Lander County commissioners sided with south county residents who fear the Bureau of Land Management's oil and gas lease sale in July could result in fracking near their homes.
Around seven residents from the southern portion of Lander County were at the April 10 Lander County commission meeting urging commissioners to take action against the sale.
Three BLM representatives were there to provide information and answer questions. Chris Cook, field manager for the BLM's Mount Lewis Field Office, told those at the meeting that the local office was responsible for conducting the NEPA process, which included the environmental assessment but now the sale of the leases is being turned over to the state and out of his hands.
Residents and officials will have 30 days from April 14 to submit letters of protest to the state office which will then have 60 days to respond and issue a decision.
An appeal can then be made to the Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) but the lease sales will still go through. The IBLA can then revoke the lease sales if it sides with those who are protesting, explained Jon Sherve, assistant field manager-minerals with the Mount Lewis Field Office.
Commissioners voted unanimously to protest the lease sale at which point members of the audience applauded. Commission Chair Brian Garner was absent.
Lander County had 22 parcels nominated by industry. The total area of the 22 parcels is 37,407 acres. Of the 22, nine parcels will be deferred and eight parcels partially deferred. The total area now available for leasing is 15,567 acres.
"At this stage, all we're simply saying is, these parcels have been looked at and in conforming with the land use plan, are available potentially for oil and gas exploration or development," Cook said. "At the point where an operator wants to come in and actually put in an exploratory well, they would have to apply for a permit to that and at that time we would do another environmental assessment for their particular proposal."
John Menghini, petroleum engineer for the state office of the BLM, said companies are only allowed to drill a certain number of wells on a set amount of land and the wells are deep.
"The state has a spacing of 40 acres between oil wells and so you can't get any closer than 40 acres spacing and most of the wells are from 8,000 to 10,000, as deep as 12,000, which is rare, and mainly oil," he said.
Cook told commissioners that aside from the deferred sites, the BLM is obligated under federal law to offer certain parcels for oil and gas exploration. He said his local office does the ground work which includes the EA and then turns everything over to the state for the lease sale.
"It is possible (exploration) could occur," Cook said. "At any subsequent stage there will be initial discussions, evaluations. The minute we think we're going to get something, we will be down here briefing the commission, letting you know, talking about that process so this is not something that we want to spring on anybody or want anybody to be alarmed with at this stage."
Cook said that if companies come forward and want to explore or drill another NEPA process would be initiated and then the public will once again be able to comment on the EA and write protest letters.
"This is all very speculative at this point," Cook said. "This is simply a right to be able to explore. Were they to come in with that then at that time in that part of the process we would be working with affected permittees, with adjacent landowners, with everybody who would be involved in what development may or may not occur. The assumption is we are automatically going to frack wells and that is not the case at this stage. There is no intent to frack, necessarily even permission to frack or anything at this stage. This is simply saying these parcels are available for exploration should a company choose to do so."
Commissioner Dave Mason interjected, "Well, the state is protecting us, the county and at least we're not going into this blind-folded. If we go into anything, you're going to tell us what's happening."
Cook told him yes.
Paul and Karlene Andreola, who are farmers in the south county area and have property that borders the land up for leasing, said they applied to lease the land never got a response from the BLM.
Menghini said they would only be able to use the land for oil and gas exploration, not for farming or homes or anything else. He said companies have 10 years to explore or the lease terminates.
If a company does drill and explore within 10 years then the lease lasts for the life of the project, said district manager Doug Furtado with the Battle Mountain District, who was not at the meeting.
"The problem is though is you are opening the door to that operation or what they are going to do," Karlene Andreola told Cook. "We already know what fracking entails. We understand the horrible process that is going to be done through that. Once you've opened the door, right now, we have the power to stop this at a county level. If we go further and allow that sale to come in July, the door is wide open anytime for those people to come in and start exploring on every 40-acre parcel."
Commission Vice Chair Dean Bullock said the county is not over the BLM, that all the commissioners can do is write a letter of protest.
