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COAL BED METHANE… ITS FUTURE? ITS
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Prepared by
the Bureau of Land Management and the Montana Department of Environmental
Quality, January 2001
The Bureau of Land Management and
the State of Montana through the Department of Environmental Quality are
beginning an Environmental Impact Statement on oil and gas development
including coal bed methane in portions of Montana. The two agencies will conduct a series of five public scoping
meetings in early January to hear public concerns on this development. You are invited to
add your voice to this issue by attending one of the scoping meetings in your
area.
Introduction
The Bureau of Land Management
(BLM), Billings and Miles City Field Offices, and the Montana Department of
Environmental Quality (DEQ) have issued a Notice of Intent in the Federal
Register to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to analyze the
potential impacts related to proposed oil and gas development including coal
bed methane in Montana. The BLM will
use the EIS to amend the Billings and Powder River resource management
plans. The state will use the EIS to
guide future coal bed methane development in Montana.
The EIS planning area
The planning
area for BLM will encompass a 13 county area and approximately 3.2 million
acres of oil and gas estate administered by the BLM Billings Field Office and
the Miles City Field Office.
Interdisciplinary teams will describe the likely effects of oil and gas
leasing, exploration and production on resources administered by the BLM and
the State of Montana.
The State of
Montana will evaluate the effects of further permit applications in BLM’s
planning area and other areas around the state including portions of Blaine, Park
and Gallatin counties.
Scoping meetings
The BLM and DEQ will conduct a series of
public meetings, called scoping meetings, to begin gathering facts and concerns
from individuals and agencies of government that might be impacted by coal bed
methane development.
Some preliminary issues identified by BLM
and the state include: air quality;
water related issues such as groundwater draw down, water quality and quantity,
wildlife habitat, soils, minerals, vegetation, recreation and socioeconomic
impacts.
Why is this EIS necessary?
The BLM, as an agent for the Secretary of
the Interior has responsibility for leasing and managing oil and gas resources
where the mineral estate is federally owned.
In addition, the Powder River and Billings resource management plans
(RMP) address only limited coal bed methane development. Industry has indicated they are interested
in full-scale development. The EIS and
amendment is necessary to consider full-scale development including
conventional oil and gas activity.
DEQ is the state’s lead agency for issuing
water quality permits. Montana’s
governor has directed DEQ to act as the lead agency in developing a regional
EIS to analyze coal bed methane issues and how this development might impact
the state’s environment. DEQ is working
with the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, Board of Oil and Gas
Conservation and other state agencies to create an interagency team to develop
this plan.
The BLM EIS planning process
The procedure for preparing a BLM plan amendment
involves nine interrelated actions.
Some actions may occur simultaneously and it may be necessary to repeat
an action as additional information is made available. The revised RMP which results from this
process is a decision document designed primarily to help field managers make
decisions and to guide the efforts of the staff on a day-to-day basis.
Where more detailed management direction
is required, activity plans will be prepared after the plan amendment is
completed.
State EIS planning process
The DEQ and DNRC have been studying
impacts of coal bed methane development on water quality in the Tongue and
Powder River drainages. Questions have
been raised about the potential impacts to water quality not only from existing
or proposed development in southeastern Montana, but how coal bed methane
development elsewhere in the state and Wyoming may impact Montana waters.
The state will use the findings of this
EIS to assist in development of its program to handle future specific coal bed
methane projects in Montana. The coal
bed methane issues facing southeast Montana may extend to other coal deposits
in Montana. The joint BLM-DEQ plan will
assist the state in development of an EIS that will address issues elsewhere.
How to get involved and stay involved
You may have other concerns you would like
to raise outside of the scoping meeting process. If so, we need to receive your written comments by January 17,
2001, in order to consider them in the analysis of the Draft
EIS/Amendment. Please mail them to
either of the addresses below.
We will keep you up-to-date and involved
in the remaining steps of the process.
Information we receive from you and other agency specialists will
provide for a quality document resulting in sound resource decisions.
If you have questions, please feel free to
contact CBM Program Manager, Mary Bloom, at the BLM Miles City Field Office,
(406) 233-3649 or Greg Hallsten, Permitting and Compliance Division-DEQ, (406)
444-3276. If you wish to be put on the
mailing list to receive future publications concerning the BLM-DEQ EIS process
please fill out the form on this brochure and mail it to one of the following
addresses:
Mary Bloom Greg
Hallsten
Coal Bed Methane
Program Manager CBM Project Manager
U.S. Bureau of Land
Management MT
Dept. of Environmental Quality
111 Garryowen Road P.O.
Box 200901
Miles City, MT 59301 Helena,
MT 59601-0901
The
EIS Planning Process 1. Identification
of Issues 2. Development
of Planning Criteria 3. Inventory
Data and Information Collection 4. Identification
of potential development 5. Formulation
of Alternatives 6. Estimation
of Effects 7. Selection
of a Preferred Alternative a. Draft
EIS b. Final
EIS 8. Record
of Decision 9. Monitoring
and Evaluation Tentative
EIS Schedule 12/19/00 NOI Published in Federal Register – Scoping Begins 01/17/01 30 day Scoping Period Ends 09/18/01 Begin 90 Day Public Review – Draft
EIS 03/18/02 Begin 30 Day Protest Period –
Final EIS 05/02/02 Issue Record of Decision
Scoping meetings are scheduled in the following Communities: Billings, January 4, 2001 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. MSU Billings Student Union Building Lewis and Clark Room Broadus, January 9, 2001 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Powder River Community Center Fairgrounds Ashland, January 9, 2001 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. Ashland Public School cafeteria Miles City, January 10, 2001 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. Miles City Community College, Room 106 Helena, January 11, 2001 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. Montana Department of Environmental Quality Director’s Conference Room 1520 East Sixth Avenue
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