In 2008, Ecosphere completed a Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) on behalf of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe (SUIT), Bureau of Indian Affairs – Southern Ute Agency, and the Bureau of Land Management, Tres Rios Field Office for 80-acre spacing Fruitland oil and gas development on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation. The reasonable foreseeable development scenario (20 years) anticipated drilling approximately 770 coal bed methane natural gas wells—largely from existing well locations.
San Juan Basin Shale Development – Ecosphere is working with several operators, service companies, the Bureau of Land Management Farmington Field Office, and Bureau of Indian Affairs Navajo Area Office to evaluate project-specific impacts of proposed field developments associated with Mancos Shale/Gallup Formation targets. Various National Environmental Policy Act documents have been prepared for developments ranging from individual well pads or pipelines to geographic area development plans of operation.
Carbon Dioxide Field Development in Canyons of the Ancients National Monument—Ecosphere is working with Kinder Morgan CO2 and BLM Canyons of the Ancients National Monument (CANM) staff to expand CO2 production in the McElmo Dome unit located inside the CANM. Ecosphere facilitated the effort to create and implement a master development framework for the McElmo Dome unit. In implementing this framework, Ecosphere has conducted baseline plant, wildlife, and TES surveys across the CANM as well as prepared Geographic Area Development Plans for fields within the unit. The goal of this approach is to expedite the NEPA process for future fluid mineral development in an area with some of the highest cultural resource density in the U.S.
