Montana's Front: Threatened by New Drilling Proposals

Letters Needed Today to Help Protect the Front

Attend One of the Open Houses Scheduled for May in Montana Communities

One of North America’s most stunning landscapes, Montana's Rocky Mountain Front, faces a new round of natural gas drilling proposals.

In 1997, because of overwhelming public response, the Lewis and Clark National Forest placed a ten year leasing ban on all Forest Service lands along the Front. This decision, however, did not apply to pre-existing leases, and now the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is in the process of preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for new drilling permits on several pre-existing leases right in the heart of Montana's Front. These drill sites are in the spectacular Blackleaf area, located west of the town of Choteau.

Despite massive public opposition, the administration is pressuring the Forest Service and BLM to expedite drilling along the Rocky Mountain Front.

Startech Energy, a Canadian company, has proposed drilling three wells in Blindhorse Canyon, a BLM Outstanding Natural Area, and occupied grizzly bear habitat. The BLM also will analyze potential future drilling options, including up to eight additional wells.

The energy development proposed by Startech, and additional drilling that the BLM will analyze, will create tremendous negative impacts on the Front – ranging from increased air and water pollution, to lost wildlife habitat, as well as diminished recreation opportunities and outfitting business.

Many Montanans question whether the loss of the Front is worth the little energy – at most two days – that may be found there.

Background:
Stretching for over a hundred miles, from Glacier National Park to near Helena, Montana's Rocky Mountain Front is a place of unparalleled natural beauty. From atop the massive limestone cliffs that jut skyward three thousand feet one can gaze out onto a Great Plains virtually unchanged since the days of Lewis and Clark. With the exception of wild bison, the full complement of native wildlife still inhabits the Front. This long north-south strip of wildlife habitat is so rich that Montana's Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department consider the Front to be in the top one percent of wildlife habitat in the U.S. The Front harbors one of the country’s largest bighorn sheep herds and second largest elk herd. It also contains one of the largest populations of grizzlies south of Canada, including the only place where grizzlies still roam on the Great Plains. This productive ecosystem also includes 700 plant species, representing one third of Montana’s flora.

Montanans have long supported and taken action to protect the Front, from the 1913 creation of the state’s first game preserve (Sun River Game Preserve) to the 1972 creation of the nation’s first citizen initiated Wilderness Area (Scapegoat Wilderness). More recently, an impressive collection of elected officials and local leaders have adamantly spoken out against allowing drilling here, including Senator Baucus (D-MT), the Lewis and Clark County Commissioners (this county covers the southern half of the Front), the mayor of Great Falls, the former Lewis and Clark National Forest Supervisor, and the former Montana BLM State Director. Polls, public comment opportunities, and newspaper editorials all show that the vast majority of Montanans want to see the Front protected from any natural gas drilling.

Startech Energy, a Canadian company, has proposed drilling three wells in Blindhorse Canyon, a BLM Outstanding Natural Area, and occupied grizzly bear habitat. Startech’s proposal would have an immediate impact on the health of the Front and would open the door to additional development. Just to start, Startech’s proposal would require eight miles of new pipeline, the re-opening of a natural gas processing plant, and the rebuilding of a primitive road up 2000 vertical feet in order to haul 100 semi-loads of equipment.

The BLM also will analyze potential future drilling options, including up to eight additional wells. In the past year, two other lease holders have submitted applications to drill. One of these, Grizzly Resources, has proposed drill sites on Muddy Creek and Dupuyer Creeks, both in or adjacent to roadless Forest Service lands and state Wildlife Management Areas. Furthermore, two additional wells, now capped, could be reopened.

The impacts of the proposed drilling would be significant the Front’s wildlife, recreation, and scenic values. Pumping, for example, would take place 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The lights and noise would destroy the area’s natural serenity, impact adjacent wilderness areas, and displace wildlife, as well as air and water pollution.

