Officials from the Bureau of Land Management offered an overview of their proposed Resource Management Plan for the Rock Springs Field Office during two legislative committee meetings this month.
The proposed plan features three new “Areas of Critical Environmental Concern” in the local Red Desert region, the agency said in its report to the Wyoming Legislature’s Select Federal Natural Resource Management Committee.
The largest of the three, by far, is the South Wind River ACEC, which is proposed to cover 281,104 acres, including “the area known as the Golden Triangle,” BLM State Director Andrew Archuleta said.
That “Golden Triangle” portion of the Red Desert features “pretty important, intact, vast landscapes,” he explained, and the BLM intends to “protect the resource values” there, including “priority sage grouse habitat, big game migration areas, and important cultural resources.”
“We responded to a lot of comments and interest in protecting the Red Desert area, (and) personally, I am very interested in conserving those areas,” Archuleta said. “Where else in this country can you see that?”
Restrictions
The proposed RMP would close the South Wind River ACEC to oil and gas leasing, Archuleta said, though “there are slivers of that Red Desert area that remain open to oil and gas development.”
“You can’t just draw a circle around it and say all of that is currently closed or proposed to be closed,” he said.
The South Wind River ACEC won’t be open for trona mining either, according to his report, which says the restriction will “protect the high-quality wildlife habitat, clean air, cultural resources, and the area commonly referred to as the Golden Triangle.”
The Red Desert area has a “low potential for minerals,” Archuleta noted, and “we don’t have a lot of recent development (or) proposed development” there.
“Our goal (was to) protect the development opportunity in those areas where we see it … as well as conserve those areas that we felt were important for those different resources,” he said. “Not everyone is happy with this proposed alternative, but we believe that it strikes a pretty good balance between … multiple use and conservation.”
The creation of the South Wind River ACEC, combined with the proposed 391,801-acre expansion of the Steamboat Mountain ACEC – which “includes the Jack Morrow Hills and portions of the Red Desert watershed and big game migration and parturition areas” – account for almost all of the increased ACEC acreage in the proposed RMP.
Golden Triangle
Several lawmakers asked about the BLM’s use of the phrase “Golden Triangle” last week, indicating that they weren’t familiar with the term’s origins.
“Who made up this word?” Wyoming Sen. John Kolb, R-Rock Springs, asked. “All of a sudden it’s in our vernacular. … It seems to be a buzz word that we’re now using as a reason to do all these things.”
Wyoming Sen. Affie Ellis, R-Cheyenne, asked about the term, too, when the committee heard testimony from Colin McKee, the Regulatory Affairs Director for the Petroleum Association of Wyoming.
“You grew up in Wyoming,” Ellis said, addressing McKee. “When did you start hearing about this … Golden Triangle?”
McKee said he didn’t know “why that name came up,” but it refers to a triangular area “between two highways” and the northern border of Sweetwater County.
PAW has “concerns” about the BLM’s proposal for the Golden Triangle, he added, noting that almost half of that area contains “active federal oil and gas leases.”
“There are a number of companies that have …. valid, existing leases in the Golden Triangle, (and) designating this area as an ACEC will have an effect on the existing leases,” McKee said, explaining that, if those companies aren’t able to purchase additional federal leases in the area, they “may not be able to fill out their development plans and drill this area the way that … would be best.”
For example, McKee said, if the area “continues to have right-of-way exclusion, they may not be able to get pipeline distribution infrastructure to get product out of the area” and “they may not be able to get electric transmission infrastructure to run their well sites.”
Federal law
McKee also pointed to federal law that requires the BLM to “explain how their current management activities are incapable of protecting the resources that an ACEC would protect” and “disclose what additional management activities would be required to protect those resources.”
Neither of those elements was included in the proposed RMP, McKee said, concluding that the BLM “failed (to do) their job.”
“They found areas that they wanted to protect and are proposing to do that without explaining why,” he said. “And it will have effects on oil and gas development, (because) this area is incredibly important to the future of Wyoming and a number of companies.”
The proposed RMP also lacks a federally required “discussion of all possible conflicts between the proposed action and the objectives (of) local land use pans,” Wyoming County Commissioners Association Natural Resource Counsel Micah Christensen said.
“That review never took place,” Christensen told the committee. “There’s absolutely zero information … referring to consistency with plans – outside of conclusory statements that they are consistent with local plans.”
He predicted that the state would “hear something different from the local counties” impacted by the proposed RMP – like Fremont County – “regarding things like substantial swaths of ACECs and large corridors of places that are no longer going to be developable.”
“This is a large concern,” Christensen said. “Hopefully (it’s) something that the governor’s office can bring forward.”
The BLM released the proposed RMP last month, initiating a 30-day public protest period and a 60-day Governor’s Consistency Review.
The Select Federal Natural Resource Management Committee voted last week to participate in the public protest.
“This committee did file comments to the Rock Springs RMP,” Wyoming Sen. Brian Boner, R-Douglas said. “I suggest that we file a protest (noting) any of our recommendations that the committee made that were not followed in this updated draft.”
Once the public protest period and Governor’s Consistency Review are complete, the BLM said it “can issue a Record of Decision” for the proposed RMP, “including incorporating any potential changes.”
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