For Immediate Release
January 6, 2004

Contact: Erik Molvar, Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, (307) 742-7978.

Laramie—Over the Christmas holidays, the Forest Service released its Draft Environmental Assessment for the Big Porcupine Coalbed Methane Project, in which 202 wells would be drilled on and near the Thunder Basin National Grassland. The project will entail as many as 13 wells per square mile.

“This is an industrial-scale project, the largest we’ve seen on the Thunder Basin,” said Erik Molvar of Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. “And instead of reinjecting the pollutants that will be produced back into the ground, the Forest Service plans to allow millions of gallons of saline wastewater to be dumped into the nearest drainages.”

Public comments on the project will be accepted through January 23rd.