Park wants closer scrutiny of oil drilling

Glacier National Park is calling for a more thorough environmental review of oil and gas exploration on Blackfeet Tribal lands.

Park superintendent Chas Cartwright claims in a December 2011 letter to the Bureau of Indian Affairs that the current environmental review process doesn't look at the cumulative effects of exploration on the reservation and the Park.

Currently, the BIA conducts an environmental assessment for each well that it has jurisdiction over. The Park wants the BIA to conduct an environmental impact statement, which is a far more complicated and thorough environmental analysis of a project.

"Given the number of EAs already prepared for exploratory wells, the Park believes an environmental impact statement is needed to address the entire scope and plan for exploratory and permanent oil and gas development," Cartwright wrote. "Cumulative impacts to Park and reservation resources cannot be adequately addressed on a well-by-well basis."

The Park's concerns are many and varied, from light pollution of night skies and visual impacts of wells against the back-drop of the Park to wildlife.

"Research has shown that preservation of the ability for wildlife to travel back and forth between the Blackfeet Reservation and Glacier National Park is key to the continued health and survival of these populations," Cartwright said.

Blackfeet biologist Dan Carney has radio-collared grizzly bears on the reservation, and his data shows that bears roam the prairies frequently, particularly at night.

Several environmental assessments conducted last summer looked at impacts on wildlife and native plants, but they all found no significant impact to the environment.

Well pads and drilling equipment generally cover an area of five acres, not including roads. Where two wells are near each other, they are spaced at least 480 acres apart, but that's not required by law.

The wells are more than 10,000 feet deep, with horizontal drilling that can extend nearly a half-mile beyond the well pad. The BIA advocates the use of horizontal drilling to reduce impacts on the environment. With horizontal drilling, several well heads can be located on one pad.

The EAs call for fencing and bear-proof garbage containers to keep bears and other wildlife away from well sites. They also suggest limiting traffic to and from well sites, including using buses to transport employees. But the EAs all find that the wells "may affect but will not adversely affect," grizzly bears.

The EAs also call for setbacks along streams and other water sources and call for work stoppages if artifacts or human bones are found. The area has been home to Native Americans for thousands of years.

If the wells pan out, each well head would have tanker-truck traffic to and from the site to haul out the oil. The number of trips would be determined on how much oil a well produces. If it's a gas well, a pipeline would be constructed.

As of last summer, 24 wells had been drilled and only one was plugged as a dry hole, according to BIA documents.

The BIA doesn't have jurisdiction on all wells in the reservation. Fee lands - where the land and mineral rights are owned completely by a private non-tribal landowner - fall under the jurisdiction of the Montana Oil and Gas Board.

Cartwright doesn't discount the potential economic benefit of oil and gas production to the tribe.

"The Park understands and appreciates the economic opportunities that oil and gas development may bring to the Blackfeet Tribe," he said.