Stan Olmstead
P.O. Box 403
Jonesborough TN 37659
stanolmstead@gmail.com
October 11, 2017
Vernal Field Office – BLM
Ms. Ester McCollough
170 South 500 East
Vernal, UT 84078
Field
Manager McCollough:
I
have been interested in the abandonment and reclamation of oil and gas
operations at the Vernal Field Office for many years. I had worked at the
office from 1992 thru 2012 and after retirement put an effort into adding
encouragement to management in the effort to accomplish much needed plugging,
facility removal, contouring and re-vegetating abandon locations, specifically
well sites.
My
question has to do with two specific wells:
Seep Ridge #1, lease number
UTU6616; T13S R22E, SENW Sec. 23
Seep Ridge #3, lease number
UTU10178A; T13S R22E, SENW Sec. 22
These
two individual wells were somewhat representative of a failure to fulfill the
Bureau’s obligation to heal the land. Each was non-producing upon my arrival in
1992 and remained non-producing when I retired in 2012. Hard working staff
spent thousands of hours traveling to the field, inspecting the locations,
documenting their findings, discussing the obligation, communicating with the
operator and yet they remained with trashy infrastructure, eroding soils, weed
infested, unplugged and out of compliance.
Although
the wells were earlier held by Hot Rod Oil the Seep Ridge No. 1 transferred to
Summit and they may now be “operated” by Crescent Point Energy if my
information is correct? Would you please provide a detailed
explanation of the status of the wells and the situation to their compliance;
plugging, abandonment and final reclamation.
Sincerely,
Stan
Olmstead
Stan Olmstead
P.O. Box 403
Jonesborough TN 37659
stanolmstead@gmail.com
December 15, 2017
Vernal Field Office – BLM
Ms. Ester McCollough
170 South 500 East
Vernal, UT 84078
Field
Manager McCollough:
It
is with pleasure and appreciation that I am in receipt of your letter
responding to my October 11, 2017 request for information about the status of
the Seep Ridge #1 & #3 well locations and their plugging, abandonment and
reclamation conditions. You answered my request in full if not in detail, the particulars
are of little importance. What I understand from your letter is that the status
quo prevails and the operator continues to languish in managing his actions to
fulfill his energy responsibility as he has done since I first visited the well
locations in 1993, production extremely slight and of little consequence to be
of any merit.
I
ask not that you respond to this message; you do not know me, nor I you; however
the information presented here should speak for itself and allow you the
opportunity to do “soul searching” and consider your responsibility as Field
Manager to fulfill the mission: To
sustain the health, diversity and productivity of public lands for the present
and future generations.
I
remain in contact with many individuals of the Basin to include many that work
within the Field Office. As the status quo continues to be an unfulfilled
action towards meeting the mission, I continue at present as I did during my employment
with the Office to be in a quandary as to why the industrial activity takes so
much precedence over all other resource values, contrary to wise stewardship
and science of public land management.
When
arriving at the Vernal Office in the 90’s many of the managers were of the
natural resource background, education, land stewardship and understanding.
However as time elapsed and the political climate changed these stewards of the
land were replaced by industrial minded managers with a background in mining,
petroleum engineering, industrial geology and the like and those that cared and
understood ecology, habitat and the human impact to land, air and water were
relegated to the processing teams.
I
remember vividly the decline of the sage grouse, the extirpation of the
mountain plover, the lack of concern for the ferruginous hawk, the continued allowance
of the same grazing Animal Unit Months even though much of the acreage was
denuded by energy development. These experiences, your short letter and
information from friends and associates in the Basin indicate that little has
changed.
Please
consider the first definition of Connive: To
encourage or assent to a wrong by silence or feigned ignorance.
Then
ask where does the ignorance lie? How when the earth is shredded by our consumption
and abuse do we explain it to the next generation? I remember vividly the
“arguments” with a few select industrial biased individuals of the office and the
struggles by the ecosystem minded staff in the “battles” to turn the tables in
an ecological minded direction. Why is it that those that care deeply for the
health of the land suffer so greatly by those that only promote commodities and
lack the internal understanding of a healthy ecosystem?
Vernal
BLM employees that I am in contact with have expressed a noticeable low morale within
the office and it appears to me that low morale is a vivid indication that
wrong is a foot. The entire staff within a successful office must be working in
the same direction and with pride; pride represents professionalism. If that
part of your staff that cares deeply for the environment is discouraged then it
is obvious that failure is occurring.
My
time at the Vernal Office was spent challenging these ignorant ideas of
commodities first, after retirement I challenged through FOIA requests and
executive and legislative appeals to encourage and “force” more appropriate
abandonment and reclamation of the numerous energy locations that languish as
“sores” on public land and now I appeal to you; Field Manager of the Vernal
Office to stand up to Washington and State executive directives that wish only
to streamline permitting of development and return to the wise and balance of
sustaining your “charge” and focus your staff in a combined effort to health,
reclamation, to minimize disturbance and promote a healthy flora and fauna for
the myriad of acres of habitat that are in the Field Office domain.
I
close my letter with a few quotes from a recent book that I am presently
reading and ask that you consider not just the refugia of parks, wilderness and
wildlife refuges but refuge within the public domain that have not been
selected for special uses, to limit disturbance, that habitat fragmentation be
curtailed to the least, that air, land and water are not fouled and that the
non-consumptive resources have superior value over commodities. There is a
movement to leave fossil fuels in the ground. Fossil fuels have provided the
human society to advance to increasing numbers but now fossil fuels may be the
cause of vast numbers of mortality, destruction and troubles.
Are
you the manager that will connive with political ignorance or will you be the
manager that stands tall, organize the team in a common direction to fulfillment:
To sustain the health, diversity and productivity of public lands for
present and future generations?
____________________________________________________________________________
John Muir –
Selective Writings by Tempest Williams: 2017 – Everyman’s Library
Oil is
optional water is not
Everyone
needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may
heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike.
Muir … could
not have prepared himself for the scale of changes piled on to the Earth by
modernity from his era to ours – neither Muir nor God could save the Earth from
fools.
We need to
deepen Muir’s ethos of the wild and expand our thinking about how environmental
issues and social issues must be seen as issues of justice in a world
increasingly weighted towards the advantage of the privileged.
In
the era of climate change upon us, we are now recognizing that many of our most
valuable carbon banks are upon and beneath the ground, insurance policies for
the future are found within our protected … public lands.
I
ask you to be a savior not a destroyer of our natural heritage and protect
public lands so they are indeed healthy, diverse and productive in continuum.
Sincerely,
Stan
Olmstead – Natural Resource Advocate
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