CHEYENNE - Gov. Dave Freudenthal says he sees problems with a Colorado company's plans to pump saline waste water from its drilling operations into Seminoe Reservoir on the North Platte River.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is taking public comment now on its proposal to allow Dudley and Associates LLC of Denver to pump water from its planned Seminoe Road coal-bed methane development into the reservoir. The company plans to drill up to 1,240 wells over the next 10 years.

"I think that somebody who's talking about putting highly saline water into a natural water course has got some problems," Freudenthal said Wednesday during his weekly news conference.

Freudenthal said the state Department of Environmental Quality would be responsible for looking at the issue. Efforts to reach a spokeswoman for Dudley were unsuccessful on Wednesday.

Mary Wilson, spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Rawlins, said the company's wells would produce up to 1,500 barrels of water each per day. She said the water is salty enough that it wouldn't be suitable for human consumption or agriculture but could be used to water livestock.

"Our preferred alternative is to pipe the water into Seminoe (Reservoir)," Wilson said. "And there's not going to be an effect to the fish in the reservoir from doing that, putting this water in Seminoe."

Wilson said the water wouldn't be treated before it's placed into the reservoir. She said that mixing it with the other water in the reservoir would mean that salt wouldn't be an issue either in the reservoir or in releases downstream. Tests showed the minnows were able to live in the water as it's pumped from the ground, she said.

Erik Molvar, wildlife biologist with the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance in Laramie, said the BLM's proposal would violate state water quality standards. He pointed out that the Miracle Mile, a famed fishing spot on the North Platte River, is immediately downstream from the reservoir.

"According to state requirements, the Miracle Mile is a class-one waterway, which means that no degradation at all is permissible," Molvar said.

"The only advantage of dumping the wastewater into the reservoir for Dudley is that it saves them a buck on their profits," Molvar said. "But given the astronomical profits that are being reaped right now by the energy industry, there's no reason why they should be cutting corners to save pennies when water quality is at stake."

Freudenthal said a number of energy companies are looking at coal-bed methane development in southern Wyoming.

"Whether this Dudley proposal is the first one, or whether it's Shell or somebody else, it's going to happen down there, unless there's a huge shift in prices," he said. "These prices justify an investment in coal-bed methane in that region."