April 04, 2010 06:48 PM UTC

Driller: Numerous Roan Plateau Spills No Cause for Alarm

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• by: ClubTwitty

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

On Colorado’s iconic Roan Plateau pristine brooks guard some of the purest strains of Colorado River cutthroat trout  in the world.  

Twin threats of oil and gas development that could decimate this conservation population of trout–should it occur in the watersheds that harbor these fish–are sedimentation and the inevitable spills that occur in a gaspatch.

Following an article in the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel that noted a number of spills occurring on private lands being drilled on Roan Plateau, EarthJustice (the non-profit legal firm representing environmental and sportsmen groups suing to protect the Roan’s public lands) began looking into the matter.  

Today the Sentinel has the follow up:

[Attorney Michael] Freeman said the story prompted Earthjustice to look into the issue more closely.

Its findings “really just confirmed our sense that when it comes to spills and accidents on the Roan, the question’s not if, but when, and how many,” he said.

Freeman is helping represent the Colorado Environmental Coalition and other plaintiffs who sued the federal government over the Bureau of Land Management’s leasing of some 55,000 acres on and around the plateau.

The plaintiffs are particularly concerned about trying to protect the plateau top, where Bill Barrett Corp. owns the leases.

In the old tale of Chicken Little a hen one day, while eating lunch, is startled by an acorn dropping on her head–believing it to mean that ‘the sky is falling.’

Here we have–not an acorn mistaken for the sky–but documented (i.e. reported) spills and mishaps inside the Roan Plateau Planning Area–on the same quality of lands (albeit private) as the public lands immediately adjacent, and over which the battle is still being fought.

A growing number of cold-weather oil and gas spills in Garfield County bolsters the argument against drilling where federal leases were issued in 2008 on the Roan Plateau, says an attorney who is involved in a legal challenge of the leases.

Michael Freeman of the legal organization Earthjustice said state records show 31 spills occurred in the county from Nov. 1 through Jan. 31, compared to 19 for the same period a year earlier.

He said 13 of the incidents occurred on or near the plateau, according to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission’s database.

Freeman said the incidents help illustrate that if drilling occurs on the newly leased areas on public land on the plateau, spills will follow, threatening rare plants and fish, including genetically pure Colorado River cutthroat trout.

But the driller that hopes to exploit the Roan’s public lands and resources says this history of spills is no cause for alarm.

Bill Barrett spokesman Jim Felton said past spills around the plateau took place because of operator error.

“We’re not going to make those mistakes,” he said, citing the decades of experience company personnel have in the area.

He said Earthjustice is making “Chicken Little accusations” to scare people into contributing money to their efforts.

Bill Barret Corporation plans to drill upwards of 3,000 wells on the currently undeveloped public lands of Roan Plateau–15 times the number analyzed by the Bureau of Land Management under the Bush administration.  Even under that plan, mishaps are considered a likely event in any gasfield.  And BBC has a history:

None of the 13 spills Earthjustice found in the area of the plateau involved Barrett.

But Freeman said state records show dozens of spill reports involving the company’s operations elsewhere since 2005.

Settlement talks continue in the lawsuit.  Bill Barret’s dismissive attitude toward the reality of oil and gas development–spills happen–does nothing to bolster their claim that they will turn these valuable public lands into an industrial zone ‘responsibly.’  Some places are too special to drill–Roan’s public lands are among them.