Residents fret about oilfield dumping plan for Bighorn River

Residents downstream of Boysen Reservoir — where state officials want to OK the discharge of tons of oilfield pollutants — say they weren’t given adequate notice and time to comment on the plan.

At least six groups — two local governments, two conservation groups and two agricultural interests — have drafted or sent letters to the Wyoming Department of Environment Quality challenging its timetable to approve the permit, according to copies of the letters obtained by WyoFile. The permit would allow oilfield operators led by Aethon Energy to discharge 8.27 million gallons of tainted water a day into Alkali and Badwater creeks.

The flows of “produced water” from the Moneta Divide oil and gas field would run to the Boysen Reservoir where 2,161 tons a month of total dissolved solids, including more than 1,000 tons each of sodium and sulfate would be diluted. Releases from the Boysen Dam would flow into the Wind, then Bighorn rivers, which supply drinking water to the towns of Thermopolis and Basin and feed at least nine major canals or ditches irrigating at least 70,575 acres of crop and range land.

WyoFile obtained copies of letters or draft letters to the DEQ from the Town of Thermopolis, Hot Springs County, Wyoming Outdoor Council, Powder River Basin Resource Council, Hot Springs County Farm Bureau Federation and the Hot Springs Conservation District. Most seek public meetings and an extension of the April 17 comment deadline.

Read more: https://www.wyofile.com/residents-fret-about-oilfield-dumping-plan-for-bighorn-river/