefully provide a useful tool to guide the thoughtful and appropriate use of State trust lands,” Gov. Matt Mead said in a prepared statement. “Too often the Board of Land Commissioners is in the position of mediating disputes between sportsmen, landowners and other state lessees after the fact. These maps help provide information on the front end and hopefully this will limit these sorts of conflicts going forward.”

The Office of State Lands and Investments listed a phone number for more information; (307) 777-8510.

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Wyoming Public Media fall drive nets $290K

Congratulations to Wyoming Public Media for reaching its goal of $290,000 during its recent fall membership drive. The drive ended Friday after 61 hours of on-air fundraising, gathering support from 3,000 individual contributors and dozens of businesses, according to a press release.

“We made a combined appeal to listeners across our three networks,” WPM development director Peg Arnold said in a prepared statement. “It is something few public stations have accomplished, and it allows us to spend less time on air fundraising and more time providing excellent programming.”

WPM includes three radio stations: Wyoming Public Radio, Classical Wyoming and Jazz Wyoming. This fall’s drive excelled at fundraising on all three signals simultaneously, said Arnold.

In April, WyoFile published a feature article, “Public Broadcasting, Partisan Cuts,” about a GOP-led effort to cut federal funding for National Public Radio through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. For Wyoming Public Media, the federal funding issue appeared to manifest into its strongest pledge drive ever last spring, according to Arnold, exceeding every goal set, including the number of new members, returning members and additional gifts from existing members.

You may have noticed the Wyoming Public Media banner on WyoFile’s front page (similarly, a WyoFile logo appears on WPM’s web page). The promo swap represents the beginning of some collaborative efforts to share and produce Wyoming news among the two entities. More details will become available in coming months, so stay tuned to both WPM and WyoFile.

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile editor-in-chief, at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

Latest fracking news; cross-state injections and invasive mussels

There’s a lot to the business of shale oil drilling and hydraulic fracturing, and I just learned about a few more considerations being discussed here in Wyoming; cross-state injection of drilling fluids and concern about whether industrial water trucks might carry invasive aquatic life such as the zebra mussel and quagga mussel.

These were discussed at the Wyoming Water Association’s annual meeting and education seminar in Casper this week. It’s common practice for drilling and production fluids to be injected into a designated waste water zone. John Wagner, administrator of Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s Water Quality Division, said there are not many permitted injection wells in southeast Wyoming to fit the bill for operators chasing the Niobrara shale oil play.

“So a lot of Wyoming hydrofrack and drilling fluids are hauled to Colorado for injection,” said Wagner.

It takes a lot of water — approximately 5 million gallons — to drill and hydraulically fracture a horizontal shale oil well in the Niobrara. And much of that water is handled by trucks. Lately, Wyoming Game and Fish officials have discussed whether industrial water trucks could potentially bring invasive aquatic species into the state.

In recent years, boaters have been asked to drain, clean and dry their boats when traveling from lake to lake and from state to state. But it’s unclear whether professional water-haulers will be asked to comply with the same practices.

“It’s something that’s been kicked around,” Wyoming G&F game warden Brady Frude said in a phone interview on Friday. “The way it’s written in statute now is any conveyance of water is subject to inspection.”

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile editor-in-chief at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

Spill at Wyoming uranium mine triggers NRC ‘special investigation’

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission launched a “special investigation” today to determine if workers were exposed to “yellowcake” after an incident at Uranium One USA Inc.’s Irigaray and Christensen Ranch in-situ uranium mine in northeast Wyoming.

Black boxes cover wellheads at the Christensen Ranch in-situ uranium mine near the Pumpkin Buttes in the southern Powder River Basin. (Dustin Bleizeffer/WyoFile - click to enlarge)

According to a NRC press release, the incident occurred on Sunday. Two workers were in the vicinity of a “dryer” containing yellowcake — yellow uranium oxide powder — when they heard an alarm and the dryer automatically shut down.

The yellowcake dryer is located inside an enclosed building.

“It appears that a seal on the dryer may have broken, causing the yellowcake powder to escape,” the NRC stated in the press release. “Current information indicates there were no major safety impacts or release to the environment as the dryer is housed inside a pressurized sealed room within a building.”

In an unrelated incident, Wyoming environmental regulators recently issued the same mine operator a notice of violation (NOV) related to a 10,000 gallon spill of brine in August.

