Residents, users voice opposition to Wyoming Range drilling

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

By Ben Cannon

Jackson Hole, Wyo--In Jackson on Tuesday and Pinedale on Wednesday, Big Piney District Ranger Greg Clark – along with USFS staff and representatives of Houston-headquartered Plains Exploration and Production Company (PXP) – addressed the public in open house-style forums regarding the proposed Eagle Prospect exploratory wells seven miles southeast of Bondurant.  

PXP, a relatively small player in energy production, holds a years-old oil and gas lease on that site, within the Bridger Teton National Forest, and is looking to drill three wells from a single pad. For those who live nearby or recreationally use the area, this signals the beginning of the end.

“It’s a real concern for people,” said Gary Amerine, a Daniel resident. Amerine chairs Citizens Protecting the Wyoming Range, a group he helped form to keep widespread natural gas production confined – as far as Sublette County is concerned – to the Pinedale Anticline and Jonah fields, where natural gas production is a multi-billion dollar industry. He was one of about 50 people who came to the Pinedale forum. Amerine guides clients into the Wyoming Range with Greys River Trophies, his outfitting business.

“My feeling is that, if this goes through, it’ll open up the whole Wyoming Range,” he said, adding that drilling could hurt his livelihood by deterring customers wanting a more pristine wilderness experience.

Mike Burd drove nearly two hours from Green River to attend the Pinedale meeting. A native of western Wyoming, Burd said he has hunted, fished and trapped in the Wyoming Range for nearly 40 years.

Like many of his fellow Wyomingites, he takes pride in the vast, untouched spaces the state offers, which often intereaves with the seasonal taking of game. “Look at the obituary of any man from Wyoming, and a lot of the women. It will say: ‘outdoorsman,’” Burd said. “It’s what we do.”

Standing to the side of the Sublette County Library meeting room, a handful of PXP executives spoke mainly to one another as attendees intermingled, surveyed maps or spoke with Forest Service representatives. Among the company men was Randy Vine, vice president of drilling for PXP.

When asked what individuals or groups should be most concerned about regarding the proposal – or who had the most at stake – Vine offered that the more valid concerns involved “truck traffic and water supply,” indicating the heavy vehicle impact from a forest development road originating in Daniel that will first require reconstruction and stretch about 11 miles to the well access.

Nearby residential areas such as Hoback Ranches depend on the area’s aquifer for well water that could be impacted by the volume of underground water needed to produce natural gas. “They are certainly good questions,” the PXP vice president said.

J.J. Healey has a 6,000-acre ranch near Daniel. The surface water he depends on flows from the Wyoming Range, so he is concerned about contamination from an accident or even usual operations. Beyond that, Healey takes issue with the prospect of Wyoming Range drilling from a more philosophic angle.

“The reason we’re [at the Pinedale meeting], it’s not because we’re against drilling … You’ve got a pristine habitat that’s at stake,” he said. “Sublette County has the most to lose,” he added. “It’s a fundamental shift in what is the social fabric here.”

Hoback Ranches Homeowner’s Association Chairwoman Judi Adler  estimated her home to be about six miles from the Eagle Prospect site and said she is opposed to any drilling on National Forest lands. “While I think we have an obligation to help the country with our energy supplies,” she continued, “I think we’ve sacrificed enough” in Sublette County.

Big Piney District Ranger Greg Clark, who will have say in the Eagle Prospect exploration proposal, expects to reach a decision around August.
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Residents, users voice opposition to Wyoming Range drilling | Planet JH News Article: General Environment

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