The lawsuit comes at a time when three companies, Shell Exploration & Production, Ultra Resources, and Questar Exploration and Production, have asked to have seasonal restrictions removed to allow for expanded year-round drilling. Rules require development be shut down during wildlife breeding and migration.
The BLM is examining the request, part of a plan that would develop as many as 4,399 wells over 60 years on about 12,272 acres in the Anticline, Howes said. The plan, which is expected to be released in the next couple of weeks, would generate about $16 billion in royalties, half of which would go to Wyoming, she said. The Anticline has more than 800 wells, she said.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday, June 20, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 35 words Type of Material: Correction
Oil drilling in Wyoming: A photo caption in Thursday's Section A with an article about a lawsuit over drilling in the Pinedale Anticline reserve identified an animal as a deer. It is a pronghorn antelope.
The Environmental Protection Agency's regional administrator, Robert E. Roberts, said in a recent letter that the BLM's proposed plan should be revised because it did not adequately analyze the effects of development on air quality and groundwater.
Paul Matheny, vice president for Questar Exploration's Rockies region, said the new plan would allow for them to increase their output while better addressing environmental sensitivities. The company, which drills five months a year, funded a 2004 study that showed drilling year-round from a limited area, and using pipes instead of tanker trucks, was less environmentally destructive to the mule deer population.
"We really minimize the amount of habitat fragmentation and surface disturbance due to the drilling . . ." Matheny said. "Since then, the deer population stabilized and has started to rebound when we operate this way."
A 2006 report showed the deer population declined 46% since 2000, the suit said. The study was industry-funded and performed by Western EcoSystems Technology Inc.
The suit does not ask the BLM to stop production in the Anticline. "We're not opposed to public lands' energy development," McKalip said, "as long as it adheres to efforts to sustain fish and wildlife resources throughout the course of development activities."
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tami.abdollah@latimes.com
