About six years ago, representatives of international corporations crammed into county courthouses in northeast Wyoming in search of mineral leases to tap the methane produced by the vast coal beds of the Powder River Basin.

New technologies made it possible to produce the gas through the drilling of shallow, relatively inexpensive wells, and companies flocked to the opportunity for high returns with low capital investment.

Industry and government officials knew that water was one of the by-products of coal-bed methane production, but few government officials saw a need to impose significant regulation on the water discharge. After all, water is a valuable commodity in this high-desert state, and surely pumping more of it to the surface would provide great benefits for agriculture and wildlife.

In the years since the coal-bed methane play began, benefits have indeed come to pass in many instances. There have been some problems, however, because some of the water is relatively high in salinity, and because there's so much of it. Ranchers have complained of flooded hay meadows, eroded hillsides, dead cottonwood trees and soil degradation, among other concerns.

Those complaints have gotten the attention of Wyoming's Environmental Quality Council, which last week voted unanimously to begin looking at rules to regulate coal-bed methane water quality and quantity. In addition, environmental officials in Montana - which is downstream from the Powder River Basin and could see increasing volumes of coal-bed methane water - are considering a rule aimed at keeping Wyoming's water in Wyoming.

Depending on whom you talk to, these developments could significantly curtail coal-bed methane development in the state - or force industry and state officials to do a better job of managing the water. It can be argued that both government and industry should have done more from the start, but that's water under the bridge, so to speak. It's time for all parties to focus on solutions.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal has proposed, and the Legislature is considering, a $500,000 study into the feasibility of piping coal-bed methane water to the over-appropriated North Platte River Basin. Anadarko Petroleum Corp. is working on a pipeline to send its coal-bed methane water to northern Natrona County for re-injection into the ground. Those efforts deserve applause, but more is needed.

Industry, state and federal officials must work together to make sure that coal-bed methane development proceeds with minimal impact to Wyoming's environment. That means there should be involvement from all state agencies with expertise to offer, including the Department of Environmental Quality, Wyoming Water Development Commission and state engineer's office.

In no way should the state mandate a particular water management method. The water can be used for irrigation, to create wetlands for wildlife, to re-inject into aquifers for municipal use. It can be used to water livestock and create fisheries where landowners want them, and it can be treated by reverse osmosis, ion exchange, deionization and many other techniques. But it does need to be managed.

Technologies are in development to reduce the volume of water associated with coal-bed methane production. Those should be pursued as well.

Wyoming has an estimated 31.7 trillion cubic feet of coal-bed methane reserves - 79 percent of which are in the Powder River Basin. If the state were to produce its entire reserve, it could pump an estimated 7 million acre feet of water from coal aquifers. That's enough water to fill Lake DeSmet 30 times, or Glendo Reservoir 14 times. It's also equal to six years of average annual flow out of Guernsey Reservoir.

If we want a functional coal-bed methane industry to provide stable jobs for the next 20 years or more, we can't sit and pretend that the water discharge issue will take care of itself.