This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A major Uinta Basin natural gas proposal overcame a years-long environmental roadblock Thursday, easing the way for thousands of new jobs and 3,675 new wells.
That increase would nearly match Utah's current 4,005 gas wells operating on Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service lands, though thousands more are in various stages of permitting. The project still needs final Environmental Protection Agency approval and then a BLM permit, with that review scheduled for completion by year's end.
But on Thursday the government announced a pollution-control agreement that would clean up a project first proposed in 2007 and since snagged on escalating Uinta Basin ozone concerns.
"The air-quality issue was a really big [obstacle]," said Mitch Snow, spokesman for the BLM's Utah office.
The eastern Utah gas field, according to the agency, could create up to 4,000 jobs during peak construction.
U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced the draft air plan for Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Onshore's development in Uintah County's Greater Natural Buttes area, around the White River south of Vernal. The development has the potential to produce 6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas over 10 years, according to the Interior Department.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said the plan could help reduce reliance on foreign fuels.
"With gasoline now reaching $4 a gallon," Hatch said, "it is critical to develop cheaper alternatives such as natural gas that burn cleaner, lead to more jobs, strengthen our economy and ease the pain at the pumps for Utahns."
Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, welcomed the news, noting it boosts both jobs and domestic energy production.
"It also takes into account concerns about air quality in the Uinta Basin," he said, "and offers appropriate mitigation efforts."
Acknowledging that gas development has created Uinta Basin ozone pollution that at times is among the nation's worst, Salazar said the plan includes a host of pollution controls. Kerr-McGee, a subsidiary of Anadarko, agreed to use natural gas instead of diesel on its rigs. The company also will add pollution controls not generally required on BLM gas fields — and will do so on both existing and new wells there.
"We have to find sensible ways of allowing natural gas development to move forward at the same time protecting air quality," Salazar said in a teleconference with reporters.
WildEarth Guardians, an environmental group that has pressed for better air-quality standards in Western drilling zones, is "cautiously optimistic" that the pollution controls can help, said Jeremy Nichols, the group's Denver-based climate and energy program director. He was unsure, though, whether that would suffice to protect public health in and around Vernal.
"We want to make sure that we're not just limited to using controls," he said, "but rather looking at whether we need to limit or phase in development."
Phased drilling could reduce the pollution load at any given time while stretching out the economic benefits, Nichols said. WildEarth Guardians will review the plan before submitting comments to the BLM, he said, but "we have high expectations."
Anadarko issued a statement saying it is pleased with the progress that talks with the BLM and EPA have brought.
The well field is mostly in-fill development, with new wells mingled among about 1,000 that already exist in the Natural Buttes area. Of 163,000 acres included in the field, about 8,000 are previously undisturbed.
The company will use hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," an injection technique that has produced complaints of water contamination elsewhere. Spokesman Brian Cain said Anadarko discloses what it injects at each well, and that the injection is a mile beneath groundwater.
BLM Director Bob Abbey said the air plan includes a continuous monitoring and maintenance program and calls for adaptations if the expected pollution limits aren't achieved. He said Anadarko's willingness to retrofit existing wells and compressors to the new pollution standards was key to the agreement.
Twitter: @brandonloomis