Take Action: BLM Oil/Gas Lease EIS

URGE THE BLM TO PUT CONSERVATION BEFORE DEVELOPMENT

Scoping comments due December 15 for Oil/Gas Leases EIS

Since the establishment of the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument in 2001, the American public has overwhelmingly supported a conservation vision for that magnificent landscape. In the recent election, Montanans also resoundingly voted for conservation values. We saw this in victories for open space bonds and overwhelming opposition to cyanide leach gold mining. Montana's new governor-elect won with a call to protect Montana's natural assets ahead of short term economic gain.

Now's a chance to add to momentum from Montana and once again urge the BLM to chart a course for conservation for the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument.

The BLM is currently seeking public comment regarding 12 natural gas leases within the Monument. Three of the leases were awarded in 1999, prior to the establishment of the Monument. A recent court ruling found that the BLM failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the National Historic Preservation Act when it issued those leases.

Consequently, the agency is reassessing all 12 of the leases, preparing an environmental review considering management options. This analysis will be incorporated in the Monument's Resource Management Plan (RMP), which provides a basic long term management vision for the Breaks. It is expected that the draft RMP will be released in summer 2005.

The 12 gas leases cover about 10,000 acres of the Monument, primarily within its Bullwhacker area, described in the Monument proclamation as "some of the wildest country on all the Great Plains." The Bullwhacker --the largest block of contiguous public land within the Monument-- features critical wildlife habitat, cultural and historic sites, geologic wonders, unparalleled opportunities for solitude, and rugged beauty that's both fragile and spectacular.

The BLM is charged with protecting the natural and historic attributes of the Monument, and any gas leasing and development that takes place within the Monument must be consistent with that mandate. That's why your input, now, is critical.

Here are some suggested scoping issues to raise in your letter:

• Is gas exploration, drilling, and development compatible with the values for which the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument was created? If existing leases are found to be invalid, they should be nullified. The Monument proclamation allows valid existing leases to be developed, if the Monument's natural and historic attributes can be protected, but prohibits new leasing.
• If natural gas development were to go ahead, effects of drilling and associated pipelines, gas collection facilities, and maintenance and support roads should be considered cumulatively along with airstrips, roads, motor vehicle and boat use, livestock, and other proposed or ongoing impacts to the Monument. A segmented analysis of gas extraction impacts, without consideration of additional resource pressures and consequences, fails to provide a meaningful picture.
• Since the 1950s, some 150 natural gas wells have been drilled on land that is now the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument. Very little gas has been produced from those wells. However, the exploration and drilling which has occurred left a network of road scars and drilling sites that have never been reclaimed. The BLM should prepare a comprehensive economic analysis, from both regional and national perspectives, comparing the costs of nominal additional gas production against the benefits of a unique and still largely undeveloped public landscape containing the myriad values for which the Monument was established.
• Pipelines serving operating gas wells should be buried along roadbeds to minimize surface disturbance. Roads accessing well sites should be limited to administrative use only. Once wells are no longer producing, gas roads should be fully reclaimed.
• Wildlife is a crucial "object" that the Monument was established to protect. To safeguard wildlife, gas wells should not be sited in or near bighorn sheep habitat, sage grouse nesting areas, elk calving grounds, and other critical habitat.
• The Monument was also created to preserve cultural and historic sites. As gas developments would be detrimental to these sites, they should be off-limits to drilling and associated activities. A thorough inventory of valued "objects" must be carried out prior to any gas development planning analyses and decisions.
• Similarly, opportunities to enjoy natural scenery, quiet, and solitude are fundamental to the Monument. To protect these values, well sites, if approved, should be dispersed to no more than one per section.
• To limit the spread of noxious weeds, all gas construction and support vehicles must be weed-free before entering the Monument.

Beyond the gas issue, insist that the BLM develop a Resource Management Plan consistent with the proclamation and reflecting overwhelming public support for a wild, undeveloped Monument celebrating Lewis and Clark's passage 200 years ago. There is no other place on the plains that remains largely as the Corps of Discovery experienced it. Clearly that's the highest value of the Breaks, something gas development or motorized use can only degrade.

All comments must be submitted to the BLM by December 15, 2004. Please address them to:

Gary Slagel, Monument Manager
Bureau of Land Management
Box 1160
Lewistown, MT 59457

Comments can also be emailed to: MonumentRMP@BLM.gov

Thank you!

For more information visit the BLM website: http://www.mt.blm.gov/ldo/um/AC_Newsletter_October_2004.pdf

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Or, click here to submit scoping comments to the BLM at The Wilderness Society website.

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