No time for study

[TransitJohn]

By WHITNEY ROYSTER
Star-Tribune environmental reporter Sunday, August 15, 2004




FORT WASHAKIE -- A 1,000-page plus document is impossible to wade through in 45 days.

That was among the main comments made to U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs and U.S. Bureau of Land Management officers Wednesday at a Fort Washakie meeting on an environmental study examining more energy drilling in the area.

"If you want us to give substantive comments," Laurie Goodman of Jackson told the land managers, "give us time to do that. ... It's just ridiculous to assume that people can do it in 45 days."

The public meeting was the second of two designed to gather public comments on a 3-inch-thick Environmental Impact Statement on the Wind River Project around Pavillion and Muddy Ridge. It is the first ever such environmental study on the Wind River Indian Reservation.

Tom Brown Inc., a subsidiary of Encana, is looking to expand natural gas production in the area, increasing its existing 178 wells to the agency's proposed 325 wells, concentrated largely around Pavillion and Muddy Ridge. Wells are also proposed in the Coastal Extension, Sand Mesa and South Sand Mesa areas.


http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2004/08/15/news/wyoming/fc2a3cd72cd4749187256ef00079d808.txt