Because of the incident on Sunday, a NRC inspector traveled to the Wyoming uranium mine on Wednesday to determine whether workers were exposed to yellowcake, and to evaluate the operator’s corrective actions already in the works.

NRC spokeswoman Lara Uselding told WyoFile that it appears the workers were wearing proper protective clothing to avoid exposure to the uranium material. To determine whether there was an exposure, air samples will be analyzed. Also, the workers underwent urinalysis testing.

“We got results back today, and uranium was non-detectable … So they had no intake of uranium,” Donna Wichers, Uranium One senior vice president of in-situ operations, told WyoFile in a phone interview on Wednesday.

Both Uselding and Wichers said that radiation from yellowcake is low enough to be a secondary human health concern compared to ingesting the uranium ore. “Because it’s a heavy metal,” said Wichers. “It would be just like if you ingested lead or any other heavy metal.”

Wichers described the entire incident as a “non-event,” and said the NRC inspector was scheduled to visit the mine anyway. She said once the NRC decided to launch a special investigation, part of the agency’s protocol is to issue a press release, “Which we tried to talk them out of,” Wichers said.

The NRC will issue a public report of the investigation within 45 days.

The Irigarary and Christensen Ranch in-situ uranium facilities ceased production in 2000 while reclamation activities continued for several years. The mine changed ownership, and after several years of state and federal permitting, the mine resumed production in January.

On September 19, the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality issued a notice of violation (NOV) to Uranium One related to an August spill at the Irigaray plant in Johnson County of up to 10,000 gallons of sodium chloride brine, which is used to strip uranium-bearing ore from the production solution. The brine entered a dry ephemeral stream adjacent to the facility.

According to the NOV, Uranium One failed to meet DEQ’s timely reporting requirements related to a spill. Wichers said there was a misunderstanding about whether an email notification qualified as written notification. She said DEQ did not require any remediation of the area effected by the spill.

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile editor-in-chief, at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

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Lawmakers gunning for K-12 “Energy Literacy” program

As the nation’s largest producer of coal, and a workhorse supplier of natural gas, oil, uranium and wind energy, it makes sense that Wyoming’s K-12 students should have a basic understanding of the nation’s energy supply and consumption chain, and related social issues. A handful of Wyoming lawmakers say that’s the goal of an “Energy Literacy Education Program” under consideration with Wyoming’s Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development interim committee.

Screen-shot of "Petroville, OK" a student energy literacy program in Oklahoma.

According to proponents on the committee, Wyoming students — through existing media and education programs — may not be hearing the full details of often contentious issues related to energy development and the environment. That concern may explain the make up of the panel that the committee asked to perform the initial research; Lara Ryan, executive director of the non-profit Wyoming Land Trust, Mindy Stitt, executive director of Oklahoma Energy Resources Board, and Wendy Lowe, a longtime Wyoming lobbyist for Williams Cos. and other energy companies. None are professional Wyoming educators.

They appeared before the committee in Casper on September 12, 2011. Ryan testified that the underlying message of a K-12 energy literacy program should be clear: “Energy and conservation are not at odds. Rather, they are mutually beneficial. … We can have it all,” she testified to the committee.

Stitt said that Oklahoma’s energy education program includes pro-energy advertising (click here for television commercials, click here for a selection of print ads, or here for a single ad)  in major media. She underscored the idea that any program has to be focused on training teachers how to educate students about energy.

Sen. Eli Bebout (R-Riverton) said he made an unsuccessful run at a similar energy literacy bill in 1999, and he has been a big fan of the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board program for many years. Senate President Jim Anderson (R-Glenrock), who does not serve on the Joint Minerals committee, said he supported the concept of an energy literacy program in Wyoming.

“By golly, I think you’re on to something,” Anderson told committee members.

Lowe reminded committee members that there’s not exactly a vacuum of energy curricula in Wyoming schools. She said many Wyoming teachers have a good understanding of energy and Wyoming’s role, and there are some energy-specific programs throughout the education system.

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile editor-in-chief, at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

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Mead seeks Preble’s mouse exemption for drillers

Wyoming’s oil and gas industry should be exempt from some restrictions imposed by a potential Endangered Species Act listing of the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse here in the Cowboy State, according Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead.

Speaking at the Petroleum Association of Wyoming’s annual meeting in Casper on Wednesday, Mead said his staff is drafting a proposal that it will send to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, asking to apply the “4(d)” rule of the ESA law to oil and gas drilling. Mead said the rule is often used to allow agriculture to continue many of its normal operations under an ESA listing, but it is not often used for oil and gas activities.

