RIASSUNTO
Abstract
A multi-disciplinary team approach was successfully employed to design and implement innovative environmental solutions to drill the 8000 foot deep Hunter Creek exploratory well, less than 20 miles from Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. Acquiring permission from the ES, the BLM, and ultimately, the public to drill the Hunter Creek well involved substantial teamwork in identifying and resolving many potential, environmental pitfalls. Creative, workable and cost-effective mitigation measures employed at Hunter Creek included: utilizing a helicopter and limiting vehicle use of an existing road, conducting environmental and safety training, careful project planning, an erosion control and reclamation plan, designing an environmentally friendly, near-zero-discharge drilling location, initiating a water quality monitoring program, designing a waste minimization plan, identifying threatened and endangered and special status species possibly affected by project activities, and ensuring compliance with all mitigation measures and Federal and State regulations.
Introduction
Two goals were set for the Hunter Creek project. The first goal was to drill a commercially successful well, and was not obtained. The second goal was to design and conduct project operations so as to minimize the footprint left behind by project activities. This goal was clearly achieved. The Hunter Creek proposal was only the second well in the lower 48 states to be drilled utilizing a helicopter to transport the drill rig and other heavy equipment and materials to and from the well site. The project required comprehensive scoping, numerous public comment periods, extensive planning, coordination, and communication between a number of regulatory agencies to gain approval for drilling. By close and frequent communication between the operator, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, US Fish and Wildlife, Wyoming Fish and Game Department, Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, and other jurisdictional agencies, many of the mitigation measures and management prescriptions were front-end loaded into project planning.
The Hunter Creek well was drilled during the summer of 1993.
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