Environmental Group Suing BLM On Fracking Expansion

SAN JOSE, CA -- An environmental group sued the Bureau of Land Management in federal court in San Jose on Thursday in a bid to obtain information about plans for new leases for oil drilling and fracking in the San Francisco Bay Area and on the central coastal California.

The lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity alleges the bureau is violating the federal Freedom of Information Act by failing to provide public records the center has sought since August 2018.

The Bureau of Land Management's press office said the agency does not comment on pending litigation. The area under consideration concerns federal land and underground mineral rights managed by the bureau on approximately 400,000 acres in 11 counties extending from Contra Costa County in the north to Monterey County in the south, including the western Central Valley.

In January 2017, the bureau released a draft amendment to a 2007 Resource Management Plan for the area together with a draft environmental impact statement. It has not issued final documents. The lawsuit asks for a court order requiring the bureau to search its records and provide any that can be legally disclosed under the FOIA law.

Center for Biological Diversity attorney Clare Lakewood said the group is especially concerned about potential fracking in Monterey, San Benito and Fresno counties. Fracking is the process of using high-pressure streams of water mixed with chemicals to fracture underground rock in order to extract oil and natural gas. Lakewood said fracking in California generally occurs at shallow depths, posing concerns of contamination of drinking water.

She alleged the administration of President Donald Trump "is plotting behind closed doors to turn over some of California's most precious wild places to dangerous drilling and fracking.

"Californians have every right to know the details of this destructive plan, and it's deeply worrying that the BLM is refusing to release them," she said.

The potentially targeted lease areas in BLM's Central Coast District are in Alameda, Contra Costa, Fresno, Merced, Monterey, San Benito, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and Stanislaus counties. The district is headquartered in Marina in Monterey County.

The draft plan of January 2017, which was prepared by the administration of President Barack Obama, proposed a preferred option of leases on 368,800 acres in Monterey, San Benito, Fresno, Merced, Stanislaus and Contra Costa counties. But another alternative suggested leases on 487,200 acres in more counties, including Alameda and Santa Clara, and Lakewood said the center is concerned that the current administration could add even more.

--Bay City News