02 May CHC Appeals Drilling Approval in Gunnison National Forest

May 2, 2013 –

Citizens for a Healthy Community has filed an appeal with the U.S. Forest Service over the agency’s decision to approve a drilling proposal for the site pictured above, located in critical wildlife habitat in the Gunnison National Forest.

Last summer, SG Interests applied for a permit to drill up to five gas wells in the National Forest, near County Road 265.  CHC submitted scoping comments in August 2012, and our strategic partners at the Western Environmental Law Center filed an appeal this week on our behalf.

The central issue in the appeal is that the USFS has failed to conduct a site specific analysis and that the agency has relied on a previously conducted, weak analysis called a categorical exclusion to approve this drilling application. The use of one categorical exclusion to approve another project through a categorical exclusion, without conducting site-specific analysis, is something the Forest Service is not allowed to do.

Click here to read our appeal of the drilling project.