SWEETWATER COUNTY — Sweetwater County is preparing comments in protest of the Bureau of Land Management’s proposed Rock Springs Resource Management Plan and Final Environmental Impact Statement.

The Proposed RMP and Final EIS were published Aug. 23, which kicked off a 30-day public protest period in which protests will be accepted through Sept. 23. The BLM states that the proposed RMP has taken public and cooperating comments requesting a mix of alternatives addressing land designations, exclusion areas, and potential restrictions on development, to strike a balance for land management. The BLM claims that the Proposed RMP allows for responsible development of resources while emphasizing protections for wildlife habitat and improved water quality.

However, the Sweetwater County commissioners believe the proposed RMP is not a balance at all.

“They’ve called this a balance, they’ve called different things a balance, and the truth of the matter is we have a balance today with the way we use our lands currently,” Commissioner Taylor Jones said.

Sweetwater County Land Use Director Eric Bingham said that the existing RMP has 286,470 acres of Areas of Critical Environmental Concern, and the proposed plan has 935,135 acres of ACECs, which is a 226% increase. Bingham said this increase will be reflected in management actions.

“So what does that mean? It means additional restrictions, and they’re trying to protect some sort of resource in there,” he said.

As for the issue of trail corridors, the draft EIS had a large trail corridor up to 25 miles, and while that was reduced, Bingham said there is still a 10-mile corridor that is being proposed in the final EIS. He said this influences what development can go in the areas of the corridor.

Bingham said while the BLM addressed some coal and trona concerns in the proposed RMP, he believes oil and gas got hit really hard. The video clip below, taken from the Sweetwater County commissioner meeting, shows Bingham discussing the proposed changes to oil and gas leases. A map of fluid mineral leasing within the existing RMP is shown on the left of the video, and the proposed RMP is shown on the map on the right.

Commissioner Mary Thoman noted that the existing RMP that the land is being managed by currently closes 15% of the field office to oil and gas development. The proposed RMP will close an additional 15% of the field office to oil and gas, meaning a total of 30% of the field office will be unavailable to this type of development. However, the preferred RMP that the BLM issued last year would have closed 61% of the field office.

Chairman Keaton West said the proposed RMP is still problematic, despite being less so than their initial preferred plan. 

“I think that’s been the hardest going through the now proposed [RMP], is that it has improved from Alternative B, but I don’t think many understand the severity that Alternative B brought forth with it when you’re looking at the impacts to all of the mining and energy powerhouses in Sweetwater County, and certainly to the economic side that we’ll be faced with,” West said.

Commissioner Jones said that existing leases that have not been drilled yet are also up in the air with the proposed RMP.

“There are some existing leases that have not been drilled east of 191 that’s in red now, so not only are they reducing the amount available but they’re going to potentially eliminate existing,” Jones said. “All along, one of the things they’ve said is they’re not going to hamper, reduce or eliminate any existing, and that is absolutely not true.”

Additionally, Bingham noted that they don’t know for sure what the implication will be to active wells in the red areas. Danielle Bettencourt, environmental, public land use, and natural resources attorney, said those active wells have a better chance of continuing than leases that have not been drilled yet, but renewing leases in areas that are marked as unavailable to leases could be implicated. Therefore, she said leases can continue with existing rights in those areas, but no rights are guaranteed for leases coming up for renewal. 

“If you overlay this map with current leases, even if they allow current leases to go forward, there’s no way to access them. There’s no way to get the product out of those leases and into the market. So they layered upon layered ways to destroy our economy.” 

Binghman also discussed Rights-of-Way exclusions, stating that the RMP proposes an increase to ROW avoidance and exclusion areas, and that Sweetwater County has a few county roads within these proposed designations.

“When you put a right of way avoidance in there, what are we doing? Are we de facto wilderness areas? Potentially, because it’s going to make it very difficult to do anything when you’re in a Right-of-Way exclusion area, which has been vastly expanded in that area,” Bingham said.

In the proposed RMP, the Little Mountain area is designated as a ROW avoidance area, but Jack Morrow Hills and the Red Desert is being proposed as a ROW exclusion area. 

Bingham also talked about the Off-Highway Vehicles restrictions. While the areas closed to OHV use are not increased, a majority of the area is being designated as limited to designated roads and trails. However, Bingham said the BLM still provided information on what the designated roads and trails are.

Commissioner Island Richards said that when you take the ROW and OHV maps and overlay them with the oil and gas leases map, the issue becomes even more problematic because it creates layers of restrictions that make accessing resources more and more difficult.

“If you overlay this map with current leases, even if they allow current leases to go forward, there’s no way to access them. There’s no way to get the product out of those leases and into the market. So they layered upon layered ways to destroy our economy,” Richards said.

Thoman noted that the BLM’s sage grouse management plan is also incoming, so that will add further layers. She said there have been discussions in the sage grouse plans on whether or not they want more ACECs. 

The Sweetwater County commissioners will approve and submit its protest comments by Sept. 23, as they continue to find the RMP troubling. The proposed RMP and Final EIS can be found on the BLM’s E-Planning website. The BLM will be accepting protests through Sept. 23 on this website.

Additionally, a four-page fact sheet that breaks down what has changed from the draft RMP and the proposed RMP can be found below.