Jonah hearing and rally slated

by Cat Urbigkit

The Bureau of Land Management has begun the public scoping process for the preparation of an environmental impact statement for the Jonah Infill Drilling Project.

The agency will host a public meeting on Thursday, April 17, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Sublette County Library in Pinedale. In addition, supporters of Jonah Field development will hold a resource providers barbecue from 3 to 5 the same afternoon, at the Pinedale Entertainment Center.

EnCana Oil and Gas Inc., BP America and other natural gas development companies have submitted to the Bureau of Land Management a proposal to expand natural gas exploration and development operations in the Jonah II natural gas field. The proposal involves increasing the well density in a 30,000-acre project area, to one well per 10 to 20 acres.

The operators' original proposal to drill 450 wells in addition to 47 existing wells at the same number of locations was approved by the BLM in March 2000. The operators now propose to drill 1,250 additional wells from 850 well locations within the same area, based on a 10-to-20 acre down-hole spacing pattern. No more than 40 subsurface locations would occur within any square-mile section. Approximately 400 wells would be directionally drilled from existing or new well locations, primarily to avoid surface disturbance in sensitive resource areas.

The operators propose to explore known productive formations as well as deeper formations that have not been tested. The planned development would include the following associated structures and facilities in addition to the 850 proposed new well locations: needed separators and hydrators, storage tanks, field access and resource roads, a system of gathering and sales pipelines, compressor stations and five additional water wells.

A public scoping notice is available from the BLM and will be posted on the agency's website at http://www.wy.blm. gov/nepa/nepadocs.htm. For more information, contact Eldon Allison, Bureau of Land Management Project Manager at 307-367-5300.

Public comments must be received by May 12 and should be sent to Eldon Allison, Project Leader, BLM, Pinedale Field Office, P.O. Box 768, Pinedale, Wyo., 82941.