“We want to be on the start of that process rather than the back end of that process,” Mead told a crowd of oil and gas industry officials.

Responding to a court order, the Fish and Wildlife Service reinstated protections for the mouse in Wyoming earlier this month.

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

UW professor nominated for (another) literary award

The last time WyoFile checked in with Brad Watson, he had just been nominated for a PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. It seems the critics are still loving what they’re reading from the University of Wyoming English professor, as he has now been named one of six finalists for a literary prize from St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights, N.Y. The winner will be announced Sept. 17.

That gives you a great chance to read (or read again) Susan Gray Gose’s profile of Watson from March. And as long as we’re on the subject of revisiting pieces from the WyoFile Writers’ Series, Wyoming’s near-Biblical plague of grasshoppers this summer is a good reminder of Gose’s June profile of UW entomologist and writer Jeffrey Lockwood.

Here’s more on Watson’s literary accolades from the UW press office:

Watson’s collection, “Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives,” is 12 stories of family strife, personal loss, physical trauma and emotional reckoning. Watson, who teaches in the UW Department of English and the MFA in Creative Writing Program, was selected from among 116 entries.

The six writers, competing for one of the richest awards in North America, are a diverse mix of authors, coming from across the United States and around the world.

The other writers and their nominated books are: Kevin Brockmeier, “The Illumination” (Pantheon); Joshua Cohen, “Witz” (Dalkey Archive Press); Jonathan Dee, “The Privileges” (Random House); Yiyun Li, “Gold Boy Emerald Girl” (Random House); and Marlene van Niekerk, “Agaat” (Tin House Books).

The prize-winning author will be announced at the opening night gala for the 2011 Brooklyn Book Festival.

Last spring, Watson was a finalist for the prestigious 2011 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, America’s largest peer juried prize for fiction. The Boston Globe named “Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives” among the year’s best fiction books.

Also during the spring semester, Watson was among 180 recipients of a prestigious fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Guggenheim Fellowships are grants for a minimum of six months and a maximum of 12. The program provides recipients with blocks of time in which they can work with as much creative freedom as possible.

Apps for Birding

I have not tried some of these and do not offer opinions or ratings, but following is a partial list of applications of interest to birdwatchers.

The Sibley series of bird field guide books is outstanding. Sibley’s people have now issued electronic field guides for the iPhone, Android and Blackberry platforms, including 2,300 audio recordings.

Not a field guide, but a compilation of information to help people find birds, often rare birds, is BirdsEye.

BirdJam software, which I do use on my iPod Touch, organizes bird songs and calls which are purchased elsewhere and installed using the iTunes program.  BirdJam makes it easier to find the vocalizations on the iPod Touch or other iPods; but is much better on the iPod Touch or iPhone because of the larger viewing screen. BirdJam has some new products focusing on sparrows and warblers.

A comprehensive collection of 2,400 tracks from 674 bird species is available from BirdTunes.  I have not had any experience with this company.

Birdwatcher’s Diary is an app which allows downloading of sightings in the field.  I have not had any experience with such programs.

Some of this information was derived from the American Birding Association.  There are other programs out there.

Good Birding!

— RT Cox, The Sage Grouse

Judge Freudenthal rules in favor of categorical exclusions for oil and gas drilling

CHEYENNE — U.S. Federal Judge Nancy Freudenthal today struck down the Interior Department’s 2010 instructional guidance meant to curtail the use of “categorical exclusions” in permitting oil and gas drilling.

The plaintiff, industry trade group Western Energy Alliance, successfully argued that the guidance was invalid, in part, because it wasn’t created under a formal process that includes public comment. Yet the “categorical exclusion” itself is a procedural tool that allows industry to bypass — at the permitting stage — a formal National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) analysis that includes public comment.

The categorical exclusion is a provision of the 2005 Energy Policy Act. It allows the Bureau of Land Management and U.S Forest Service to issue permits to drill without site-specific environmental analysis. However, categorical exclusions are only supposed to be used within areas already included in a NEPA analysis that contemplated such activity.

