DISPERSION MODELING FOR OIL & GAS LEASING IN WESTERN NATIONAL FORESTS

JBR has aided four of the western National Forests in developing their Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) for future oil and gas exploration and production. Although future oil and gas development was still an undefined prospect on some of the forests, JBR worked with land managers to develop a strategy to quantify and report cumulative resource impacts. In consultation with the forests, JBR developed both worst-case and "reasonably foreseeable" pollutant emission inventories and used two EPA-approved regulatory dispersion modeling systems, CALPUFF and ISCST3, to develop an impact analysis for each scenario. The results of these efforts were normalized model impact “look-up” tables which allow each Forest to determine if a potential leasing parcel is acceptable for leasing, should be evaluated more thoroughly, or should be excluded entirely.