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II ,I !I Ii II . il . :i " " . Western States Water Council Water Quality Committee Sheridan, Wyoming October 5, 2006 west. Some of the worst water is in the Tongue River basin. It is perfectly suitable for fish & wildlife, while not very useful in some instances for irrigation. Wyoming also has internal problems. For example, a typical situation in the Powder River basin, if looking upstream, up a drainage in front of coal bed methane discharge - - it's nice and grassy and it rains every once-in-awhile, snow melts and grass grows and the ranchers are happy about that. Looking down from a CBM discharge, it's kind of a mess. That nice grassy swell that you see upstream has turned into kind of a swamp. Some ranchers thank us, while others wonder how we could allow it -- it's pollution. We want to make sure the quality of the water that is flowing down meets criteria to protect the use, but we don't feel that we have any legal authority to protect the physical damage from the water itself. That is a real contentious issue. There is a petition before our Environmental Quality Council now, which would give Wyoming Environmental Quality the authority 10 address this sort of situation. Coal bed methane wells are anticipated to last anywhere from 5-20 years. During the first year and a half when they are pulling down the head, the wells distribute a lot of water. But as soon as they get the head down to where they want it to be, it's just a matter of maintenance. A typical discharge point for us is 2-3 wells, and once they're in maintenance phase it's only a couple of gallons a minute. When it's in the build-down phase, the well could produce 50-75 gallons. That's another challenge you have to deal with. Jo]m further explained about the comment he made on the bus regarding the Fish and Game Department not wanting clean water discharged into the Powder River. The Powder River is normally a slow, muddy moving stream. By adding cold, clear freshwater, no one really knows what would happen to the current threatened endangered species living within it. Wyoming produces more coal than any other state in the nation. There have been some conflicts. CBM operators are asking the coal miners to wait 15-20 years, so they can get the gas out. The coal mining operations say, "I've also got a lease and I've got a right to my CBM and I want to go through and take it out." The coal is actually cleaner and has a lot less sulfur, but it contains a Jot of water. Because it's low in sulfur, it's easy for people to bum. Mercury is becoming more of an issue. Wyoming coal has mercury in a form that is tough to deal with and so there is concern in Wyoming that the new mercury rules are going to have an adverse effect on our coal distribution. Bob Bukantis responded to John's comment about Montana's 2003 standards to protect water quality. Montana set our water quality standards for beneficial use ,and it sets criteria to protect the use. In th~: case of the Powder River basin, in response to coal bed methane development and the potential impacts to beneficial uses, Montana decided we needed to develop standards for conductivity in sort of an absorption ratio. In this case, we had irrigated agriculture to protect and so we set the numeric criteria to try to protect that use in the non-degradation policy. As a state water quality management agency we need to acknowledge that despite the Power River being too thick to drink and to thin to plow, there has been agricultural uses that have evolved in that valley, and those irrigators know how to use that water to irrigate and support their livelihoods. The water may not be 5