Coalition seeks baseline data in advance of potential natural gas drilling

By Jeremy Heiman
    A coalition of organizations and individuals is taking a step toward holding natural gas drilling companies accountable for potential future environmental damage to the Thompson Divide area, even before a large amount of drilling has taken place.
    The Thompson Divide Coalition (TDC) has organized a study that is intended to establish baseline data on the purity of streams and underground water in the threatened area to the west and southwest of Carbondale.
The group has partnered with the Roaring Fork Conservancy to design and execute the study. The Roaring Fork Conservancy is a Basalt-based watershed conservation organization that employs scientists and other experts and works to protect rivers, streams, underground water and stream bank habitat.
“This baseline will allow us to hold the gas drilling companies accountable,” said Jock Jacober, chairman of the TDC Steering Committee.
Lisa Moreno, campaign director for TDC, said the steering committee decided the study is the best way to use the group’s limited resources.
“It really is the most important thing we can do right now to protect ourselves,” Moreno said.
Chad Rudow, water quality coordinator for the Roaring Fork Conservancy, is in charge of the study. Rudow said now is an opportune time to conduct a baseline water quality study on the streams in the Thompson Divide area. A baseline study collects information on existing conditions, to provide data for comparison with data taken later, after some environmental impact has occurred.
“We’re in a unique position, in that a lot of the area has already been leased, but not much activity has occurred,” Rudow said.
Gas drilling and related activities can affect water quality in numerous ways. Drilling byproducts have the potential to spill while stored near wellheads or while being transported. The drilling process itself has reportedly resulted in poisoned livestock; surface and groundwater polluted with flammable gas and drilling byproducts; and other impacts in Garfield County and elsewhere.
The study is limited to Thompson Creek and Four Mile Creek and their tributaries.
Sampling started in the fall, and will be conducted in every season, concluding next summer. Some of the sampling sites are far into the backcountry.
“One thing we’ve done,” Rudow said, “is we’ve tried to push the sampling locations upstream into areas where these streams have very few other human impacts that would affect the quality of the baseline data.” Drainage from the area around the North Thompson Creek Mine, a coal mine that is now closed, is one factor that could affect water quality downstream.
Both surface water and springs will be sampled; testing water from springs allows evaluation of ground water, he said.
The Roaring Fork Conservancy has designed the study, with the help of consultants more familiar with the oil and gas industry, Rudow said. Sampling will be done to rigorous standards, according to the sampling plan.
“It follows the same procedures each time,” Rudow said, “to get data that’s accurate and legally defensible.”
The laboratory’s tests are extensive. Rudow said the samples are tested for 26 different metals, 94 organic compounds, three dissolved gases, two radiological compounds and 13 general chemistry factors.
The conservancy is also investigating the populations of aquatic insects — mayflies, stoneflies and caddis flies — that spend the early stages of their lives in mountain streams and rivers, before they metamorphose into flying insects.
These insects are the primary food for trout. Two populations of Colorado River cutthroat trout, a native species, exist in the Thompson Creek drainage.
“Studying the macroinvertebrates can really tell you a lot about the health of a stream, from a biological point of view,” Rudow said.
“With increased development, you get increased road building. This leads to siltation,” Rudow continued. The sediment fills in the spaces between the stones in the streambed, burying and smothering the insect larvae.
The work is costly, said Jacober of the TDC.
“By the time you consider all the in-kind contributions, this is going to be a $100,000 study, Jacober said. “We are challenging other water users who use this basin to help us fund the water study.”
TDC staffer Moreno noted that Pitkin County’s Open Space and Trails program made a large contribution to the effort — large enough to get the project off the ground.
The TDC is an alliance of ranchers, landowners, sportsmen, wildlife advocates, conservation groups, recreationists and others working together to preserve the Thompson Divide area from the negative effects of natural gas drilling.  The area encompasses about 221,000 acres of public lands in the Thompson Creek, Coal Basin, Four Mile, Three Mile and Divide Creek watersheds. The area extends from Sunlight Mountain Resort south to Coal Basin, near Redstone.
Natural gas leases have been sold on about 110,000 acres of that land, Moreno said, but with gas prices at relative lows, it has not yet proved economical for the drilling companies that own the leases to develop them.

Next Steps

For more information about the Thompson Divide Coalition, call (970) 210-5027 or visit savethompsondivide.org.