Drilling on the Dolores
Lower Dolores listed in oil and gas lease sale

by Will Sands

Add oil and gas development to the problems facing the River of Sorrows. Sections of the Dolores River Canyon could go to the highest bidder next week, courtesy of the Bureau of Land Management’s quarterly oil and gas lease sale. Numerous parcels along the nearby river have been earmarked for oil and gas development and go up for auction on Nov. 9.

The coming auction includes 155 sections throughout Colorado, covering a total of 131,202 acres. In August, a similar sale passed 139,555 acres into the hands of the oil and gas industry at an average of less than $35 per acre. In spite of this disparity between cost and value, the agency argues that the lease sales represent better planning.

“Natural gas production from Colorado’s federal lands continues to play an important part in meeting the nation’s energy needs,” said Lynn Rust, BLM Colorado deputy state director for energy, lands and minerals. “Our focus is on smart, up-front planning, solid implementation of best practices and working with industry to reduce environmental impacts.”

Conservationists view the coming lease sale in a different light. Among the lands up for auction Nov. 9 are 800 acres within “areas of critical environmental concern,” more than 600 acres within a designated roadless area and most significantly 5,000 acres of lands proposed for wilderness designation.

With these things in mind, Amber Clark, public lands coordinator for San Juan Citizens Alliance, said that now is the time to take these lands out of circulation. Once they have been leased, drilling and development are inevitable.

“This is the first step in the oil and gas process, and in my view, it’s the most important step,” she said. “Once companies have the leases, they have ownership and a right to drill.”

Among the most important public lands in the statewide proposal are six leases, totaling more than 8,300 acres, along the Dolores River Canyon. Two proposed leases near Snaggletooth Rapid are within large chunks proposed for wilderness designation. Four others are right along the banks of the Slickrock-to-Bedrock section of the river.

“There are two leases on land proposed as designated wilderness,” Steve Smith, assistant regional director for the Wilderness Society, said. “Because gas

Durango boaters approach Snaggletooth Rapid during the Spring of 2005, when a rare release returned flows to the nearby Dolores River. The Lower Dolores is now facing threats from oil and gas development. Several leases, including two near Snaggletooth, are going up for auction on Nov. 9. The proposed sale has drawn objections from citizens and conservation groups./Courtesy photo

drilling would disturb the surface of the land and alter the scenic value, it would effectively block that designation. There’s a second category of Dolores River parcels that are right along the river, and we would have gas drilling on the river bank and inside a sensitive riparian area.”

In addition, the entire Lower Dolores River from McPhee Reservoir to its confluence with the Colorado River north of Moab is eligible for the prestigious National Wild and Scenic River designation. The San Juan Public Lands Center recently looked at the “outstandingly remarkable values” on all of Southwest Colorado’s rivers and streams, and the Lower Dolores was one of the rivers that made the list. Once again, energy development could derail any designation.

“The Dolores was found to be eligible for Wild and Scenic River designation in 1975 and was again found to be eligible during the recent process,” Clark said. “We basically think the BLM should wait until the planning is done rather than eliminating the potential forever.”

Smith agreed, saying that the agency should honor the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act before it put several of the Dolores River leases up to bid.

“Because the river is eligible to be a Wild and Scenic River, the agency is required to protect those wild and scenic values from damage until a determination can be made,” he said.

The Nov. 9 auction is by no means the beginning of problems on the Dolores River. Flows on the Lower Dolores have been stunted for more than 20 years, since the final stone was placed on the McPhee Reservoir dam in 1985. While agriculture has been greatly enhanced by the reservoir, the character of the Dolores River has been greatly impacted, and the riparian area, wildlife, boaters and the fishery have all suffered. In addition, uranium mining is now returning to the Dolores Watershed. Several claims in the vicinity of the Slickrock launch are in the process of being reactivated.

“One of the rationales we’re getting is that there’s going to be uranium mining in the area anyway, and oil and gas development is much less impactful,” Clark said. “The fact is that by threatening wilderness and Wild and Scenic designations, the BLM could be shooting themselves in the foot and leasing an area that is valuable to them for different reasons.”

As a result, San Juan Citizens Alliance, the Wilderness Society, the Colorado Environmental Coalition, Forest Guardians and other conservation groups filed a formal protest last Wednesday. The protest covers the Dolores River leases along with several others in sensitive areas elsewhere in the state. In response, the BLM can either decide to take the leases out of the auction or they can sell them with the caveat that the protests must be resolved. The opposition is hoping for the first option.

“Surely, in the midst of such a boom of gas leasing and development, we can afford to protect these few acres of important public lands,” Smith concluded. “It only seems smart and fair.” •