GILLETTE - It's time the state reconsider what is truly a "beneficial use" of groundwater in the Powder River Basin, according to a grassroots campaign in northeast Wyoming.

Nineteen landowners and the Powder River Basin Resource Council launched a citizens' petition Wednesday, asking the state to close what they consider to be a loophole in its policies regarding the management of coal-bed methane water.

They said the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality's policy of regulating only the quality of water discharged from coal-bed methane wells is based on an outdated assumption that the arid West needs, and can use, all the water that oil and gas operations can produce.

"That is no longer a valid assumption," the landowners' petition states. "And the DEQ must manage CBM discharge water by recognizing that it is not generally being used; it is being disposed of. The exclusion has become a loophole stretched so far that in application it has lost all relation to logic."

Water pressure locks methane gas into the cleats and pores of coal in the Powder River Basin. In order to produce the gas, the industry pumps large amounts of water from the coal aquifer to relieve the static pressure, allowing gas to rise to the surface.

The industry produces some 550 million barrels of water annually.

John Robitaille, vice president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, said the petition is an attempt to cut natural gas supply at a time when cold weather is driving a huge demand for the clean-burning energy resource.

The petitioners insist their goal is not to limit gas production, but to compel the industry to invest in water management techniques that better retain and maintain precious groundwater for future use.

Powder River Basin rancher Tooter Rogers said water is the most precious resource in the region. Yet the state has managed coal-bed methane water in a way that only a small percentage of it can actually be put to good use.

"I have no problem with producing the gas and people having jobs," Rogers said in a prepared statement. "But I think we need to protect both resources - the water as well as the gas. And we have to treat them both equally."

Policy problem

Part of the problem begins with how the state's water management policy is split between DEQ and the state engineer's office, according to the group. Water appropriation and water quantity matters are governed by the state engineer's office. The state then assumes that when DEQ considers water quality parameters for coal-bed methane water discharges that it has a complete water management system.

But the system is broken, according to the group.

"When the permit applicant can show that water discharged is of sufficient quality for a cow or an antelope to drink, then the DEQ will not question how much the cows or antelope will actually drink," the landowners' petition states. "Huge quantities of water are then disposed of - that is, flushed down Wyoming's waterways in the guise of 'beneficial use."'

Gov. Dave Freudenthal said he hadn't had an opportunity to read the petition on Tuesday. But he did say he found it curious that the group would ask the Environmental Quality Council about a matter that pertains to the state engineer's office.

State statutes prevent DEQ from having any authority over matters of water volumes or water quantity. Its authority regarding coal-bed methane water management is limited to water quality and protecting existing uses, such as agricultural irrigation.

The Petroleum Association of Wyoming said it would be inappropriate to extend any sort of water appropriation authority to DEQ. Furthermore, only a minute amount of coal-bed methane water actually flows into main waterways that flow out of state.

Robitaille said the water is being used to irrigate crops, sub-irrigate crop lands, water livestock and create wetlands for wildlife. Any coal-bed methane water that isn't directed to those uses is put into infiltration ponds to charge shallow aquifers.

"What about the rancher who really wants the water?" Robitaille said. "What about the guy who really likes the reservoirs? What about the oil producer who has been out there discharging water for 50 years who now has fish living in the stream? Suddenly you're taking away options."

Energy reporter Dustin Bleizeffer can be reached at (307) 682-3388 or dustin.bleizeffer@casperstartribune.net.