Drill pipe is stacked at a rig working for BP America in its Wamsutter field in south-central Wyoming. (Dustin Bleizeffer/WyoFile - click to enlarge)

Sportsmen and environmental groups argued that categorical exclusions were too broadly applied, and were folded under outdated analysis that didn’t fully contemplate the scale of development being proposed. In particular, they argued that a Resource Management Plan — which are updated every 10 or 15 years — is much too broad of a NEPA analysis to justify categorical exclusions for an activity that rapidly changes and becomes more dense.

From 2006 to 2008, the “categorical exclusion” was used to approve some 6,100 drilling permits, or 28 percent of all approved permits during that period, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

As part of a package to streamline onshore oil and gas permitting, and avoid litigation over oil and gas drilling, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in 2010 issued instructional guidance curtailing the use of categorical exclusions — which were the source of several high-profile lawsuits in the West. A new BLM report indicates that far fewer oil and gas leases are litigated today compared to the past six years.

But the oil and gas industry has big plans to drill on federal lands in the West, and they fired a preemptive strike against Salazar’s guidance without tying it to any particular drilling permit now under consideration.

“Obviously, we have members with leases. … Categorical exclusions apply in many of those cases. So she (Judge Freudenthal) found that the harm was not speculative at all. The delay, the expense and the legal consequences clearly gave a standing and did not require a particular APD (application for permit to drill) in this case,” Western Energy Alliance’s director of government and public affairs, Kathleen Sgamma, said after the ruling.

Department of Justice attorney Ted Sanford argued that no third party, or mineral lease owner, is entitled to choose among several levels of NEPA analysis. Rather, Salazar’s guidance regarding categorical exclusions was intended to clarify the intent of Section 390 of the 2005 Energy Policy Act — specifically that categorical exclusions were not intended to forgo site-specific analysis before issuing a permit to drill.

“Congressional intent was not to circumvent NEPA analysis,” said Sanford, adding that without the 2010 guidance, there existed the potential to play a regulatory shell game in which site-specific analysis never occurs.

Judge Freudenthal declined to contemplate damages the industry may have suffered due to the Interior’s guidence on categorical exclusions.

Sgamma said that since the 2010 guidance, the oil and gas industry has been neglected full use of the categorical exclusion provision.

“Sure, it’s going to slow things down,” said Sgamma. “What categorical exclusions do is eliminate a layer of NEPA … So when those types of impacts are looked at in a land use plan, then we don’t have to go in and look at them again.”

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

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Lack of energy policy ‘delays’ Wyoming gasification project

A partnership between GE Energy and the University of Wyoming to build a coal-gasification research center to ensure the future viability of Wyoming coal has been “delayed” due to the lack of a federal energy policy. For the past year, utilities have told Wyoming officials that they can no longer include new coal facilities in their planning until the federal government decides exactly how it will regulate greenhouse gases and other pollutants.

The coal industry has lobbied hard against the regulation of greenhouse gases.

Now with little to no growth for coal in the U.S. market, Wyoming coal producers are focused on shipping the domestic energy resource to China.

At a funding level of $100 million, the UW-GE High Plains Coal Gasification project was a relatively modest attempt to change the dynamic and to begin to add value to Wyoming coal by reducing its carbon footprint, said Richard Garrett of the Wyoming Outdoor Council.

“It was something that former Governor Freudenthal, now a board member of Arch Coal, thought was crucial to the state’s future and our state legislature agreed,” Garrett told WyoFile via email. “I would like to see our current governor and the state legislature step back up to the plate and tell GE — and Washington D.C. — that we do things differently in Wyoming.”

Garrett added that Wyoming committed to a long-term effort in pursuing coal-gasification technology for Wyoming coal, and it ought to stick to that commitment.

“I think our congressional delegation needs to do the same thing,” Garrett added.

Here’s Gov. Matt Mead’s press release in its entirety:

GE Energy and the University of Wyoming have announced that the joint work on the High Plains Gasification-Advanced Technology Center has been delayed. The original project investment plan anticipated more progress toward certainty in the future of federal energy policy. Future investments will be paced by the development of clear federal energy policy.

Governor Mead is disappointed about GE Energy’s decision to pause development of the High Plains Gasification-Advanced Technology Center project until uncertainty around coal utilization is reduced. However, Governor Mead feels this decision and possibly other energy sector decisions to delay projects are not unexpected given the lack of a federal energy policy.

“Capital from the private sector only flows to large and ambitious projects when there is reasonable regulatory, legal and financial certainty,” Governor Mead said. “This is a real world example of the local impact of the federal government’s failure to provide a policy path forward for energy use in America. An energy policy must include the responsible use of our coal resources. Without a clear policy, investors and developers do not have certainty and cannot plan for risk, which is critical in making decisions to build modern, efficient plants.”

