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The Bureau of Land Management and city of Glenwood Springs both appear to be awaiting the other's call on whether the city will play a formal role in helping the BLM decide the future of the Roan Plateau.
It's a question that has been clouded for more than two months. On Jan. 20, City Council offered to act as a formal cooperating agency in drafting the plateau management plan. But on the same night it voted to oppose natural gas drilling on the plateau top.
"That, to us, was somewhat confusing," said Jamie Connell, manager of the Glenwood Springs Field Office of the BLM.
The role of cooperating agencies is to help the agency design a final plan for the plateau, she said. These agencies are supposed to wait until the public comment period on the draft plateau plan ends Monday, and consider those comments before taking a position on the plateau's management, Connell said.
She said she hasn't heard back from Glenwood about whether it plans to work as a cooperating agency on the plateau plan.
"Whether they're acting as a full cooperator has yet to be determined," she said.
But Glenwood Mayor Larry Emery said it's the city that is waiting to hear from the BLM about its status. After council decided to seek cooperating agency status, city officials met with BLM representatives about the issue, he said.
"I thought we made it very clear in our meeting with them that, yes, we were going to go ahead and assume the role of a cooperating agency," he said.
He said he was told secondhand that the BLM decided not to grant the city cooperating agency status, but he hasn't heard from the agency itself.
"I guess I'm confused" on where the matter stands, he said.
Emery said BLM officials told the city they thought it was inappropriate for the city to have taken a position if it wants to play a formal role in the plateau planning process.
"We were told the appearance might not be proper," he said.
Connell said another issue is whether the city is comfortable taking on the amount of work that is required of a cooperating agency. Emery said fellow City Council member Joe O'Donnell has volunteered to do much of that work on behalf of the city.
How cooperating agencies are expected to behave is becoming a matter of increasing debate. Garfield County Commissioner John Martin has long insisted that the county had agreed not to take a position during the public comment period as a condition of being a cooperating agency.
But Pete Kolbenschlag, Western Slope field director for the Colorado Environmental Coalition, said he has looked at the written agreement between the county and BLM, and the BLM's own regulations regarding cooperating agencies, and found nothing that restricts a government such as Glenwood from becoming such an agency while having taken a position.
Kolbenschlag considers taking such positions to be an important role of local elected bodies. He said the county's approach may be fine, too.
"But I don't think it follows that all who are cooperating agencies shouldn't take a stand," Kolbenschlag said.
"I think it points to an issue that a lot of people are struggling with on this matter, and that's that the plan is moving in the direction of drilling on top of the Roan Plateau and it always has been. It's kind of a fait accompli."
The BLM's preferred draft plan would allow gas leasing on the plateau top after a threshold amount of gas development occurs in the surrounding planning area. Environmentalists and some local communities say the plateau top is a pristine area deserving of protection from drilling.
Rifle also is a cooperating agency on the plateau plan, as are Parachute, Rio Blanco County and the state of Colorado. Rifle Mayor Keith Lambert said Rifle, like the county, has submitted comments on technical matters but has not taken a stance on the plateau.
He said the city hasn't been told by the BLM not to take a position at this stage in the game. But the point of being a cooperating agency is to be able to have more time to comment, after being able to review the public comments, he said.
"It just made more sense to us to wait because we'd be better informed and better able to take a position that represents our constituency," he said.
Like Connell, Lambert was a bit confounded by Glenwood's approach.
"It made me scratch my head. If you've already taking a position, why would you want to be a cooperating agency? It was puzzling, but I thought maybe they knew something that we didn't," Lambert said.
Emery said the city has told the BLM it could reconsider its current position in light of its interest in being a cooperating agency.
"But I know we've had that stance for two years and we weren't doing anything new," he said.
Glenwood Springs, and every other municipality in Garfield County, had opposed drilling on the plateau top during the BLM preliminary scoping process that preceded the release of its draft Roan plan late last year.
"I think this is a new process for the BLM as well so I think we're all a little green," Emery said.
"Maybe that's the wrong metaphor there. We're all a little inexperienced."
Connell said the BLM has made use of cooperating agencies for a long time, although the number of local communities involved in the case of the Roan Plateau plan is higher than normal.
