A coalition of 10 environmental and wildlife organizations filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Denver on Friday in an effort to stop hotly contested drilling on the Roan Plateau.
The action, which comes less than five weeks from the planned lease of the top of the plateau for natural gas drilling, asks the court to halt the Bureau of Land Management’s drilling plan until the judge can consider the lawsuit.
“It’s too bad Coloradans have to go to court to protect (the state’s) wildlife heritage from this agency’s mindless devotion to industry demands,” said Steve Torbit, regional director of the National Wildlife Foundation, one of the groups that have filed the lawsuit.
The Roan Plateau, northwest of Rifle, has become a battleground between energy interests and environmentalists who hope to keep drill rigs off the top to protect deer and elk habitat and creeks full of native cutthroat trout.
After years of debate, a BLM plan would keep drill rigs off of sensitive cliffsides, but would open all of the leases to gas development. A phasing plan is intended to limit the impacts at any one time.
“It’s been more than a 10-year effort,” said BLM spokesman David Boyd, who said the lawsuit was no surprise. Boyd said he hadn’t seen it and cannot comment on the details.
Environmentalists have maintained that the sensitive top of the plateau should be kept free of drill rigs, forcing energy companies to drill from below to reach what they believe is a rich pocket of natural gas reserves. They criticize the BLM for ignoring an outpouring of public comment that overwhelmingly called for keeping rigs off the plateau. Local municipalities also asked to keep drill rigs off the top.
“Balance seems to have become an orphan in this administration’s mad rush to develop all resources without consideration of the economy and culture of local communities,” Torbit said. “Apparently, these guys will only consider the wishes of local communities when it agrees with their plans.”
The lawsuit contends that the BLM violated federal law by failing to consider a range of alternatives, by failing to analyze the impacts of the plan adequately, and by ignoring drilling impacts beyond 20 years. The groups argue that the agency also violated federal law by failing to analyze likely impacts on air quality and wildlife as a result of adding what they say could be 1,500 new wells already in place or on the way.
“The bottom line is that western Colorado stands to lose one of its most valued natural resources because it has become a pawn in a single-minded drilling push led by the industry and Washington,” said Steve Smith of The Wilderness Society, another plaintiff in the case.
Environmentalists are also trying to stop or delay the sale by filing protests on each individual gas lease on top of the plateau. That could delay any drilling while the BLM considers the protests, but it would not likely stop issuance of the leases, set for Aug. 14.
Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., is proposing legislation that would put into effect an alternative plan offered by Gov. Bill Ritter, also a Democrat. Ritter’s plan calls for a drilling ban on an additional 15,000 acres, which environmentalists say is an improvement, but does not go far enough to protect the plateau.
“We don’t have to jeopardize the Roan’s wildlife and rare trout in order for industry to get at the gas,” said Ken Neubecker, a member of Colorado Trout Unlimited, one of the litigants.
They point to recent spills, some in parts of the Roan already open to drilling, that could threaten to wipe out the area’s population of genetically-pure native cutthroat trout if one were to occur on top of the plateau.
“Once a stream is poisoned and the trout population destroyed, they are gone forever,” he said.
Also signing onto the lawsuit are the Carbondale-based Wilderness Workshop, Colorado Environmental Coalition, Colorado Mountain Club, Center for Native Ecosystems, Rock the Earth, Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club.
dfrey@aspendailynews.com