Many Montanans question whether the loss of the Front is worth the little energy that may be found there. The BLM estimates the 58,000-acre Blackleaf EIS study area contains between .014 and .106 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. This is, at most, a two-day supply for the U.S., if any economically recoverable gas is even found. Startech estimates only a 1 in 4 chance of finding recoverable gas with its proposed Blindhorse wells.

What You Can Do:

Attend one of the EIS public meetings being held by the BLM. These meetings are:

May 3 (6-9 pm), Choteau: High School Auditorium
May 4 (6-9 pm), Great Falls: Holiday Inn Convention Center
May 5 (6-9 pm), Missoula: University Center, south Ballroo
May 17 (6-9 pm), Helena: Carroll College Campus Center, Sienna room
May 20 (6-9 pm), Browning: Blackfeet Community College Commons

Send a letter to the BLM with your “scoping” comments for the Blackleaf Area EIS.

Scoping and the public meetings are a chance to tell the BLM what issues must be addressed in the environmental analysis and to ask to be added to the mailing list for any Front drilling news or comment periods.

Written, personalized comments are by far the best. So we need you to write a letter today. Here are some important points you might want to raise in your comments:
 

A Real No Action Alternative: Demand that the EIS include a viable no-action alternative, one that evaluates and quantifies the costs for the government to trade or buyout all of the leases in the Blackleaf unit.

Air Quality: Montana's largest Wilderness Area, the Bob Marshall Wilderness, is immediately adjacent to the Front and has been designated a Class I airshed. Ask that the BLM detail air quality impacts from particulates from construction, pollution from vehicles and generators, hydrogen sulfide releases in the natural gas, and damage to agriculture from particulates and pollution.

Sense of Place: Drilling activity undermines the unique sense of place and wilderness values and adversely impacts the viewshed for a larger area. Ask that the BLM assess these values. The Forest Service’s 1997 leasing EIS found that “sense of place” was an important value for the Front that would be impacted by drilling and could not be mitigated. This BLM EIS should also analyze what drilling would mean to this value.

Wildlife: Ask that the EIS detail the habitat fragmentation that would result from road and well pad construction and what the impacts will be to threatened and endangered species. Remember that all of the proposed drilling site are in occupied grizzly bear habitat.

Cumulative Effects: This initial exploration proposal could easily lead to major “full field development.” So the EIS needs to seriously analyze the cumulative impacts of full field development including: noise and lights from drilling and production, associated impacts of pipelines and a sweetening plant, fragmentation and impacts that extend beyond the footprint of proposed roads and drill pads.
Economic Impacts: The EIS needs to fully disclose the economic impacts from the loss of hunting and fishing opportunities, diminished wildlife viewing and tourist activities, and reduced outfitting business. Furthermore, the EIS should include a true cost-benefit accounting of what the proposed drilling would mean to the local county’s budget and to a larger area, like Great Falls, since their quality of life and economy is connected to the recreation and other values of the Front.

Comments are due by June 1, 2004

Please send comments to:

Blackleaf Project EIS Team Lead, Bureau of Land Management, Lewistown Field Office
P.O. Box 1160
Lewistown, MT 59457.

Or email your letter to: mt_blackleaf_eis@blm.gov

3. Write a letter or copy your comments to Montana’s Congressional delegation:

It is important that you also send a copy of your comments to Montana’s two Senators Since Congress will ultimately need to take action to protect the Front, it is important that you also contact Montana’s delegation. At the very least send a copy of your scoping comments to Montana's Senators and Representative. Send to:

Max Baucus: 511 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510-2602 or: max@baucus.senate.gov

Conrad Burns: 187 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510-2603 or:
mailto:conrad_burns@burns.senate.gov

Denny Rehburg: 516 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515 or denny.rehberg@mail.house.gov

Anyone who gazes at the Front, even from afar, must have some notion of why so many care so deeply about it. It is here, where the Rocky Mountains spill onto the Parries and amid the elk, bighorns, grizzlies, and other wildlife, that you discover the soul of Montana. There are people that would drill holes in that soul! And to them we say this: not even if this were the last place on earth left to drill.

The Missoulian (4/29/01 editorial)