“GE technology is ready to provide a cleaner coal solution for America and for the world.  When government policy and economic realities are aligned in the U.S., we plan to be a leader in cleaner coal technologies,” said Keith White, General Manager of GE Energy’s gasification business.  “We value our partnership with the University of Wyoming and we will reassess the environment in 18 to 24 months.”

UW President Tom Buchanan said, “The University of Wyoming (UW) stands ready to proceed with continued work to advance the HPG-ATC. In any business relationship, we acknowledge the need for all parties to be comfortable prior to moving forward.  The agreement between the State of Wyoming, GE Energy and UW contemplates significant milestones in the project development.”

The High Plains Gasification-Advanced Technology Center is a research and technology center focused on looking at coal gasification solutions for coal from the Powder River Basin and other parts of Wyoming. Wyoming produces 40% of the nation’s coal and the state provides about 10% of the nation’s energy.

“America and Wyoming have the leadership capacity, the technology prowess and the private capital availability to wisely put our energy resources to productive use but we are strangled by uncertainty created by the energy policy vacuum in Washington DC,” Governor Mead said.

 

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

Wyoming post offices studied for potential closure

Like so many things in Wyoming, delivering the mail tends to require more time, covering more miles, enduring more isolation and spending more money than almost any other state.

So it’s no surprise that Wyoming has quite a few post offices on a list released today by the U.S. Postal Service detailing outposts that are being studied for potential closure. Many of these post offices serve only a few people and are located far from anything else. But then again, isn’t that true for so much of our state?

Advocates of closures could certainly make a compelling case about the skewed cost-benefit ratio of keeping these post offices open. But for those living in one of these communities, a post office is often the hub of civic affairs — a place to run into a neighbor you might only see once every couple of months, and only then when you’re both checking the mail.

There’s certainly something wonderful about being able to mail a letter from Van Tassell, Wyo. (pop. 3) to Key West, Fla. and paying the same postage as a letter from Manhattan to Brooklyn. But that one-size-fits-all approach which has made our postal system such a unifying part of American culture is also part of why it struggles to cover costs.

For plenty more on the financial woes of the USPS, check out Devin Leonard’s fantastic May 26 story in Business Week, The U.S. Postal Service Nears Collapse. As bad as you might think it is for the USPS financially, the reality is probably worse.

In the meantime, check the list below to see if your neighborhood post office might be on the chopping block.

Contact Ruffin Prevost at 307-213-9321 or ruffin@wyofile.com.

Flew the looking-glass

Some websites have ideas on how to prevent birds striking your windows. I know there’s no perfect answer to this problem, and won’t pretend it is entirely preventable, but there are options to consider.

- The Sage Grouse

Buford Wyoming featured on MSNBC

Does having just one resident qualify as a “population?” Don Sammons thinks so. After all, the town of Buford Wyoming on Interstate 80 between Cheyenne and Laramie is a busy place most days. And if Sammons ever decides to leave, Buford may fade into the pasture. This MSNBC video profile introduces America to one of many Wyoming small towns.

— Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile editor-in-chief

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Natural gas pipeline ruptured in Campbell County

A natural gas pipeline that went into service in January is temporarily shut-down after a Wednesday evening explosion in Campbell County, according to local officials who were contacted by the owner of the pipeline, TransCanada. No word yet about the cause of the rupture. Officials say there were no injuries related to the incident.

The 30-inch diameter Bison pipeline has a capacity to carry 477 million cubic feet of gas per day — enough to serve 4,770 homes for one year. It primarily moves coal-bed methane gas from the Powder River Basin  in northeast Wyoming through Montana and North Dakota to the Midwest market.

Brian Jeffries, executive director of the Wyoming Pipeline Authority, told WyoFile that the temporary shut-down of Bison shouldn’t snarl the flow of natural gas for more than a day or two while gas is rerouted through other pipelines.

“Until Bison goes back into service, that gas gets rerouted to other pipeline systems that already serve the basin,” said Jeffries.

TransCanada is facing pressure over its proposed Keystone XL “mega” pipeline that would carry oil from Canadian tar sands to the United States and cross under the Yellowstone River in Montana. Opposition to that project intensified after ExxonMobile’s Silvertip crude oil pipeline ruptured and spilled into the Yellowstone River.

