{"id":3338,"date":"2007-12-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coloradowildlife.org\/uncategorized\/roan-plateau-governor-ritter-issues-press-release-2\/"},"modified":"2007-12-20T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-12-20T00:00:00","slug":"roan-plateau-governor-ritter-issues-press-release-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradowildlife.org\/elk\/roan-plateau-governor-ritter-issues-press-release-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Roan Plateau: Governor Ritter Issues Press Release"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Evan Dreyer, 720.350.8370,<\/p>\n

evan.dreyer@state.co.us deb.frazier@state.co.us<\/em><\/strong> Ensuring protection for critical fish and wildlife habitat, such as by expanding the size of<\/p>\n

\u00a2<\/p>\n

protect the environment and properly pace future development;<\/p>\n

Exploring the concept of phased or incremental leasing to increase state revenues, better
\n\u00a2<\/p>\n

Achieving sustainable economic prosperity for local communities and industry;
\n\u00a2<\/p>\n

receives bonus payments from future leasing on the Roan; and<\/p>\n

Exploring a possible amendment to the 1997 federal Transfer Act to ensure that the state
\n\u00a2<\/p>\n

\u0153During this period of discussions with the Interior Department, we will continue to actively<\/p>\n

engage all those with a stake in the future of the Roan Plateau,\u009d Gov. Ritter said. \u0153This will<\/p>\n

include local officials and community leaders, energy industry representatives, conservationists,<\/p>\n

sportsmen, state lawmakers and members of Colorado’s congressional delegation.\u009d<\/p>\n

Incorporating state-of-the-art technology to minimize environmental disturbance.
\nSTATE OF COLORADO<\/p>\n

NEWS RELEASE<\/h2>\n

OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR<\/h4>\n

136 State Capitol Building<\/p>\n

Denver, Colorado 80203<\/p>\n

(303) 866 – 2471<\/p>\n

(303) 866 – 2003 fax<\/p>\n

Bill Ritter, Jr.<\/p>\n

Governor<\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Facts about the Roan Plateau<\/p>\n

What is the Roan Plateau?<\/p>\n

\u00a2<\/p>\n

of Denver with significant recoverable natural gas resources.<\/p>\n

A federally and privately owned plateau in northwest Colorado about 180 miles west
\n\u00a2<\/p>\n

acres, including surface acres and subsurface mineral rights.<\/p>\n

The federally owned portion of the Roan Plateau Planning Area (RPPA) is 73,602
\n\u00a2<\/p>\n

sides and the base.<\/p>\n

The federal acreage includes 34,758 acres on top of the Roan and 38,844 acres on the
\n\u00a2<\/p>\n

energy companies and ranchers, own the remaining 42 percent.<\/p>\n

The BLM owns 58 percent of the surface of the RPPA and private entities, including
\n\u00a2<\/p>\n

Colorado River at its base.<\/p>\n

The Roan Plateau rises to more than 9,200 feet and is 4,000 feet higher than the
\n\u00a2<\/p>\n

of roads and thousands of acres without roads. This includes 157 miles of unpaved<\/p>\n

roads on the federal land on top of the Roan.<\/p>\n

The Roan includes scenic areas, varied and rich wildlife habitat, more than 200 miles
\n\u00a2<\/p>\n

TCF on the top and 4.7 TCF on the cliffs and below the rim. That is enough natural gas<\/p>\n

for Colorado’s 1.5 million residential customers for 34 years.<\/p>\n

The recoverable resources are estimated at 8.9 trillion cubic feet (TCF), including 4.2
\nWhat’s happening today on the Roan Plateau?<\/p>\n

\u00a2<\/p>\n

private land on the top.<\/p>\n

There are more than 1,300 producing natural gas wells in the RPPA, including 10 on
\n\u00a2<\/p>\n

bottom.<\/p>\n

There are 876 permits to drill new wells, including 161 on the top and 715 on the
\n\u00a2<\/p>\n

federal land.<\/p>\n

On the bottom of the Roan, there are 980 wells on private land and 333 wells on
\nWhat is the federal government’s current plan for leasing on the Roan?<\/p>\n

