GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. — With drilling rigs sprouting across the Rockies, federal land managers have quietly made it voluntary for companies to compensate for oil and gas development by improving the environment.

Environmentalists are concerned that the policy lets companies off the hook when it comes to fixing up areas near drilling sites, a process known as "offsite mitigation."

"There's no excuse to so completely destroy a site that you need offsite mitigation," said Erik Molvar, a wildlife biologist with Biodiversity Conservation Alliance in Laramie, Wyo. "(But) if offsite mitigation is going to be an outcome, then it should be required."

The Rockies have become ground zero in the rush to find new domestic sources of natural gas, oil and coal-bed methane. Industry experts say Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico have vast stores of energy waiting to be tapped. The Bureau of Land Management has been swamped for several years now with permits to drill.

The agency in February decided that the offsite improvements are optional. It was a subtle change -- the improvements were never officially mandatory, although a few BLM offices were requiring them, said Kermit Witherbee, deputy chief of the BLM's mineral fluids division in Washington.

"There was a little bit of interpretation about what we can and can't do," Witherbee said.

The BLM's decision doesn't apply when endangered species or national historic sites are part of a potential drilling site. BLM officials also say they can still withhold drilling permits if companies balk at mitigation work.

EnCana Oil and Gas USA, one of the largest natural gas producers in Wyoming and Colorado, will consider offsite mitigation even though it's voluntary, said Eric Marsh, a vice president and the company's business unit leader in the southern Rockies.

"We think it's a win-win," Marsh said.

Others believe the BLM's decision formalizes a strategy used by companies to avoid strict environmental standards at well sites.

"It's just one more thing to streamline gas production and remove any roadblocks and reduce costs," said Bob Elderkin, a retired BLM employee in western Colorado.

Source: Associated Press