Campbell County emergency management coordinator David King said TransCanada conducted safety and response training courses with local emergency responders last year before the Bison pipeline was put into service. King traveled to the location of the rupture on Wednesday evening approximately 18.5 miles northwest of Gillette and 1 mile away from a farm house. He said there didn’t appear to be any property damage, other than the pipeline itself, and there were no people nearby at the time of the incident.

“By my estimation, it was probably a 50-foot section or so that blew up and out,” said King.

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

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Yellowstone bear interrupts bear-safety interview

CODY — A cable TV news crew taping a segment on bear safety Friday in Yellowstone National Park got a little something extra in the bargain: a close encounter with a bear.

“That was what we refer to as an incident within an incident,” park spokesman Dan Hottle said Monday, joking that he worried some might think the encounter was staged.

A grizzly bear digs in wet dirt near Cub Creek in Yellowstone National Park in June 2010. (Ruffin Prevost/WyoFile - click to enlarge)

Hottle had taken the crew from CNN to Joffe Lake — a five-minute drive from park headquarters in Mammoth Hot Springs — where they were interviewing Yellowstone bear biologist Kerry Gunther.

The park’s public affairs office has received hundreds of media inquiries since the fatal mauling Wednesday of a hiker who apparently surprised a mother grizzly that was foraging with two six-month-old cubs.

Brian Matayoshi, 57, of Torrance, Calif., was killed while hiking with his wife, Marylyn, on the Wapiti Lake trail. It was the first fatal bear attack in Yellowstone since 1986.

So park visitors were still on high alert Friday when someone spotted a black bear at Joffe Lake, a popular fishing spot for brook trout and a convenient backdrop for Gunther to explain how to behave during a bear encounter.

“Someone shouted, ‘Bear! Bear!’” Hottle said, recalling the incident.

Hottle wanted to make sure hiker Erin Prophet saw the nearby black bear as it ambled toward the 2.5-acre pond.

“Does the hiker know?” Hottle shouted back, as a videocamera captured the unfolding drama.

As Prophet backed away from the bear, she found herself wading into the pond, wondering whether to swim for the far shore.

Dave Beecham, in a nearby kayak with his young son and his father-in-law, paddled over to help Prophet swim away from the bear.

Although the bear never charged and did not appear to be directly threatening her, Prophet told the camera crew that she was scared, and glad for the help.

A black bear prowls the banks of a pond near Roosevelt Lodge in June 2010. (Ruffin Prevost/WyoFile - click to enlarge)

“I was pretty afraid,” she said.

“When the guys in the kayak offered to pull me across, that seemed like a better plan because the bear seemed like it wanted to be down there by the edge,” Prophet said.

Beecham was visiting the park from Oregon, and later told KGW news of Portland that he felt compelled to help, but he was also “afraid the grizzly bear was going to come after us.”

Hottle said the black bear, initially misidentified as a juvenile grizzly, was not interested in Prophet, and was just trying to get to the water.

Hottle said the incident would have gone unheralded were it not for the presence of news cameras in the wake of Wednesday’s mauling.

He said Gunther had hoped to use the national platform of a CNN segment to offer common-sense advice on staying safe in bear country, but the resulting segment instead focused mostly on the kayak “rescue.” Local news outlets in Beecham’s home state of Oregon picked up the story and also played up the rescue angle.

Park officials have continued to stress how rare grizzly attacks are, and say that Yellowstone averages only approximately one bear-related injury each year. Gunther said during a press conference last week that Wednesday’s fatal mauling was a “1-in-3-million” chance encounter.

While most visitors to the area seemed unlikely to change their plans based on news of the fatal attack, it was a hot topic in tourist towns near the park.

Sales of bear spray were up sharply at a camping supply store in Cody, near the park’s East Entrance.

“People are definitely talking about it when they come in,” said Amber Bryant of Sunlight Sports. “Some people have actually changed their minds and decided not to go hiking at all.”

Bryant said that most customers, though, are heading to the backcountry as planned.

“The bears have been there long before people,” she said.

Contact Ruffin Prevost at 307-213-9321 or ruffin@wyofile.com.

DOWNLOAD a 1998 paper by Yellowstone bear biologist Kerry Gunther on the differences between grizzly bears and black bears.