Contact Dennis Webb: 945-8515, ext. 516
dwebb@postindependent.com
It's a question that has been clouded for more than two months. On Jan. 20, City Council offered to act as a formal cooperating agency in drafting the plateau management plan. But on the same night it voted to oppose natural gas drilling on the plateau top.
"That, to us, was somewhat confusing," said Jamie Connell, manager of the Glenwood Springs Field Office of the BLM.
The role of cooperating agencies is to help the agency design a final plan for the plateau, she said. These agencies are supposed to wait until the public comment period on the draft plateau plan ends Monday, and consider those comments before taking a position on the plateau's management, Connell said.
She said she hasn't heard back from Glenwood about whether it plans to work as a cooperating agency on the plateau plan.
"Whether they're acting as a full cooperator has yet to be determined," she said.
But Glenwood Mayor Larry Emery said it's the city that is waiting to hear from the BLM about its status. After council decided to seek cooperating agency status, city officials met with BLM representatives about the issue, he said.
"I thought we made it very clear in our meeting with them that, yes, we were going to go ahead and assume the role of a cooperating agency," he said.
He said he was told secondhand that the BLM decided not to grant the city cooperating agency status, but he hasn't heard from the agency itself.
"I guess I'm confused" on where the matter stands, he said.
Emery said BLM officials told the city they thought it was inappropriate for the city to have taken a position if it wants to play a formal role in the plateau planning process.
"We were told the appearance might not be proper," he said.
Connell said another issue is whether the city is comfortable taking on the amount of work that is required of a cooperating agency. Emery said fellow City Council member Joe O'Donnell has volunteered to do much of that work on behalf of the city.
How cooperating agencies are expected to behave is becoming a matter of increasing debate. Garfield County Commissioner John Martin has long insisted that the county had agreed not to take a position during the public comment period as a condition of being a cooperating agency.
But Pete Kolbenschlag, Western Slope field director for the Colorado Environmental Coalition, said he has looked at the written agreement between the county and BLM, and the BLM's own regulations regarding cooperating agencies, and found nothing that restricts a government such as Glenwood from becoming such an agency while having taken a position.
Kolbenschlag considers taking such positions to be an important role of local elected bodies. He said the county's approach may be fine, too.
"But I don't think it follows that all who are cooperating agencies shouldn't take a stand," Kolbenschlag said.
"I think it points to an issue that a lot of people are struggling with on this matter, and that's that the plan is moving in the direction of drilling on top of the Roan Plateau and it always has been. It's kind of a fait accompli."
The BLM's preferred draft plan would allow gas leasing on the plateau top after a threshold amount of gas development occurs in the surrounding planning area. Environmentalists and some local communities say the plateau top is a pristine area deserving of protection from drilling.
Rifle also is a cooperating agency on the plateau plan, as are Parachute, Rio Blanco County and the state of Colorado. Rifle Mayor Keith Lambert said Rifle, like the county, has submitted comments on technical matters but has not taken a stance on the plateau.
He said the city hasn't been told by the BLM not to take a position at this stage in the game. But the point of being a cooperating agency is to be able to have more time to comment, after being able to review the public comments, he said.
"It just made more sense to us to wait because we'd be better informed and better able to take a position that represents our constituency," he said.
Like Connell, Lambert was a bit confounded by Glenwood's approach.
"It made me scratch my head. If you've already taking a position, why would you want to be a cooperating agency? It was puzzling, but I thought maybe they knew something that we didn't," Lambert said.
Emery said the city has told the BLM it could reconsider its current position in light of its interest in being a cooperating agency.
"But I know we've had that stance for two years and we weren't doing anything new," he said.
Glenwood Springs, and every other municipality in Garfield County, had opposed drilling on the plateau top during the BLM preliminary scoping process that preceded the release of its draft Roan plan late last year.
"I think this is a new process for the BLM as well so I think we're all a little green," Emery said.
"Maybe that's the wrong metaphor there. We're all a little inexperienced."
Connell said the BLM has made use of cooperating agencies for a long time, although the number of local communities involved in the case of the Roan Plateau plan is higher than normal.
Contact Dennis Webb: 945-8515, ext. 516
dwebb@postindependent.com
