Sharing common ground on the environment.

• Author: Sgamma, Kathleen

There's Common Ground we share developing abundant, affordable energy to power our economy while protecting air, water, wildlife and the land. Oil and natural gas producers continuously innovate to ensure their operations protect the environment and the western landscapes we all love.

Oil and natural gas operations coexist with other land uses. A company may lease several thousand acres, but only a small percentage is actually disturbed, leaving the land available for wildlife, recreation, farming, ranching and other uses.

"The oil industry is relatively new as far as history. They've had to evolve faster than possibly ranching did, but we've learned, through communication, how to pat each other on the back and to help each other," explains rancher Scott Chew. "Sometimes when energy companies go in and build locations there's an opportunity to damn off a drainage and create a water hole."

"It's not only for wildlife but for domestic sheep and cows that are grazed out here," clarifies Stephanie Tomkinson, Senior Biologist with QEP Resources. "It's one of the things we do to help the ranchers."

"And there are areas that are actually better now because of the reclamation work that was done, than they were before," continued Chew.

"For example, we have a location that was reclaimed fourteen years ago. We came in and we re-contoured. We planted native vegetation," concludes Stephanie Tomkinson. "You'll never know we were here. In my line of work, a success is when you get a location reclaimed properly to blend in with the surrounding landscape. We work together to make sure it's done right."

Besides complying with hundreds of regulatory requirements in laws such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, National Environmental Policy Act, National Historic Preservation Act, and the Endangered Species Act, oil and natural gas companies go beyond what's required by law to ensure the environment is protected.

In addition to practices that mitigate impacts, companies have been steadily innovating and developing new technologies that further reduce impact. For example, directional and horizontal drilling enable multiple wells to be drilled from one pad, significantly reducing the footprint on the land. Whereas one well pad and associated roads might have required five acres in the past, companies have reduced the size to less than one acre per well. They're getting more energy while leaving a smaller footprint.

Once a well is...