To: Bureau of Land Management
Help us send 40,000 comments: Don’t let Trump hand over Great Sand Dunes National Park to Big Oil!
In your draft Environmental Assessment, you, the Colorado BLM, failed to sufficiently consider the cumulative and indirect impacts oil and gas drilling would have on the water, air, and lands both within Great Sand Dunes National Park and in the adjacent Sangre de Cristo Wilderness Area.
Because you failed to adequately analyze these impacts, the Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, and the Colorado BLM should withdraw the 11 parcels of land in Huerfano County that you currently plan to offer for lease in the September 2018 Royal Gorge Field Office lease sale.
These are the major issues I have with this plan:
- The BLM improperly relies on the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, which lie between the park and the parcels in dispute, as providing a sufficient buffer so as to negate any potential impacts of oil and gas drilling. But mountains cannot guard against air pollution, noise pollution or water pollution. These mountains and the wilderness they hold are home to elk and mule deer which again, will be negatively impacted by the oil and gas drilling that will take place literally one mile away.
- The BLM’s analysis that air quality can’t be fully determined because of shifting wind patterns is lazy and, while you assessed current air quality in the region, you failed to address how this type of development would impact future air quality. You know what effects drilling has on air quality and punted any analysis of the impacts of drilling until after the parcels are sold. BLM should not be able to lease these parcels without fully reporting these known impacts.
- BLM wants to sell off parcels of land that are within spitting distance of one of our country’s most iconic and unique landscapes; land that, per your own analysis, has a low or very low likelihood of producing any extractable resource.
- You have yet to seriously and fully address the concerns raised by local communities about how this drilling will impact their air, water, and health. In addition, you need to fully address concerns that seismic activity will disrupt the sensitive dune ecosystem, that pollution will negatively impact the park’s dark night sky, and that oil rigs will mar the Sangre de Cristo wilderness’ viewshed.
Your failure to provide an adequate environmental assessment means you need to withdraw these parcels from the September lease sale.
Because you failed to adequately analyze these impacts, the Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, and the Colorado BLM should withdraw the 11 parcels of land in Huerfano County that you currently plan to offer for lease in the September 2018 Royal Gorge Field Office lease sale.
These are the major issues I have with this plan:
- The BLM improperly relies on the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, which lie between the park and the parcels in dispute, as providing a sufficient buffer so as to negate any potential impacts of oil and gas drilling. But mountains cannot guard against air pollution, noise pollution or water pollution. These mountains and the wilderness they hold are home to elk and mule deer which again, will be negatively impacted by the oil and gas drilling that will take place literally one mile away.
- The BLM’s analysis that air quality can’t be fully determined because of shifting wind patterns is lazy and, while you assessed current air quality in the region, you failed to address how this type of development would impact future air quality. You know what effects drilling has on air quality and punted any analysis of the impacts of drilling until after the parcels are sold. BLM should not be able to lease these parcels without fully reporting these known impacts.
- BLM wants to sell off parcels of land that are within spitting distance of one of our country’s most iconic and unique landscapes; land that, per your own analysis, has a low or very low likelihood of producing any extractable resource.
- You have yet to seriously and fully address the concerns raised by local communities about how this drilling will impact their air, water, and health. In addition, you need to fully address concerns that seismic activity will disrupt the sensitive dune ecosystem, that pollution will negatively impact the park’s dark night sky, and that oil rigs will mar the Sangre de Cristo wilderness’ viewshed.
Your failure to provide an adequate environmental assessment means you need to withdraw these parcels from the September lease sale.
Why is this important?
Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Zinke are trying to open the area near Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado to oil and gas drilling. This National Park is home to iconic and unique landscapes and rare wildlife. Fossil fuel development would put all that at risk while polluting our air, water, and climate.
The Bureau of Land Management wants to know what the public thinks of this plan -- but we only have until April 6th to speak up. So we need you to speak up NOW!
The Bureau of Land Management wants to know what the public thinks of this plan -- but we only have until April 6th to speak up. So we need you to speak up NOW!