CBM research trip turns up concerns

Spectrum, by Jarel Vinduska

Recently I spent six days in the coal methane areas of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. I didn't go there to see if I wanted any gas wells on my land. No, to be honest, I like my land just the way it is, and that took a lot of effort and care and many years of work. I don't look forward to this property being occupied by a gas company without my permission.

To counter landowner concerns, some local legislators, the state Oil and Gas Commission and Evergreen Resources have been promoting the advantages of gas development. They have been telling us we have nothing to be concerned about; that gas development will be good for the Valley and needed for the "common good."

There have been so many conflicting claims that it became obvious that the only way to get the whole story about this industry would be to talk to many local people and see the impacted areas myself.

The area that is developed for methane extraction is amazingly large. There are thousands of wells and many thousands of miles of roads and pipelines. One of the first things I noticed was even though this is an arid area, there are water holding ponds and tanks everywhere and water running down the valleys in man-made creeks. There are also many trucks spraying water on the gravel roads. Much of the water is warm, somewhat salty and smells bad, like hydrogen sulfide.

I got the chance to visit with quite a diverse group of people. My first stop was the County Assessor's office in Trinidad, Colo., and then I talked to a geologist from the university. Throughout the week I also spoke with realtors, ranchers, acreage owners, people that worked for the industry, local businesses, hunters, and just about anyone willing to answer my questions.

Based on my observations and what locals have told me, the gas industry does create jobs, but there are some very real areas of concern.

1. Methane development can cause taxes to increase because of the many roads and services needed by the increased population.

2. It can reduce property values.

3. It is very noisy.

4. Gas wells can cause domestic water wells to go dry or become contaminated, according to some landowners.

5. Methane development can allow methane gas to seep to the surface and kill vegetation or get into homes or water wells.

These gas seeps seem to be a problem that is particularly troublesome. Some land-

owners told me vegetation on their property died within a couple years after gas wells were drilled in the area. I went to some sites with Ron Richards, a consultant with Apogee Scientific. This Denver-based company specializes in gas detection equipment. Ron offered to bring the methane detector and showed that indeed there were leaks where native vegetation had died. Methane was not detected in the adjacent areas where plant life was healthy. He had already completed a gas seep study in 2001 for the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. To the commission's credit, they realized the need of baseline information on water quality and quantity and gas seep mapping.

The bottom line is that there are risks in this industry that need to be addressed.

One question that I asked everyone I talked to was if they thought the gas industry was good for the area. Generally those who thought methane development was good either worked for the industry or had large ranches with mineral rights. Those with mineral rights were making substantial income and were more inclined to tolerate gas wells because the size of the properties allowed them to choose less intrusive locations farther from their homes and water wells.

Those with smaller acreages and especially landowners without mineral rights and homeowners forced to live in close proximity to the development were inclined to be more critical of the industry.

Unfortunately, this is the kind of polarization that is developing in our Valley. This is a shame, since we all suffer if we disregard any person's rights. Don't we all lose if any part of our environment is damaged? I think we need to be very cautious and never forget that many of us came to this beautiful valley to escape areas that had become undesirable places to live.

We need good regulation of this industry and we need to have control of our private property. It's the only way we can preserve the lifestyle we enjoy.

Jarel Vinduska is a Palmer resident.