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Wyoming farmers land $10.4M to protect sage grouse

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced on Thursday it will provide $18.2 million to three western states to conserve sage grouse habitat through the Grassland Reserve Program. Wyoming’s share will be $10.4 million.

Idaho will receive $5.5 million, and Utah will receive $2.3 million.

Greater sage-grouse (click to enlarge)

“USDA and its partners are taking a proactive approach to maintaining large and intact grazing lands that support healthy sage-grouse populations,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in prepared statement. “GRP will provide these states with another tool to conserve this at-risk species and also protect important ranch lands.”

This is on top of $17 million the state received from USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) program earlier this year.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead issued this statement: “I am pleased that the federal government is backing up its words of support for our sage-grouse plan. Our plan is an effort to keep sage-grouse off the endangered species list. Because private property owners often bear the costs of species protection it is good to see funds provided to offset some of the costs associated with protecting a species.”

The chair of the Sage-Grouse Implementation Team, Bob Budd, said this is a voluntary program and that it targets the right areas. “The funding specifically would go to deal with fragmentation,” Budd said. “The US Fish and Wildlife Service identified fragmentation as the number-one threat to sage-grouse habitat in the west.”

In June, Gov. Mead re-issued a Freudenthal-era executive order continuing the “core areas” plan to restrict development in prime sage grouse habitat in Wyoming. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently commended Wyoming for its “core areas” sage grouse plan and said it is an integral tool in protecting sage grouse and avoiding a listing of the bird under the Endangered Species Act. However, the FWS also warned that the effectiveness of the plan depends on the scientific accuracy of determining prime habitat locations and actual implementation of restrictions to protect the habitat.

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.

High Plains Initiative releases final document

The High Plains Initiative [HPI] recently released its final document, making it available on the Building the Wyoming We Want website.

The document’s release concludes a 16-month regional planning process in Platte and Goshen counties. HPI’s final document is 48 pages long. It contains six chapters: Introduction, Public Process, Values, Population and Land Use Trends, Alternative Growth Scenarios, and Conclusions.

The mission of HPI is stated as: “Thinking together about what we want this region to be like for our children and grandchildren.”

On page three, HPI committee members expressed their hope that the document would be useful in helping elected officials maintain safe and friendly communities without resorting to intrusive regulations or diminishing property rights. Growth in Platte and Goshen counties has been static for decades. The authors of the document make a case that planning is needed in light of the region’s potential growth from wind and oil development.

Planning is also important if a boom does not come: “Even if our counties continue to experience flat or declining population, our communities still face hard decisions on how to pay for aging infrastructure with a limited revenue stream,” according to the document. (Page 3).

On page 15 the HPI Executive Committee acknowledged that the public strongly valued property rights, low taxes, and minimal regulation: “Although these values were not identified in the initial [summer 2010] survey, the HPI Steering Committee addressed these concerns in their discussions and they are noted in this report.” (Page 8).

The document also noted that public input: “changed the visioning process to better fit the region.” (Page 17.)

A listing of the financial supporters of BW3 and HPI, and a list of Platte and Goshen County residents who served on the steering committee can be found on pages 44-47.

Read the full report by downloading this PDF.

— Gregory Nickerson, WyoFile writer

Wyoming’s federal drilling stats

When reporting on my latest story, Are Feds Slowing Oil and Gas Permitting?, I’d asked Wyoming Bureau of Land Management officials for their most recent oil and gas permitting and drilling figures. I got the stats a little late, but will share them with you now. An “application for permit to drill,” or APD, represents one well. Years represented are the BLM’s fiscal years.

— 2010 – 1,606 APDs approved, 1,280 wells drilled

— 2009 – 2,040 APDs approved, 1,450 wells drilled

— 2008 – 3,082 APDs approved, 2,421 wells drilled

— 2007 – 3,762 APDs approved, 2,309 wells drilled

— 2006 – 3,848 APDs approved, 2,774 wells drilled

Total APDs approved: 14,338

Total wells drilled: 10,234

So, during the past five years, the oil and gas industry has received more federal oil and gas permits in Wyoming than it has drilled (a surplus of 4,104). A federal APD is valid for 2 years. Also, many of these APDs were issued with stipulations such as seasonal restrictions for wildlife and habitat protection, which means a company may have a limited time-frame to drill the well during the year. Companies can — and often do — request an extension beyond the 2-year life of an APD.

— Contact Dustin Bleizeffer at 307-577-6069 or dustin@wyofile.com.