FORM FOR BLM - Citizens for a Healthy Community

Please check the box below if you agree to the following letter. A check in the box is required in order to submit the form to the BLM. *

I am opposed to oil and gas leasing on public lands in the North Fork Valley, which is one of the most beautiful and fertile places in the world. I am opposed to oil and gas leasing here because it has the potential to 1) lead to loss of the clean air and abundant clean fresh water that have made this area Colorado’s largest concentration of organic farms, prime hunting grounds, and home to gold medal fishing, and 2) cause significant harm to human health and a local economy based on recreation, hunting, tourism, and agriculture. I oppose the BLM’s Preferred Alternative, as it relates to oil and gas development, in the Draft Resource Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement for the Uncompahgre Field Office in Southwest Colorado.

The BLM’s preferred alternative would open almost every acre of public lands in the region to oil and gas leasing (865,970 acres or 94.5% of total oil, gas, and mineral acreage), and specifically in sensitive air, water and foodsheds. The Preferred Alternative is a roadmap to industrializing this economically and ecologically unique area with gas wells, pipelines, storage tanks, condensate tanks, wastewater pits, sand trucks, water tanks, and more.
The potential for human, animal and environmental damage is too high.
Development would contaminate soils, water, and air, and impair human health, including increases in respiratory, endocrine, immune, and cardiovascular disease.

Development of the leases would destroy local investments and resources required in transitioning the economy to one based on agro-tourism, recreation, renewable energy, agriculture, and organic/clean food. In addition, development would contribute to increased greenhouse gas emissions and climate change impacts on community resources, including agriculture and wildlife.

A no-leasing alternative is the only reasonable conclusion to a hard-look analysis of the risks posed by oil and gas operations including fracking technologies, and large-scale industrialization. Because BLM did not consider new information on earthquakes, human health impact, climate change impact, and environmental damage caused by hydraulic fracturing, injection wells, and ongoing oil and gas operations, along with its inadequate risk analysis, its draft Resource Management Plan is fundamentally flawed. BLM should adopt a no-leasing alternative, which is the only option to protect the North Fork Valley, and everyone who depends on it for food and recreation for generations to come. In addition, unregulated gas gathering pipelines on public lands present an unacceptable risk to human life and the environment. BLM should impose a moratorium on oil and gas leasing until rural gas gathering pipelines are properly regulated under the Pipeline Hazardous Materials and Safety Administration.

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