BATTLE MOUNTAIN - The Lander County Commission came through on its unanimous April vote to back south county residents and formally protest the Bureau of Land Management's July 17 oil and gas lease sale for parcels of land in southern Lander County that could lead to hydraulic fracturing, known commonly as fracking.
"I'm just grateful that they followed through and filed the protest," said Karlene Andreola. She and her husband, Paul, own Andreola Farms, an alfalfa farm in the south county area. Their property borders the land included in the lease sale.
The letter from the county states, "Any possible benefit is clearly outweighed by the risk no matter how small. Any incident could cause irreversible catastrophic damage to Nevadans way of life and livelihoods for generations. Therefore we ask that all land leases for oil or gas be suspended until we can be 100 percent assured that no interference or environmental damage will occur."
The county decided to take action after around seven south county residents showed up at the April 10 commission meeting and pleaded with commissioners to help halt the sale.
Chris Cook, field manager for the BLM's Mount Lewis Field Office, said at the meeting the local office conducted the NEPA process but since that was concluded, the sale of the oil and gas leases has been turned over to the state BLM office and is out of the hands of the local office now.
The BLM received only four letters protesting the oil and gas lease sale by the end of the May 16 protest period. The other three letters were from the Yomba Shoshone Tribe, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Gandolfo Ranch. The tribe's four-page letter addresses a lack of consultation, the impacts on a water resources and a California case that questioned the validity of the BLM's Environmental Assessment (EA).
The BLM said it takes all letters of protest under consideration. After the state office issues decisions on the letters of protest, an appeal can be made to the Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA).
The sale will still go through but the board can revoke the sales if it sides with those who are protesting, explained Jon Sherve, assistant field manager-minerals for the BLM's Mount Lewis Field Office.
According to Sherve, the BLM received around 5,100 comments during the EA public comment period which was held Feb. 12 through March 13. He said most of them were from wild horse advocates and all of the comments were negative.
Meanwhile, south county residents have banded together to form an LLC called Reese River Basin Citizens Against Fracking, said Andreola. Anyone is welcome to join the group and a meeting will be held soon, she said.
"We're going to pursue all avenues," Andreola added. "It's multifaceted right now."
The total area available for leasing in Lander County is 15,567 acres. There were originally 37,407 acres, encompassing 22 parcels but some of that land was deferred by the BLM due to environmental concerns.
The lease sale cannot be stopped, Sherve said. However, the state office can still defer more parcels, he added.
Cook told commissions at the April 10 meeting that under federal law, the BLM is obligated to offer certain parcels for oil and gas exploration. If a company decides to explore or drill on one of these parcels another NEPA process would be initiated and the public would once again have the chance to comment or protest if they should so choose. He said if anything happens, the BLM will come back to the commission and inform members.
Sherve came before Lander County commissioners March 13 and said the BLM's lease sale is only being held to convey leases, not to give approval for any surface disturbance or development.
At the March 27 commission meeting residents complained they weren't made aware of the oil and gas lease sale until after the public comment period.
Doug Furtado, BLM Battle Mountain District manager, said an EA was done and a public comment period was held for 30 days for this lease sale.
The documents came out in February and the public comment period ended March 13. He said the BLM sent out press releases and notified the public through the BLM website.
Former Lander County Commissioner Ray Williams, Jr., said at the March 27 commission meeting the public was not given enough time to review the several-hundred page document that was released in mid-February. Sherve said the state office set the timeline and it was beyond the local office's control.
South county resident Paul Amens, of the Lenox Ranch, who lives adjacent to the lands proposed for the lease sale, said recently he is completely against it and was shocked at the lack of effort put forth by the BLM to involve the public.
"I did not learn of the proposal until after the comment period had ended and upon calling the project lead learned that because I had not commented prior to the cut off, they would not consider my opposition during any appeals process," he said. "That's just wrong. Our livelihood depends on access and use of the ground water and the lack of analysis on how fracking will impact this key resource prior to a sale of this magnitude borders on complete ineptitude."
He continued, "BLM is suppose to be managing our public lands for multiple uses by the public. This process feels like they have been trying to sneak this sale through with the least amount of public input possible. Perhaps they thought that because we are in a very rural area they could get this sale to go through before running into resistance."
John Menghini, petroleum engineer for the state office of the BLM said at the April 10 commission meeting that the state requires a spacing of 40 acres between oil wells and the wells are anywhere from 8,000 to 10,000 feet deep, possibly 12,000 on occasion. He said the Nevada deposits are mainly oil.
Menghini said the companies that buy the leases have 10 years to explore or the lease terminates. If they begin exploration within those 10 years, the lease lasts for the life of the project.
"The problem is, though, you are opening the door to that operation or what they are going to do," Andreola said at the April 10 meeting. "We already know what fracking entails. We understand the horrible process that is going to be done through that."
Menghini said that from a scientific view, no data has confirmed to date any contamination of water aquifers and that the piping used in the process is protected by half-inch steel casing, followed by a cement sheath on the backside.
" ... Now I'm not going to sit here and say that accidents don't happen," Menghini said. "The flow-back could have a spill on the surface. That happens. Is there a record of it being insurmountable or a catastrophic accident? No."
Andreola said residents were not only concerned about water contamination but with the loss of the water. Fracking takes an enormous amount of water, between 2 million and 5.6 million gallons of water for each well, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. Menghini said any company that fracks would only be allowed a certain amount of water by the state.
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