BLM proposes drilling halt in southwest Wyoming to protect miners

The Associated Press

Oil and gas drilling must be stopped on 312,000 acres in southwest Wyoming to protect underground soda ash miners from flooding, cave-ins and other disasters, the government says. After 11 years of work, the Bureau of Land Management has unveiled a proposal designed to resolve conflicts between the two industries by halting area oil and gas development until trona mining is complete.

A public comment proposal is expected in the coming months.

In a meeting April 15, BLM officials told representatives from both industries that, while technically feasible, trona mining and oil and gas drilling are “incompatible” in the Green River Basin.

“It places unacceptable burdens on both industries,” said Ted Murphy, assistant manager of the BLM’s Rock Springs, Wyo., field office.

Southwest Wyoming holds almost all of the nation’s mineable trona reserves. Trona ore is used to produce soda ash, which in turn is used in the production of glass, detergents and baking sodas.

But there is also about 2.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas within the basin, according to BLM estimates. Most of that lies 8,000 feet or deeper underground.

Federal regulators fear miners could encounter those abandoned oil and gas stems underground with disastrous effects.

Under the BLM’s proposal, 66 of the area’s federal oil and gas leases would be suspended until all trona reserves have been mined and all miners cleared from working underground, Murphy said.

The plan is supported by Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal, he said.

“(Freudenthal) said something to the effect ... that if something happened within the basin, it could affect the world’s economic viability in terms of the soda ash industry,” Murphy said.