Following five years of study and analysis, including 14 public meetings, the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) has been issued for the 125,000-acre Northern San Juan Basin Coal Bed Methane Project in Colorado by the San Juan Public Lands Center, which is a combination of the Bureau of Land Management and the San Juan National Forest.

While there has already been development in this portion of the San Juan Basin — 300 well pads and 200 miles of roads — the FEIS mainly deals with the HD Mountains, parts of which had been designated a roadless area and also with infill drilling at lower elevations. The total coalbed methane reserve, including production to date, in the Northern San Juan Basin analysis area, except for the Southern Ute Reservation, is estimated at 2.5 Tcf.

The FEIS, working with 68,000 responses to its request for comments, materially altered the original plan proposed by six energy companies holding leases in the area in 2001. The San Juan Center developed a new alternative — alternative 7 — for development in the Northern San Juan Basin of La Plata and Archuleta counties north of the Southern Ute Reservation.

Preferred alternative 7 seeks to balance lease rights with environmental concerns by requiring industry to gather data on drilling impacts in less sensitive areas along the Fruitland Outcrop before development is allowed in more sensitive areas, and by identifying areas in the HD Mountains Roadless Area that are not suitable for development using currently proposed techniques.

Mark Stiles, San Juan Forest National Forest supervisor and BLM Center manager, said the FEIS issued Aug. 3 basically provides for mitigation where possible, correction of any problems created and indemnification of adjacent landowners against damage. It prohibits road building on very steep canyon walls where the soils are not suitable and provides a very careful approach for development around the outcrop where it is more likely gas could escape and start fires or methane seeps could contaminate adjacent water wells.

Stiles said the FEIS attempts to balance the interests of the energy companies, which already hold leases on the acreage, with public concerns. “Nobody is actually happy with it,” but he said the industry has gone on record in a local newspaper editorial page as saying the FEIS appears to be workable and has nothing they can’t live with.

The analysis estimates alternative 7 would mean 127 well pads, compared to the 162 planned by the companies; it would mean 72 road miles compared to 97; and it would have a long-term impact on 381 acres, compared to 487 acres.

In addition to the two requirements above, the Final EIS responds to public concerns by:

The Final EIS will be available to the public for at least 30 days before final decisions are made, which will be recorded in a Record of Decision expected in September. View the FEIS at https://www.nsjb-eis.net .

The analysis estimates the life of the project at 40 years, including construction, production and reclamation. Construction of the wells would begin this year and continue for five years. The productive life of each well is estimated at 25-30 years. The FEIS includes the one-third of the San Juan Basin that is in Colorado, minus the territory that is part of the Southern Ute Indian Reservation. Also, it includes only government lands, not privately held acreage. The total San Juan Basin covers 100-square miles in northwestern New Mexico and southwestern Colorado with tens of thousands of wells.

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