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Bill’s goal is water quality, local control of CBM Legislation answers calls for more regulation of coalbed methane in Alaska Larry Persily Petroleum News Government Affairs Editor
One of the major worries over coalbed methane production in Alaska is possible harm to streams and underground drinking water, so an Anchorage freshman legislator has introduced a bill to significantly strengthen state laws protecting water quality in lease areas.
Among other provisions, House Bill 370 would require that all state leases for coalbed methane exploration and production include conditions to protect any fish-bearing waterways in the area. Those conditions would require approval by the Department of Fish and Game, a provision certain to create controversy in the Republican-led Legislature that last session endorsed Gov. Frank Murkowski’s move to take away some permitting authority from Fish and Game.
“I wanted to make sure there was a discussion this year,” said the bill’s sponsor, Democratic Rep. Les Gara, whose downtown Anchorage district is an hour’s drive away from any of the coalbed methane lease areas. Bill seeks safe disposal of water In addition to provisions protecting fish habitat, House Bill 370 includes a section requiring leases to govern the safe disposal of all water produced in shallow gas drilling and production. The de-watering of coalbed methane reserves presents operators with the choice of disposing the water on the surface — generally opposed by critics — or the more expensive option of injecting it back into the ground.
The bill would require that any water disposal plan “not add to or contaminate surface water supplies.”
And, in a further effort to address skeptics’ concerns that the state lacks adequate laws for oversight of coalbed methane operations, the bill would require the Department of Natural Resources to adopt regulations “to ensure that shallow natural gas exploration and development activities do not materially interfere” with recreational, sport and subsistence activities.
The bill is intended to do more than just protect water quality, Gara said. It is to protect the public’s access to fish streams in areas of shallow gas exploration and development.
Gara introduced the bill Jan. 9 in the final batch of pre-filed legislation before the Jan. 12 start of the 2004 session. Measure restores local control His bill also would reverse legislation adopted last year that blocks municipalities from regulating coalbed methane development. Gara’s bill would allow cities and boroughs to adopt land-use laws to protect residents’ safety and neighborhoods, and limit noise from drilling and production operations.
Lawmakers last year passed House Bill 69, sponsored by Wasilla Republican Rep. Vic Kohring, blocking municipalities from regulating coalbed methane operations. Kohring, who has spent his nine years in the Legislature promoting business development and opposing government regulation, has come under criticism the past year from constituents worried that coalbed methane production could harm water quality and property values in their own yards.
“They took away local control in coalbed methane,” Gara said of last year’s legislation, adding that his bill is specific in making certain that communities have as much zoning authority over shallow gas development as possible under the state constitution.
Gara voted against final passage of HB 69 last year. Half of his colleagues in the House and Senate signed on as co-sponsors for the bill.
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