For Immediate Release
February 19, 2004

Contact:
Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, Attorney, Western Environmental Law Center, (505) 751-0351
Erik Molvar, Wildlife Biologist, Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, (307) 742-7978
Mark Salvo, Grasslands and Deserts Advocate, American Lands Alliance, (503) 757-4221

BILLINGS, MT – Conservation groups challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s Powder River Basin Coalbed Methane EIS filed papers today in Federal District Court in Montana, seeking to amend their lawsuit to account for the relationship between CBM development, West Nile virus, and impacts to the human environment, in particular people and sage grouse. If the Court agrees to this request, this claim will be added to the original charges that the BLM failed to protect sage grouse and prairie dogs, two severely declining types of wildlife native to the Powder River Basin. The original lawsuit centered on the unnecessary impacts of the proposed CBM drilling on wildlife, as well as the BLM’s failure to adequately study impacts of coalbed methane development on sage grouse and prairie dogs, two declining types of wildlife native to the Powder River Basin.

The lawsuit was brought by Biodiversity Conservation Alliance and American Lands Alliance on behalf of their members in Wyoming and Montana; the organizations are represented by the Western Environmental Law Center.

The coalbed methane ponds provide prime breeding habitat for mosquitoes, which are the primary carriers of West Nile virus. These ponds are of particular importance in the arid and semi-arid Powder River because they provide one of the only sources of standing water in the region during the hot summer months. The virus has been linked to deaths of humans, horses, and sage grouse in Wyoming, and has the potential to wipe out sage grouse populations in the Basin.

The deaths of sage grouse are troubling because the U.S. Geological Service has stated that the deaths of wild birds, such as sage grouse, serve as an indicator of the extent of West Nile Virus and provides an early warning system for the emergence of the virus in new locations.

The papers filed in court include numerous State and Federal documents describing the extent of West Nile Virus and linking West Nile Virus to CBM development and sage grouse deaths including:

• Wyoming Game and Fish, Wyoming Game and Fish Fact Sheet, http://gf.state.wy.us/print.asp?id=1229.
  
  
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, West Nile Virus in the United States as of February 11, 2004, http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/surv&control03Maps.htm.
  
  
• U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Service, Wild Birds Help Scientists Understand West Nile Virus (October 2002), USGS West Nile Virus Fact Sheet, http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/research/west_nile/west_nile.html.
  
  
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, West Nile Virus: What You Need to Know (June 17, 2003), http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/wnv_factSheet.htm.
  
  
• U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Wyoming State Office Decision, SDR No. WY-2004-04 (January 7, 2004) (Remand of 18 CBM well Pennaco Energy, Inc. House Creek 10 Plan of Development).
  
  
• U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Environmental Assessment (EA) for Pennaco Energy, Inc. House Creek 10 Plan of Development, WY-070-03-003 (January 13, 2004).
  
  
• U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Wyoming State Office Decision, SDR No. WY-2004-07 (January 26, 2004) (Remand of 10 CBM well North Pleasantville II Project).
  
  
• U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, West Nile Virus and Collection of Dead Birds, BLM Information Bulletin No. WY-2003-049, http://ww.blm.gov/nhp/efoia/wy/2003ib/Wy2003-049.htm.
  
  
• Wyoming Game and Fish, West Nile Virus in Three Sage Grouse Has G&F Increasing Testing, Restating Cautions, Press Release, August 15, 2003, http://gf.state.wy.us/services/news/pressreleases/03/08/15/030815_1.asp