Traverse City Record Eagle
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Drilling forum digs up debate
Supporters and foes of directional drilling plead their cases at TC forum

By BRENDAN STRAUBEL
May 20, 2001

Framed by a national debate over energy shortages and soaring fuel costs, politicians, environmentalists, drillers and citizens took turns at the microphone at a forum here Saturday to debate the state's expansion of directional drilling for oil and gas below the Great Lakes. The forum was sponsored by U.S. Representative Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, and State Representative Julie Dennis, D-Muskegon.

Opponents of more Great Lakes directional drilling - a technique used to tap offshore oil and gas reserves from on-shore rigs by bore holes slanting below lake bottoms - said the risks to water supplies and human health were too great and state oversight of the oil and gas industry too sloppy to allow more bottomland drilling leases.

But a contingent of oil and gas industry representatives who spoke maintained the drilling technique poses little real danger to the environment and would help supply needed fuel for energy-hungry Americans.

Stupak called the Michigan Department of Natural Resources plan to begin issuing new leases for directional drilling below the Great Lakes as early as this fall "too risky."

In 21 years of production, he said, the 13 wells already drilled below the lakes have produced only enough oil and gas to power the country for a fraction of a single day.

Meanwhile, he said, the risks shoreline drilling poses to water supplies and human health are too high.

Even a small oil spill on the Michigan coast would contaminate thousands of gallons of both groundwater and lake water, he said, putting the drinking water supply of millions at risk.

And, he said, the toxic hydrogen sulfide gas that sometimes leaks at drill sites poses a direct risk to people living in the more-populated coastal areas.

"Some say the risks to the lakes are minimal. But the risk is not zero," he said. "We should not risk the health of our water and our people for a few bucks."

Directionally drilled wells have been used along the Great Lakes coasts in the state since 1979. Facing growing public concern about environmental risks, Gov. Engler called for a moratorium on the leasing of new Great Lakes bottomland drill sites in 1997.

A study released later that year by a group of state-appointed scientists said the drilling could be done with minimal risk to the environment. The report also contained specific recommendations for future shoreline drilling regulations.

Engler has supported the DNR's recent recommendation that the ban on the drilling be lifted. The agency is now in the final stages of rewriting rules state officials have said will clear the way for new coastal drilling by early 2002.

State regulators have already adopted some of the scientists' recommendations, including a requirement that all wellheads be set 1,500 feet back from lakes. But other key recommendations - including a complete ban on new roads and pipelines along the coast and a larger role for local land-use planners - have not yet been adopted.

Arlin Wasserman, policy director for the Benzonia-based Michigan Land Use Institute, said few of the scientists' recommendations appear likely to end up in the new regulations. "So far they've picked the low-hanging fruit," he said, "They've picked the easy answers that can be done from Lansing - not those that require the involvement of local communities. The way it now stands, we favor an indefinite ban."

Muskegon's Dennis said the Department of Environmental Quality appeared unable to enforce regulations already in place. A 1999 audit by the state found that almost half the wells in Antrim County were not inspected in a timely fashion, that 87 percent of citizen complaints were unresolved and that the resolution of citations against drillers often took almost two years.

"Their answer is always that they just don't have enough staff," she said. "Then they certainly don't need more wells to supervise. There is just too much at stake."

Unwilling to have their stake in Michigan's fishing industry put at risk, five northern Michigan tribes - including the Grand Traverse Band of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and the Little River Band of Manistee - presented a joint resolution at the forum establishing the tribes' support for a ban on all drilling below the Great Lakes.

But Joe Stevens, president of Great Lakes Directional Drilling in Fife Lake, said bottomland drilling posed few environmental risks.

And the opposition to new coastal wells in Michigan, he said, mirrored Californians' past opposition to the building of new power plants there. Californians now face double-digit increases in electricity bills and rolling blackouts.

"This is exactly what got our largest state in dire straits," he said. "We want (oil and gas) now. We want it cheap. We want it in unlimited supplies. But we don't want it produced in our backyard. This simply will not work in the long run."

Another driller, Randy Parsons of Advanced Energy Services in Kalkaska, said 2,200 barrels of petroleum are pumped across the bottom of Lake Huron near the Straits of Mackinac every hour through twin, 20-inch pipes.

"If we were truly worried about the lake, these pipes would be shut down," he said. "But we can't do that. We need that energy."

He said the long history of directional wells under the Great Lakes and below inland lakes and streams proves the technique is safe. And, he said, "probably everybody in the room" had benefited from the $500 million that drillers have paid into a fund used to buy recreation lands.

"I live here. I fish here. I hunt here. We are not going to hurt this environment," he said. "We can work with the DNR and DEQ and take input from citizen groups. We can do this."

DNR officials have said the first new slant drill sites will likely be in Manistee and Bay counties, where all seven of the state's current shoreline slant drill rigs operate.

No other Great Lakes state allows such drilling, but Canada taps oils and gas at hundreds of wells from platforms and barges on Lake Erie.

About 75 people attended the forum, held at the Oleson Center on the campus of Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City Saturday morning.

Dennis said additional directional drilling forums in northern Michigan are planned for Manistee and Alpena this summer.