Stop drilling, residents say

PALMER -- When more than 400 people gathered to hear more about coal-bed methane drilling in the Mat-Su Borough, one theme seemed to generate more response than any other -- no drilling until more is known and landowners reach some measure of satisfaction their property will be protected.

"I don't feel comfortable with the regulations in place, and I really feel like we need to stop this until there are regulations in place to protect Valley residents," one person in a string of Valley residents asking for a moratorium on drilling said. "The $100 million that the state of Alaska hopes to gain will have long ago disappeared before the effects from coal-bed methane drilling are cleaned up."

Residents from across the borough flocked to Palmer Junior Middle School on Wednesday to hear information from both sides of the coal-bed methane drilling issue. It was standing-room only for many attendees, with others lining cafeteria tables along the sides of the room when the hundreds of chairs were full.

Officials from the Department of Natural Resource's Division of Oil and Gas and the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission countered concerns by pointing out permitting procedures that govern the actions of coal-bed methane drillers.

Patrick Galvin of Oil and Gas explained some of the reasons regulations aren't currently in place.

"We hear a lot of comments about there being no particular regulations. A lot of the regulations are actually through the approval process that does approve water quality standards," Galvin said. "We have to balance both the need for a particular regulation and the justification for it … we don't want to establish a regulation for every approval, it's just not possible."

Part of the reason it's not possible, Galvin later said, is that the state is prohibited from making the process too restrictive for shallow-gas companies.

"One theme that's not been addressed, and I almost hate to bring it up, is that for shallow-gas decisions, we have statutory requirements that we are to only adopt the minimum regulations necessary to run the program," Galvin said, referring to wording in House Bill 69.

But Galvin and other state officials told residents that didn't mean standards weren't in place.

"They will have to produce the lowest impacts based on, if they tried to lower it any further, the cost impacts are going to overwhelm any benefits from lowering it further," Galvin said of noise levels. "If you feel there should be a precise number, that's what we will consider … There are enforcement rules for requirements that we are going to hold them to."

For most residents, noise issues were less of a concern than fears that their water table or wells would be depleted through the process. Citing action in other areas of the nation, several at the meeting said 12,000 or more gallons of water per well each day could be taken out of the coal bed seam to make way for the release of methane in the seam. Although Evergreen has said it will drill well below the groundwater level, without risk of depleting that resource, some at the meeting cited applications in other areas of the nation by Evergreen to drill above 1,000-foot depths. AOGCC officials said they won't allow shallow drilling that would endanger residents' water supplies.

"By our regulations, we wouldn't allow anything to be produced in shallow waters, so that's a guarantee already in place," AOGCC Commissioner Randy Ruedrich told one resident asking for a guarantee her water table would remain stable.

But many weren't comfortable that the state, which is now relying on drilling companies to drill, test and submit the results of their own test wells to monitor water tables in the area, was up to the challenge. Sharmon Stambaugh, with DNR's air and water quality office, said the office doesn't have time or manpower to test private wells prior to production, but referred landowners to the Department of Environmental Conservation's Environmental Health office. Lynn Lowman, at 376-5038 in that office, Stambaugh said, could provide landowners with more information.

Stambaugh added that her office did not yet have data on water Evergreen Resources, the only shallow-gas drilling company currently holding wells in the area, was reinjecting into the ground. The water, she said, is all being injected to the aquifer or level in which the water was originally drilled, but DEC has not yet received testing data from Evergreen.

"It's to everybody's advantage to know the quality of that water," Stambaugh said.

Others weren't comfortable that damage to the water table could be construed by drilling companies as a naturally occurring event, or that it could go unnoticed for decades. One attendee cited research he had done, indicating the approximate age of the water relied upon by many for wells is between 15 and 25 years old, and that any toxic or damaging impacts to the aquifer may not be seen for that long. He asked how long the state would hold the bond drilling companies are required to post to cover damage costs.

"The bond will be held in place until reclamation is complete, and then released," Galvin said. "[Bonds] have to be released based upon findings that all reclamation is complete."

There's no guarantee, Sutton resident and Palmer attorney Chris Rose pointed out, that the bond would be in place to cover damage 25 years down the road.

When asked bluntly by one resident what people concerned about drilling could be done to place a moratorium on drilling until people were satisfied their private property investments would be covered, no one on the panel of state officials answered. But other citizens had a few ideas.

"These guys just work for Governor Murkowski, but when he ran, he told us we need to balance our state budget with resource development," said Sutton resident, potter and wife of Chris Rose, Robin McLean. "I want to tell people something we can do -- launch an initiative to repeal House Bill 69. It's going to be really hard … but we can repeal other bills as well if we saw fit and we have enough energy."

House Bill 69, introduced last year by Wasilla Rep. Vic Kohring, streamlines the permitting process for coal-bed methane extraction and cuts the Alaska Coastal Management Program permitting requirements out of the process. One result of that streamlining was the reduced public notice effort for previous shallow-gas leases, an oversight DNR is now working to address.

At McLean's suggestions, several people went to the back of the room to indicate they'd like to help with the effort to repeal HB 69.