U.S. Water News Online
BILLINGS, Mont. -- State regulators have rejected a natural gas company's appeal to transport water produced during coal-bed methane development across the state line into Wyoming, but granted permission for the company to discharge water within Montana.
The Department of Natural Resources and Conservation ruling allows Fidelity Exploration and Production to use about 3,800 acre feet of water annually on irrigation projects or other "beneficial uses" within Montana. The company was denied its bid to transport out of Montana an additional 3,000 acre feet of water from its operations in the Tongue River basin in southeastern Montana.
Agency director Mary Sexton said shipping the water to Wyoming would have been "unprecedented" and was unwise given a drought that has persisted in the basin for much of the last decade.
Fidelity is a subsidiary of Bismarck, N.D.-based MDU Resources Inc.
In coal-bed methane operations, water must be removed from natural reservoirs surrounding underground coal seams so the methane, or natural gas, can be tapped. But some farmers contend the high-salinity water can ruin crops and damage their soils. They have pressured state officials to restrict what companies do with the water.
A landowner group known as the Northern Plains Resource Council had asked the state to deny Fidelity permission for its two water discharge plans.
The DNRC rulings upheld a hearing examiner's decision issued in April. They can be appealed to state court. Fidelity Vice President Bruce Williams said a decision on an appeal would be made after company attorneys reviewed the ruling. Representatives of Northern Plains could not be reached for comment.
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