\u00a2<\/p>\n

be developed over the next 20 years, including 210 wells and 13 drilling pads on the top<\/p>\n

of the Roan.<\/p>\n

BLM has estimated that under the current plan up to 1,560 wells on 193 well pads would
\n\u00a2<\/p>\n

The BLM would lease the available acres all at once.
\n\u00a2<\/p>\n

bottom) and allow for recovery of 90 percent of the natural gas resources.<\/p>\n

The BLM said the management plan will protect 51 percent of the Roan (top, sides and
\n3<\/p>\n

\u00a2<\/p>\n

than 350 acres at a time and wells must be clustered on multi-well pads at least a half<\/p>\n

mile apart.<\/p>\n

Surface disturbances, including well pads and equipment, would be limited to no more
\n\u00a2<\/p>\n

to 1 percent at any time.<\/p>\n

All drilling would be done in phases with well pads clustered to limit surface disturbance
\n\u00a2<\/p>\n

used. Directional drilling is currently used on over 98% of new wells in the Piceance<\/p>\n

Basin.<\/p>\n

To access the natural gas resources with a minimum of wells, directional drilling will be
\n\u00a2<\/p>\n

Drilling would not be allowed on slopes with greater than a 20 percent angle.
\nGeography of the Roan Plateau<\/p>\n

\u00a2<\/p>\n

pure strains of the Colorado River cutthroat trout, bald and golden eagles, deer, elk,<\/p>\n

puma, black bear, peregrine falcon and sage grouse<\/p>\n

Four \u0153Areas of Critical Environmental Concern\u009d are home to wildlife such as genetically
\n\u00a2<\/p>\n

The four areas total 21,032 acres:
\n\u00c3\u00b4???<\/p>\n

Anvil Points — 4,955 acres
\n\u00c3\u00b4???<\/p>\n

East Fork of Parachute Creek — 6,571 acres
\n\u00c3\u00b4???<\/p>\n

Magpie — 4,696 acres
\n\u00c3\u00b4???<\/p>\n

# # #<\/p>\n

Trapper\/Northwater — 4,810 acres<\/p>\n

Deb Frazier, 303.866.5887,<\/p>\n

1<\/p>\n

STATE, FEDS TO CONTINUE ROAN PLATEAU DISCUSSIONS<\/p>\n

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/p>\n

Gov. Bill Ritter announced today that his administration and the U.S. Department of the Interior<\/p>\n

are engaged in productive discussions about the future of the Roan Plateau and will continue the<\/p>\n

dialogue over the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

\u0153We are making steady progress on what I believe is a uniquely Colorado solution \u2013 a solution<\/p>\n

that strikes an important balance and will benefit our environment, economy, communities and<\/p>\n

energy industry,\u009d Gov. Ritter said. \u0153I’m pleased that Interior is working with us in reviewing the<\/p>\n

environmental, economic and technical issues pertaining to the Roan. I look forward to<\/p>\n

continuing these discussions to reach a mutually agreeable means of developing the energy<\/p>\n

resources on the Roan while also serving as responsible stewards of Colorado’s future.<\/p>\n

\u0153The Roan Plateau is a very special place, and we have only one chance to get it right,\u009d Gov.<\/p>\n

Ritter said. \u0153The state and federal governments owe it to present and future generations to do<\/p>\n

everything we can to accomplish our goals.\u009d Gov. Ritter said he hopes to achieve several<\/p>\n

objectives during the ongoing conversations, including:<\/p>\n

THURSDAY, DEC. 20, 2007<\/p>\n

\u00a2<\/p>\n

the four wildlife-protection zones, known as \u0153Areas of Critical Environmental Concern\u009d;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Evan Dreyer, 720.350.8370, evan.dreyer@state.co.us deb.frazier@state.co.us Ensuring protection for critical fish and wildlife habitat, such as by expanding the size of \u00a2 protect the environment and properly pace future development; Exploring the concept of phased or incremental leasing to increase state revenues, better \u00a2 Achieving sustainable economic prosperity for local communities and industry; \u00a2 receives bonus …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3338","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-news","7":"anons"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradowildlife.org\/elk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradowildlife.org\/elk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradowildlife.org\/elk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradowildlife.org\/elk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradowildlife.org\/elk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coloradowildlife.org\/elk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3338\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradowildlife.org\/elk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradowildlife.org\/elk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradowildlife.org\/elk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}