The March 7 article, “Drilling mud spills go unreported, draining into gulch near Rifle,” is another example of oil and gas drilling’s inherent danger to our water and wildlife. Even pits that “were lined and considered to be well-built” leaked and sent tens of thousands — perhaps over 100,000 — barrels of dirty water, mud and chemicals in a nearby stream.

This incident should provide pause as we think about the impacts of drilling on the Roan Plateau’s undeveloped, public lands. We should consider that allowing even “limited” or “restrictive” drilling on the Roan is no assurance that these all-to-common accidents won’t occur.

The stakes of such a spill are high on the Roan Plateau. After all, it only takes one spill to permanently kill off one of the few remaining genetically pure cutthroat troat populations or introduce serious contaimenents into Parachute’s watershed. Certain areas have natural values that are simply too unique and important to put at risk.

The recent spills of millions of gallons of drilling mud shows that drilling activity in the cutthroat trout watersheds of the BLM’s Roan Plateau Planning Area is unacceptable. While spills of this magnitude might be “rare,” as state officials claim, they also admit that such spills on a smaller scale are “not uncommon.” It won’t take much to wipe out the entire populations of rare Colorado cutthroat trout in Trapper Creek, Northwater Creek and the East Fork of Parachute Creek. A single, smaller spill will do it. The creek will recover over time, but the trout will be gone forever.

The BLM itself admits that if drilling and development are allowed in these watersheds that “some of these impacts could never be reversed, especially those that eliminate genetically unique resources represented by populations of rare or disjunct species such as genetically pure Colorado River cutthroat trout.”

BLM has stated that these trout populations are “unique and irreplaceable.” The continued existence of these populations is in very real jeopardy. Only by following the BLM”s earlier recommendationsto protect the entire watershed and prohibit any drilling or development activity within them can we expect these irreplaceable trout populations to survive.

It should also be noted that these spill events occurred on the Roan Plateau itself, not “west of the Roan” as reported. The Roan Plateau extends west nearly to the Utah line. The area needing protection is only a small spot in a sea of existing development of the entire Roan Plateau. We can easily afford to safeguard and preserve this small area. The potential cost and loss if we don’t is just too high.

KEN NEUBECKER
Vice President, Colorado Trout Unlimited
Carbondale

This entry was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 9:20 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.