West Coast in Wyoming
A bird’s eye view of coalbed methane in the Powder River Basin
As pressure to develop coalbed methane across BC increases, West Coast Environmental Law, along with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, decided to see first hand what its impacts have been on the ground. Last July, we invited representatives of 11 BC and Northern First Nations, several of whose lands are currently being impacted by coalbed methane development, on a tour of coalbed methane developments in the US.
The Powder River Basin sits on the border of Wyoming and Montana. Its sweeping grasslands are home to ranches and extensive agricultural lands. On the Wyoming side, where coalbed methane development has been underway for over 20 years, there are the telltale signs of heavy industrial activity. A maze of roads have destroyed habitat, compressor stations hum incessantly, and produced water pits dot the landscape.
Albert Genier, of the Na Cho N’Yak Dun First Nation, a member of the group, saw the impacts of coalbed methane development for the first time. “You can read in a book about how a skunk smells, but until it sprays you, you won’t know what it tastes like,” was how Genier characterized the visit. “Coalbed methane has left a bad taste in my mouth.”
That “bad taste” was a reflection of the range of problems caused by coalbed methane in the US. And while there are examples of coalbed methane development being done responsibly, most of what we saw on our four-day tour confirmed that Canadians should be concerned about coalbed methane development. We need to ensure that as this development proceeds in Canada, that we do not let it have the same impact on our lands and communities that it has had in the US.
Changed Ecosystems: Fragmentation and Noise
Over the course of the tour, the group was shocked to see the extent of the disturbance from coalbed methane, particularly just outside of the community of Sheridan, Wyoming. Within a few miles of town, we traveled along dirt roads that contained numerous spurs for coalbed methane wells and produced water pits. We stood under the din of the compressor stations to get a sense of how noisy they can be. We met with ranchers whose lands are awash with wells, water pits, and related industrial infrastructure.
One of the main issues with coalbed methane in Wyoming is the vast quantities of produced water that are generated, usually too high in saline content to have any use, even for irrigation. We learned that in 20 years, aquifers in the Powder River Basin will be 60 percent of what they were, and a full recharge will take 100 years, and that each producing well generates 20 tonnes of salt per year and 43 million barrels of water per month. We saw once productive soil that is now inert from the produced water. We stood downwind of produced water being sprayed across the fields and could taste the salt water spray.
The Powder River Basin is mostly cropland and grassland, where extensive road construction does not require logging forested land as is the case much of BC, or somehow building on top of the delicate permafrost, as would be the case in the north. Whereas produced water in the Powder River Basin is often disposed of in pits, we wondered whether this contaminated water would flood through northern rivers and streams, and how fish and their habitat would be affected.
Voices not heard: Landowner and Native concerns disregarded by government
Over the course of the tour, we met with different native organizations, ranchers and landowner groups. A recurring theme that emerged from both the ranchers and the Native Americans is that they feel that the government has treated them as though they are “expendable”. Gail Small, the Executive Director of Native Action, on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, said that she sees her land as “an island in the spiderweb” of coal and coalbed methane development all around them. As Gail said, while money comes and goes, they must keep their land for future generations. Similarly, Art Hayes Jr., a longtime rancher in Montana is concerned about how the produced water from coalbed methane will impact the ability of ranchers to irrigate their land, and emphasized that clean water is an irreplaceable resource, more valuable to him than coalbed gas.
US vs Canada: What about the Law?
While the Powder River Basin extends across the Wyoming-Montana border, the two states have very different histories of coalbed methane development. Wyoming has been producing coalbed methane for over 20 years, but Montana didn’t begin to permit development until the late 1990s when a number of wells were drilled near the Wyoming border.
In 2000, Montana based Northern Plains Resources Council discovered that the state was permitting coalbed methane development without an environmental review, and sued the State of Montana for this illegal action. They settled the lawsuit out of court and the State agreed to stop permitting coalbed methane development until an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was completed under federal and state law. The final EIS has been released, which is favourable to coalbed methane development. The regulators have now finalized plans for coalbed methane development on the Montana side of the Powder River Basin.
Once the moratorium is lifted, drilling will begin immediately. Northern Plains has analyzed the Final EIS, and remains concerned that the plan will not protect clean water or private property rights adequately, and have mounted another legal challenge to the document.
Unfortunately, Canadian environmental assessment laws do not operate the same way that the law does in the US. The BC Environmental Assessment Act does not have a “trigger” for coalbed methane production, and the most obvious trigger under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act pertains to how the produced water is to be disposed of, where a permit may be required for an activity that could damage fish habitat. Neither of these laws contain mandatory mechanisms to review the large scale impacts of this prospective industry.
For more information, see our website, which contains pictures of the tour, and our Citizen’s Guide to Coalbed Methane, or contact West Coast staff lawyer Karen Campbell, at
karen_campbell@wcel.org.
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