GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado — The United States Department of Energy seems poised against drilling within a half-mile of the Project Rulison blast site.

Garfield County Commissioner John Martin said a recent discussion the county has had with Jack Craig, with the Department of Energy’s Office of Legacy Management, indicated that there has been “myths” and “a lot of lack of facts” about the blast site and that there is a need for the agency to engage residents in multiple meetings to inform them about drilling in the area.

During that conversation, Craig told Martin and Judy Jordan, the county’s oil and gas liaison, that the DOE isn’t likely to support drilling within a half-mile of the blast site. County Manager Ed Green was also present during that conversation.

Wesley Kent, a resident whose property abuts the blast site, said the DOE stance was welcome news.

“It looks like (the agency is) finally stepping up,” said Kent, who also presented the commissioners with information he and several residents in the area have compiled about the potential dangers of drilling in the area.

This was the first time the “DOE has come forward” and said it wants to limit drilling within a certain area of the blast site, Kent said. He and other residents in the area don’t want to see drilling within a three-mile area of the blast site.

The county is currently working with the DOE to establish a timeline for the agency to begin its education program with the county residents about the lasting implications of the blast site, Martin said.

The government detonated a 43-kiloton nuclear weapon 8,426 feet below the surface at the Project Rulison blast site in 1969 in an experiment to free up commercially marketable natural gas. Residents who live near the blast site argue that the use of fracturing technologies, which are designed to stimulate greater production of natural gas from subsurface formations, increases the risk that radioactive contaminants from the Rulison blast site may reach the surface.

The DOE prohibits drilling deeper than 6,000 feet in a 40-acre area around the site. The COGCC requires a hearing for any gas wells proposed to be drilled within a half-mile of the site, which is also the position of the county.

Martin’s comments about the DOE’s position came during the commissioners’ Monday meeting. During the meeting, commissioners also decided to disclose all information the county has on the Project Rulison issue to Gunnison Attorney Luke Danielson, who filed a public information request for the documents. Danielson represents area residents concerned about drilling within a three-mile area of the blast site. Kent is among Danielson’s clients.

Martin and Commissioner Larry McCown voted in favor of releasing the documentation. Houpt recused from the matter because of her role as a COGCC commissioner.

That county documentation includes a report by a professor at the Colorado School of Mines, and another report on the issue by Tim Pinson, a former county oil and gas liaison, along with information about a potential lawsuit against Presco Inc. Presco Inc. once operated in the Project Rulison blast site area, but the company has since been bought out by Noble Energy.

Contact Phillip Yates: 384-9117
pyates@postindependent.com


Post Independent, Glenwood Springs, Colorado CO