{"id":527194,"date":"2010-04-14T08:00:11","date_gmt":"2010-04-14T12:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.earthportal.org\/news\/?p=3285"},"modified":"2010-04-14T08:00:11","modified_gmt":"2010-04-14T12:00:11","slug":"mont-study-finds-no-threat-to-crops-from-coalbed-methane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/527194","title":{"rendered":"Mont. study finds no threat to crops from coalbed methane"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Greenwire<\/a>: Coalbed methane<\/a> discharges pose no threat to southeastern Montana’s<\/a> farms or crops, according to new findings from a seven-year study examining the process.<\/p>\n

The findings of the state study are being hailed by some regulators as evidence that the state’s cautious approach to mining its coalbed methane is paying off. But other regulators and area farmers point out that the work did not fully consider one specific type of soil affected by the discharges.<\/p>\n

The work compared the sodium levels of the Tongue River, soils irrigated with water from that river and the salinity of plants grown on irrigated farms, finding there has been “no apparent change in Tongue River sodium levels.”<\/p>\n

“There is not enough [coalbed methane] water going into the Tongue to have any impacts,” said Neal Fehringer, president of Fehringer Agricultural Consulting and an agronomist who has worked on the study since 2003. The study was originally led by industry, before shifting to state control.<\/p>\n

Richard Opper, director of Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality, said he is proud of the state for its strict environmental standards, which prevent it from discharging untreated coalbed water to the surface. But he cautioned, “I’m not sure I would agree that there have been no impacts.”<\/p>\n

Farmer Roger Muggli is quick to question the findings as well. In addition to failing to consider a very specific kind of clay common to soils in the area that is more sensitive to salinity and sodium, he said salinity levels in the Tongue River are higher than they were before coalbed methane development.<\/p>\n

“How do you explain that just today the [electric conductivity, a measurement of dissolved salt in water] on the Tongue is measuring 1,170? This time of year we used to have EC readings anywhere from 300 to 450,” he said. “They can’t stand there and tell me there’s no change” (Jennifer McKee, Billings Gazette<\/em><\/a>, April 12). – DFM<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Greenwire: Coalbed methane discharges pose no threat to southeastern Montana’s farms or crops, according to new findings from a seven-year study examining the process. The findings of the state study are being hailed by some regulators as evidence that the state’s cautious approach to mining its coalbed methane is paying off. But other regulators and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4055,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-527194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4055"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527194\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}