BLM/State of Montana
NEWS
Date: February 19, 2002
Contact: Aden Seidlitz, BLM
(406)233-2816
Greg Hallsten, DEQ
(406)444-3276
Montana Draft Oil and Gas EIS Now Available
For Immediate Release
MILES
CITY - The Montana Statewide Draft Oil and Gas Environmental Impact
Statement (DINS) that addresses potential coal bed methane development is
now available for public review and comment. Interested individuals and
organizations have until May 15, 2002 to comment on the draft document.
Copies of
the EIS have already been mailed to individuals and groups who had
previously requested them. The document is available in three formats to
meet the public's need. You may request a printed copy or a compact disk
(CD) from any of the addresses below, or you may view the document
electronically at the following website: www.deq.state.mt.us/coalbedmethane/index.asp
.
Comments
on the draft may he submitted electronically to:
coalbed_methane@mt.gov
or in writing to one of the following addresses:
Mary Bloom Project
Leader, Bureau of Land Management, 111 Garryowen Road, Miles City,
Mont. 59301;
Greg Hallsten Project Leader, Department of Environmental
Quality, PO Box 200901, Helena, Mont. 59620-0901;
Tom Richmond Project Leader, Board of Oil and Gas Conservation, 2535 St. Johns
Ave., Billings, Mont. 59102.
Please include your name and return address with your
comment. Our practice is to make comments, including names and home
addresses of respondents, available for public review during regular
business hours. Individual respondents may request that we withhold
their home address from the record, which we will honor to the extent
allowable by law.
Five public hearings are scheduled during the 90-day
comment period to gather comments concerning the document. They will
be held in: Broadus, April 1 at the Community Center, 7-9 p.m.;
Billings, April 2, at the MSU Library Building Room 148, 7-9 p.m.; Crow
Agency, April 3, in the Multi-purpose Building, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.; Lame Deer,
April 3, at the Blessed Sacrament Church, 7-9 p.m.; and Helena, April 4,
in the DEQ Director's Conference Room 111, Metcalf Building, 7-9 p.m.
Written comments will be accepted and responded to in
the Final EIS if received by May 15.
The planning area covered by this document includes the
oil and gas resources administered by the BLM within the Powder River and
Billings Resource Management Plan (RMP) areas and statewide for the State
of Montana with emphasis on the Montana portion of the Powder River Basin
and in Blaine, Gallatin, and Park counties. The draft document was
prepared jointly by the BLM, and the State of Montana, Board of Oil and
Gas Conservation and the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
The agencies anticipate a Final EIS being available to
the public in the summer of 2002. Studies to gather resource
information are ongoing and planned to continue for the next three
years. Several studies will be finalized during the EIS
process. Other studies, upon becoming available, will be used to monitor
and maintain the decisions made in the document.
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