Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Water policy Here's a report about this week's World Water Week shindig in Stockholm, from The Environmental News Network. From the article: We are in the midst of World Water Week. The 2008 theme is "Progress and Prospects on Water: For a Clean and Healthy World with Special Focus on Sanitation."[caron] World Water Week is a international conference focused on collaboration and the promotion of work that advances environmental and humanitarian development. The United Nations proclaimed 2008 the International Year of Sanitation. With a focus on the Millennium Development Goals, the theme for World Water Week was chosen to draw attention to sanitation needs and the effect of poor sanitation worldwide. "cc" 5:36:39 PM     Energy policy: Oil and gas From The Glenwood Springs Post Independent: "Members of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) endorsed a new rule on Tuesday that would require oil and gas companies to maintain records of chemicals used in the drilling and completion process at a well site. Those records may be accessed by the state. Commissioners also endorsed a rule that would limit the building of certain oil and gas facilities within 300 feet and for a distance of five miles upstream of a public water supply." More from the article: Seven rules commissioners provisionally approved on Tuesday -- which mostly focused on public health and environmental issues and took up most of their time during the hearing -- largely followed recommendations that COGCC staff released earlier this month. Commissioners made several revisions and edits to those recommendations. The commission is expected to conduct final votes on the new regulations in mid-September. Some area groups, which have supported strong regulations for oil and gas companies, have said the agency's staff rule recommendations and clarifications have been "watered down," from draft regulations released in March... Commissioners -- including Garfield County Commissioner Trési Houpt, who is a member of the commission -- immediately began making their mark on the new rules as Tuesday's hearing kicked off. Houpt offered a motion to edit COGCC staff language over the purpose of the new rules to say they were instituted to protect the state's public health, environment and wildlife. Her motion passed on a unanimous vote. The commissioners then waded through a long debate about a rule that would require oil and gas companies to main an inventory of chemicals used in their drilling and completion operations at a well site -- one of the more controversial rules the commission will consider. Oil and gas companies consider the chemicals they use to be trade secrets. Commissioner Kimberlee Miskell Gerhardt, a consulting geologist from La Plata County, said that the state should just start with a rule that requires companies to maintain an inventory of chemicals in excess of 500 pounds on a well site and see how it goes. She said there wasn't any "demonstrated need" to go below that weight threshold... The commissioners also debated a rule that would prohibit energy companies from constructing new oil and gas facilities within 300 feet and for a distance of five miles upstream of a public water supply. Pipelines, roads and gathering lines are excluded from that regulation. The state can grant variances to the 300-foot regulation, according to the rules. The language governing variances was massaged by the commissioners during Tuesday's hearing. Commissioner Joshua Epel -- who provides legal counsel to DCP Midstream, an oil and gas company -- said he had too many concerns about the stipulations surrounding the 300-foot regulation, and said they had "too many flaws" as written. Houpt wondered why pipelines, roads and gathering facilities were excluded. Dave Neslin, acting director of the COGCC, said they were excluded because those facilities are covered by other proposed rules. She argued that the 300-foot zone where no new facilities should be built be raised to 500 feet, which the COGCC initially recommended in March. That request was defeated. "So many local jurisdictions support a 500-foot or more buffer," she said after the hearing. "cc" 6:35:30 AM

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