For Immediate Release:  May 23, 2003
Contact: Steven Hall, 970-244-3052

BLM approves five exploration wells in Mesa Slopes area

GRAND JUNCTION—The Bureau of Land Management Grand Junction Field Office approved on May 22 five Applications for Permit to Drill (APD) in the Grand Mesa Slopes Area. Evertson Operating, Inc submitted the APDs.

The APDs were approved following a Finding of No Significant Impact from an environmental assessment. Evertson Operating, Inc. drilled two gas wells in the area in 2002. The current drilling projects are located below 6,000 feet of elevation, near the TransColorado Pipeline. The drilling sites are well below the 7,500-foot elevation identified by the City of Grand Junction as their critical watershed.

One of the drilling locations may be modified to address concerns raised by the city in a meeting with the BLM on May 21. “We’ll be taking a hard look at the city’s request to move one well below the Brandon Ditch,” Grand Junction Field Office Manager Catherine Robertson said. A decision to move the site would be made in cooperation with Evertson Operating, Inc.

Nineteen gas wells have been drilled in the Grand Mesa Slopes area since the 1920s. In 1999, the Grand Junction Field Office suspended leasing in the area while the Grand Mesa Slopes Committee, which includes the BLM, United States Forest Service, City of Grand Junction as well as representatives of various stakeholders, recommended additional oil and gas lease stipulations to protect watersheds, wildlife habitat and other natural attributes of the area. These stipulations were implemented by the BLM and adopted by mineral leaseholders in the area.

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