Environmental Best Management Practice Awards:
Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Operations
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News Release: 2009 Award Winners Announced 2009 Awards Video: The 12-minute video (left) profiles this year's winners. Click the triangle button to start. There may be a brief delay depending on your connection speed. Previous Years' Awards: 2008 2007 2006
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- ANNOUNCEMENT - 2010 Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Development
Environmental Best Management Practices Awards Program
United States Department of the Interior
Bureau of Land Management The U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announces the fifth annual Oil, Gas, Geophysical, and Geothermal Development Environmental Best Management Practices (BMP) Awards Program to promote and showcase the finest examples of responsible fluid mineral resource development on BLM-managed public lands, other Federal agency lands, Indian Trust lands, or Federal split estate lands where the surface is privately owned and the BLM manages the mineral estate. The 2010 BMP awards will recognize oil, gas, geophysical, and geothermal operators and their partners who demonstrate leadership and creativity in reducing the impacts of oil, gas, geophysical, and geothermal development. The BMP Awards Program will serve as an important component of the BLM’s overall approach to ensuring that energy development is conducted in an environmentally responsible manner. For current information on the Awards Program, visit http://www.blm.gov/bmp. What are BMPs? Environmental BMPs are state-of-the-art mitigation measures applied on a site-specific basis to reduce, prevent, or avoid adverse environmental or social impacts. By reducing the area of disturbance, adjusting the location of facilities, and utilizing various other techniques to minimize environmental effects, the BLM and oil, gas, geophysical, and geothermal operators are significantly reducing impacts to wildlife, soil, water, air, and scenic quality that may be associated with new energy development. Leadership in the Use of Oil, Gas, Geophysical, or Geothermal Environmental BMPs Awards will be presented to one or more fluid mineral operators and its partners, as applicable, to publicly recognize environmental leadership and stewardship through the use of environmental BMPs in oil, gas, geophysical, or geothermal operations and development. These awards recognize continuous achievements in utilizing BMPs to successfully meet or exceed Federal, state, or local environmental protection requirements with minimal oversight. Those eligible for the BMP award include oil, gas, geophysical, or geothermal operators or partnerships entered into by operators. Nominees must clearly demonstrate a commitment to excellence by putting into practice outstanding examples of BMPs for minimizing impacts to the land, resources, or communities. BMPs must have been implemented in 2008 or 2009. It is anticipated that awards will be presented at an oil and gas conference in 2010. How do I nominate a company for an award? Operators, regulatory authorities, surface management agencies (such as the BLM, U. S. Forest Service, and state agencies), tribes, trade organizations, landowners, individual Indian mineral owners, and members of the general public may nominate operators for these awards. Company officials and employees may nominate their own operations for recognition. Nominations must contain all of the information listed in the “What should the nomination contain?” section of this announcement and indicate the award category for the nomination. Nominations must be sent to the BLM State Office with jurisdiction for public lands in the state where the operation is located. Nominations will be accepted by the BLM State Officesuntil December 1, 2009. Contact information, including the addresses for these State Offices and areas of their jurisdiction are shown in the following table.
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BLM State Office and Mailing Address
| Area of Jurisdiction | Alaska State Office
Bureau of Land Management
Division of Energy and Solid Minerals
222 West 7th Avenue, # 13
Anchorage. AK 99513-7599
(907) 271 –5960
| Contact: Greg J. Noble
Alaska
| Arizona State Office
Bureau of Land Management
Renewable and Mineral Resources Group
1 North Central Avenue
Phoenix, AZ 85004-2203
(602) 417-9200
| Contact: Jeff Garrett Arizona | California State Office
Bureau of Land Management
Branch of Energy and Minerals
2800 Cottage Way, W1834
Sacramento, CA 95825
(916) 978-4400
| Contact: Jim Haerter
California
| Colorado State Office
Bureau of Land Management
Fluid Minerals
2850 Youngfield Street
Lakewood, CO 80215-7093
(303) 239-3600
| Contact: Sherri Thompson
Colorado
| Eastern States State Office
Bureau of Land Management
Energy and Minerals
7450 Boston Boulevard
Springfield, VA 22153
(703) 440-1600
| Contact: Steve Klimetz Subsurface Federal Lands in Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin
| Idaho State Office
Bureau of Land Management
Minerals
1387 South Vinnell Way
Boise, ID 83709-1657
(208) 373-3889
| Contact: Karen Porter
