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January 17, 2004Jordan River Valley drilling proposedDEQ reviewing Gaylord firm's permit requestByRecord-Eagle staff writer EAST JORDAN - For more than a half-century, state regulators and conservation groups have shielded public lands in the Jordan River Valley from the scars of oil and gas exploration. But that could change, thanks to a drilling proposal in northern Antrim County now under state Department of Environmental Quality review. Local conservationists are calling on state officials to block the project and prevent what they say could be a domino effect of oil and gas exploration on public lands called by some a "crown jewel" of Michigan's state forest system. "For years that (area's) been protected from oil and gas development, and we don't want to see that precedent broken," said John Richter, president of the Friends of the Jordan River Watershed. "Once that genie gets out of the bottle, it's going to be hard to put it back in." Ward Lake Energy of Gaylord filed for a state drilling permit in September for two well sites on 160 acres of state land in the northeast part of Star Township. Richter describes the land as a "transition area" between agricultural fields to the east and the "broken woods" of the Jordan Valley to the west. The property is about a half-mile southeast of the Jordan River, near some feeder creeks and other springs that flow into the river. DEQ officials said a permit review is on hold pending additional environmental studies. Much of the 23,000-acre Jordan Valley management area reverted to state ownership decades ago, primarily when property taxes went unpaid during the Great Depression. The state owns the land surface, but didn't acquire all the mineral rights, which remained privately held in a few areas and have been leased in some instances. In 1974, the Department of Natural Resources completed work on an area management plan that calls for no oil, gas or mineral exploration within the management area. But the state doesn't have the legal authority to prevent it. "Even though all these policies are on the books, those are mere policies - they're not law," Richter said. "The state is in the position where they can't control what they don't own." He fears the state could face a "takings" claim if it attempts to block the drilling, similar to other disputes around Michigan like the Nordhouse Dunes case, in which the state paid an oil and gas exploration firm to halt drilling efforts there. The sites targeted by Ward Lake Energy in the Jordan Valley Management Area aren't automatically off limits to oil and gas drilling, but state officials say they have the ability to judge the impact of items such as service road construction or distribution lines around well sites. Similar access issues killed Elmira businessman Walter Zaremba's proposed drilling project several years ago in the management area. "It is going to be a factor in terms of whether the operation can meet the interest of that management area," said Tom Wellman, supervisor of the permitting unit of the DEQ's geological and land management division. "It's something we have to sort out on a case-by-case basis." Richter said if the drilling plan meets state standards, state officials should negotiate a swap for public mineral holdings in other areas to keep the drilling activity out of the valley. "The fallback position is to trade," said Richter, who's also concerned about imminent drilling proposals on other nearby state lands, although DEQ officials said Ward Lake's plan is the lone pending proposal. Ward Lake officials say their property is "on the outskirts" of the Jordan Valley Management area, and is adjacent to active farmland. Dave Becker, company president, said drilling could be done without damaging the river valley. He also questioned fears that drilling activity could become widespread in the valley, because there's little if any land with severed mineral rights in that area. "I doubt it would become a widespread thing," Becker said. The company also met with the DEQ to discuss a mineral rights exchange for other state property, he said. "If there is such an exchange, it would have to be for (similarly-valued) property," he said. "That's always easier said than done." Other area environmental groups are also concerned about the drilling proposal, and the potential for mineral extraction to spread across the valley. "Over the years there's been a lot of concern over some of the laxness of the environmental oversight of these operations," said Doug Fuller, water resource program director for Harbor Springs-based Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council. "I think it's been a very good thing that drilling has historically been off-limits in the Jordan River Valley."
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