United States Senate
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, October 29, 2007		Contacts: Stephanie Valencia (Salazar) 202-224-5852 Steve Wymer (Allard) 202-224-6207
Colorado Senators Request Update on Cleanup of Anvil Points & Info Related to the Roan Plateau Planning Area WASHINGTON, DC- Currently, Colorado cannot receive any oil and gas leasing revenues from new or existing leases on Navy Oil Shale Reserve (NOSR) lands on the Roan Plateau until the Anvil Points cleanup is completed. For this reason, last week, in a letter to the Secretaries of Energy and Interior, Senators Salazar and Allard requested an update on the progress of the cleanup of the Anvil Points Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) site near Rifle, Colorado. According to the Senator’s letter, “the Transfer Act states, lease revenues will be used for reclamation until the Secretary of Energy and the Secretary of the Interior certify that the federal government has been fully reimbursed for the costs of the cleanup.” The Anvil Points CERCLA cleanup is still in the design phase, and final remediation may still be several years away. The full text of the letter Senators Salazar and Allard sent to Secretary of Energy Samuel L. Bodman and Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne is included below. Dear Secretaries Bodman and Kempthorne: We are writing to request an update on the progress of the cleanup of the Anvil Points CERCLA site in Rifle, Colorado. Anvil Points is currently scheduled to undergo a costly reclamation process. As you know, the 1997 Transfer Act exempts states from sharing lease revenues from the Naval Oil Shale Reserve (NOSR) lands to reimburse the federal government for costs associated with this cleanup and environmental remediation. Under current law, Colorado will not receive any revenues from NOSR lands on the Roan Plateau until the Anvil Points cleanup is completed. If there are sufficient funds to pay for the necessary cleanup, excess NOSR revenues should go where they’re needed most, such as efforts to mitigate the impacts of gas development on western slope communities. Therefore, any information related to the Anvil Points cleanup, and subsequently the Roan Plateau, should be made public. Colorado deserves its full and fair share of lease revenues from oil and gas development on federal lands within the state, including leases in the NOSR. As Governor Ritter’s review of the Roan Plateau Resource Management Plan progresses, it is critical to know when the State realistically can expect to receive revenues from proposed leases within the Roan Plateau Planning Area. As the Transfer Act states, lease revenues will be used for reclamation until the Secretary of Energy and the Secretary of the Interior certify that the federal government has been fully reimbursed for the costs of the cleanup. For this reason, we request a formal update on the status of the cleanup, anticipated costs, and a timeline for completion. Thank you for your consideration of this request. We look forward to hearing from you. # # #