Idaho
| Montana State Office
Bureau of Land Management
Branch of Fluid Minerals
5001 Southgate Drive
Billings, MT 59101
(406) 896-5004
| Contact: John Brown
Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota
| Nevada State Office
Bureau of Land Management
Fluid Minerals Team
1340 Financial Boulevard
Reno, NV 89502
(PO Box 12000, Reno, NV 89520-0006)
(775) 861-6400
| Contact: John Menghini
Nevada
| New Mexico State Office
Bureau of Land Management
Oil and Gas Program
1474 Rodeo Drive
Santa Fe, NM 87505-0115
(505) 438-7400
| Contact: Jay Spielman
Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas
| Oregon State Office
Bureau of Land Management
Fluid Minerals
333 SW 1st Avenue
PO. Box 2965
Portland, OR 97208-2965
(503) 808-6001
| Contact: Tom Wawro Oregon and Washington | Utah State Office
Bureau of Land Management
Branch of Fluid Minerals
324 South State Street
P.O. Box 45155
Salt Lake City, UT 84145-0155
(801) 539-4001
| Contact: Mike McKinley Utah | Wyoming State Office
Bureau of Land Management
Fluid Minerals Section
5353 Yellowstone Road
PO. Box 1828
Cheyenne, WY 82003
(307) 775-6256
| Contact: Darryl Watts
Wyoming and Nebraska
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What should the nomination contain? Each nomination must include the following: Cover sheet containing: - Name of the nominated company.
- Name and location of the project area(s), if applicable.
- Contact information for the person or company or organization representative making the nomination including name, affiliation, address, telephone number, and email address.
- Contact information for the oil, gas, geophysical, or geothermal company, if different from above.
Narrative description that includes information such as: - Description of the specific BMP activity or practice, including specifics, where applicable, on leadership, creativity, problems, solutions, extent of BMP use, approximate costs, partnering, land ownership, and unusual circumstances.
- History of why the BMP was selected, including whether it was required by the agency or voluntarily proposed by the operator.
- Short- and long-term benefits of the BMP(s) to the environment or community.
- Effectiveness of the work, quantified where possible.
- Transferability of the work or value of the accomplishments to other oil, gas, geophysical, or geothermal operations.
- A list of references, including telephone numbers of individuals who can validate the successful use of the BMP(s).
- Statement summarizing why the award is deserved.
Photographs Printed photographs as well as photographs on a CD are highly encouraged. The photographs will help to document the success of the nominated activity. Photographs should include a description and the year the photograph was taken. The BLM would like to use your photographs for training, outreach, and publicity purposes, therefore a signed statement that the photographs are released for public use, is appreciated. Submission Format Please submit three copies of the nomination on 8½” by 11” paper. You are asked to limit nominations to 10 pages or less of typed text. There is no limit on the number of photographs. Supporting documentation, such as letters of recognition from regulators or community officials or newspaper articles, is not required, but may be submitted with the nomination. Each BLM State Office will review the nominations submitted to that office and verify that the information contained in the nomination and that the operation or program complies with applicable regulations and permits. All nominations will be accompanied by a Statement of Findings prepared by the BLM State Office and will be forwarded to the BLM Washington Office for referral to a panel of judges. The panel of judges may be composed of energy industry and natural resource experts including individuals from Federal agencies, academic institutions, trade and conservation groups, and/or the public. Judges typically evaluate award nominations based on: effectiveness of the project or program; transferability of the technique, practice, or program; short- and long-term benefits of the BMP(s) to the environment or community; difficulty presented by the problem addressed by the project or program; extent to which the project or program exceeds regulatory requirements or public expectations; and clarity and thoroughness of the nomination. The judges will use their personal experiences when evaluating the unique aspects of each application. Their final recommendations will be reviewed for approval by the BLM. Important Dates Nominations for the 2010 awards program must be filed with the BLM State Offices by December 1, 2009. The BLM State Offices will review and forward all nominations to the BLM Washington Office by January 4, 2009. It is anticipated that results will be formally announced at an oil and gas conference in 2010. For Additional Information - BLM – Bryce Barlan, Natural Resource Specialist, Division of Minerals (WO-310), bryce_barlan@blm.gov, or by telephone at 202-912-7154
- U.S. Forest Service – Barry Burkhardt, Assistant Director for Leasable Minerals, bburhhardt@fs.fed.us, or by telephone at 303-275-5147.
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