Drilling coming near Project Rulison site

By BOBBY MAGILL, The Daily Sentinel
Article Last Updated: December 12, 2007

DENVER — The state intends to approve five Noble Energy drilling permit applications that would allow the company to tap natural gas within three miles of the Project Rulison nuclear blast site west of Rifle.

Fourteen other permit applications within the three-mile radius are pending from Noble, EnCana and Williams Production.

The three companies have submitted a strict emergency-response and well-monitoring plan for drilling near the Rulison site and agreed to wait to submit applications for drilling within a half mile of the site until at least 2009, Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission Acting Director David Neslin said Wednesday.

Neslin said he has sole authority to approve the permits and the plan.

The plan requires companies to monitor drilling and production for blast-related contaminants while also sampling surface and groundwater. It would apply to all wells within three miles of the blast site.

By approving the plan and the drilling applications, the state and the U.S. Department of Energy will be better able to define the edge of the blast area and health issues previously raised by Rulison residents.

Both Rulison-area residents and industry representatives praised Neslin for his intent to approve the plan and permits.

Noble Energy representative Mike Wozniak called the plan "interesting and unprecedented," adding he believes the plan will ensure public safety and health.

Christy Hayward Koneke, whose family's property includes the blast site, said drilling there can’t happen fast enough.

"We think that everything has been done to ensure this is safe," she said.

Western Slope commission members were less enthusiastic. Commission member and Garfield County Commissioner Tresi Houpt said many residents haven't had enough time to read the companies' plan and comment on it.

Particularly disturbing is that monitoring sites are to be picked on a case-by-case basis, said commission member Rich Alward of Grand Junction. That approach “flies in the face” of the commission’s intent to create geographic area plans, or broad visions for how entire regions of Colorado are to be developed for energy, he said.

Before Neslin and his staff approve the plan and the permits, they will meet over the next month with concerned residents and industry to refine the plan to help allay fears that it may not be adequate to protect public health.