Coal Bed Methane

Todays Gazette had a few pieces on CBM that I found interesting and share with you.<br />n<br />nFirst there is a news piece out of Wyoming about how the state is considering regulating the water discharged from the wells and how the industry is <a href="http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/01/28/news/wyoming/30-cbm.txt">howling it will kill them</a>. In the industries opinion they should be able to contaminate the environment with this water and it is all good because they provide jobs and income to the state and there should be no regulation. There has to be a middle ground here somewhere. The industry can clean up its act a little bit and still make money. They won't make as much profit having to invest a little bit back to protect the environment, but they can still make money. If they want it can be a win/win situation for them, if you don't consider that they are removing the water from the ground forever which is where my concern falls.<br />n<br />nThen there is the two guest opinions in the Gazette about coal bed methane in Montana and the recent law suit about it. The Chairman of the <acronym title="Northern Plains Resource Council">NPRC</acronym>, Mark Fix, <a href="http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/01/28/opinion/guest/50-water.txt">explains the problems</a> with pulling all the water out of the ground and selling it and how that affects water rights in not only Montana, but throughout the West.<br />n<br />n<blockquote>Western water law was developed to clarify who had a right to use water, and how much. Just as important, water law prevents wasting water by requiring that water rights only be granted when the water is put to a beneficial use.<br />n<br />nBut today, the "beneficial use" doctrine is under attack here in Montana, and this attack threatens to create a dangerous precedent that could stand Western water law on its head.<br />n<br />nCoalbed methane drilling removes huge volumes of water in the process of extracting the methane gas. That extracted water contains enough sodium products to create serious impacts to soil.<br />n<br />nAlthough much of this groundwater has too much sodium to use it for irrigation, local people rely on it for livestock watering. Dewatering aquifers through large-scale drilling will create long-term lowering of water tables.</blockquote><br />n<br />nThen there is the <a href="http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/01/28/opinion/guest/55-developer.txt">response</a> from the company who is pumping the water out of the ground. The gist of their response is that by selling the water they are putting it to "beneficial use" and so all is well and good in the state of Montana.<br />n<br />nI'm all for businesses getting the job done but the removal of such a vital resource as water from this dry corner of the state just scares me. Pumping water out of the ground in one area doesn't just take the water from just under the land that you are pumping from. It lowers the water table over a very large area, how large I am uncertain, and affects people and their water rights in areas well away from the area where the water is being pumped out from. Ground water is a large shared commodity that affects us all and needlessly dumping it out affects us all.<br />n<br />n<strong>The waste of life occasioned by trying to do too many things at once is appalling. Orison Swett Marden</strong>