Project Type: Energy

Aspen prepared a CEQA assessment of oil and gas well permitting practices in Kern County for the State of California, Department of Conservation, Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR). The purpose of the assessment was to determine DOGGR's compliance with environmental laws and regulations in Kern County. In addition, interest groups in Kern County expressed concern that DOGGR, as Lead Agency in Kern County, had not considered cumulative environmental impacts in evaluating well-drilling permits. For this reason, DOGGR requested an assessment of its current California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) practices to determine what options they had available to improve CEQA compliance.

Aspen completed the following work items in Phase I of the contract:

• Collected and reviewed over 37 environmental, policy, and permitting documents for projects or policy decisions in Kern County.
• Evaluated DOGGR's role as a lead and responsible agency, evaluated key definitions such as exploratory versus production wells, considered surface and subsurface issues, and assessed the current review process from a legal adequacy standpoint.
• Identified and evaluated alternative approaches to CEQA compliance. The options included a Program EIR to document a CEQA-compliant program and address cumulative impacts, remove reference to "discretionary" in the regulations, and no action.
• Coordinated and facilitated five informational meetings for this project. Industry representatives, environmental groups, local business organizations (CURE), members of the public, and state and local agencies participated in these informational meetings.
Aspen completed a two-volume report that addressed the information bulleted above. The report was completed in January 2002. Aspen began Phase II in June/July 2002 with the preparation of a work plan for this project, and completed the following activities under Phase II:
• Evaluated existing environmental documents and identified data gaps with existing information.
• Evaluated current state regulations regarding implementation of CEQA on well permits and recommended revisions to current regulations. These revisions were reviewed by Aspen's attorney, DOGGR, and the State Attorney General's Office.
• Developed a project description that described the suggested regulation revisions and presented different well-drilling projects that would be permitted by DOGGR under the program.

Aspen prepared a detailed Initial Study to evaluate DOGGR's CEQA Compliance Program. The program includes the revised regulations and the environmental document (Initial Study). The intent of these documents was to establish a standard process for review of CEQA on well-drilling projects, justify those actions that are ministerial by assessing all potential cumulative impacts associated with well drilling, and identify the best mechanism for tiering-off environmental review in an effort to streamline CEQA review of well-drilling projects. The Initial Study provided an evaluation of the revised regulations, developed a preliminary baseline for western Kern County, and identified impact levels by issue area. Also, the Initial Study evaluated the technical adequacy of the project-specific and cumulative information available in existing reports.