"Now what about the environmental studies?" Andreola asked Cook. "How can you move forward with it before any environmental studies have even been done? You say they are going to be done after the fact. That's not good enough for me and it's not good enough for the residents of Reese River, the Yomba Reservation. There are a lot of concerned citizens."
Menghini said that from his scientific view, no data has confirmed to date any contamination of water aquifers.
Concerned south county resident John Norton asked about Wyoming, where reports of contaminated wells due to fracking have been made by residents.
"We're not allowed to drill through a fresh water aquifer without protecting it by half inch steel casing, followed by a cement sheath on the backside," Menghini said.
He continued, "... Now I'm not going to sit here and say that accidents don't happen. The flow-back could have a spill on the surface. That happens. Is there any record of it being insurmountable or a catastrophic accident? No."
Karlene Andreola suggested the process slow down a bit.
"But don't you think at this point in time that there are enough reasons to go slower with this and do the impact studies because they're going to be right around existing industry?" Karlene Andreola asked. "It's not just contamination that we're concerned about for the long haul. For the long haul, it's losing the water that we so dearly depend on to be able to grow crops, to be able to water livestock."
Meghini said any industry that wanted to frack would have to apply to the state for water and would only be allowed a certain amount.
"They can't just go out and take water," Cook said. "The BLM's just not saying 'you can go out there and do whatever you want to the water,' because the state water engineer would still have to give them appropriated water rights to be able to use that or to have to buy it from somebody or get if from somewhere else."
Norton got up and gave an impassioned plea to commissioners. He said the most valuable asset is fresh water.
"It's never been messed with," he said. "It's never been tarnished. Yes, they have to list these as potentials but they don't have to sell them. They are not obligated to sell these parcels for oil and gas fracking. They are choosing to do it and there are some in this country that would ask what's driving this bus. This is an unregulated industry."
He continued, "If you go to Wyoming and you look on YouTube at any of the ranchers that are over there that have been there for generations, the ranches are gone. The water's polluted. They can't even grow a garden. The oil company has to bring them fresh water to cook and to drink because they can't drink the water."
Norton said the BLM is asking the county to risk the asset of clean water for no reward.
"How can that be? he asked. "And, after the oil companies are done pulling their oil, which usually comes in the first side of the cycle ... after they get done drilling their wells and plugging their holes and using the chemicals, I think, what is it, nine that the industry won't release because it's proprietary information. This stuff'll go through a crack in glass. It'll eat rock. Ten years from now, 20 years from now, who knows? Will it come to the surface? I wouldn't want to bet against it. I wouldn't want to have my fingerprints on it. It all depends on the water 50 years from now. Clean water is life in Nevada and without it, you don't have any life."
Norton talked about how in 2005, former President George Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney passed the amendment to the Clean Water Act which made hydraulic fracking immune to many environmental protections. This is often referred to as the Halliburton Loophole.
"That means after they're gone and they've taken their oil and their profits, we wind up with what's left or our kids do or worse, yet our grandkids do or our great-grandkids do," Norton said.
Norton asked for the county to stop the lease sale but Bullock said that all the county can do is send a letter just like any regular citizen. He said the county cannot tell the BLM what to do.
"This isn't a democracy then," Karlene Andreola said. "This is not a democratic approach if they can just step on this county locally and if you look at where the money is going, none of it's coming to us locally. It's going to the state and the federal government."
Paul Andreola pointed out that maybe the residents can go to federal court and get an injunction to stop it.
A Ninth District federal judge ruled in California at the beginning of the month that the government was wrong to allow energy companies to drill for oil on 2,700 acres of public land without first considering the environmental impacts. Norton told commissioners that the BLM's EA for Lander County's lease sale has the same exact "boiler plate" language.
Karlene Andreola read a letter opposing the fracking that she said represented the views of many south county residents.
"Rather than focus on jumping on the fracking train like the rest of the country, we should focus on development efforts on those technologies that match the area's unique qualities," she read. The letter was written by Debra Amens of the Lenox Ranch.
"This is the lesson that farmers and others in the region have learned through trial and error."
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