Issues Environmental issues associated with CBM development include water quantity and quality. CBM development will lower the level and pressure of the coal aquifer. If local springs and water supply wells rely on aquifers connected to the coal aquifer, they will be impacted. The controlled groundwater area plan requires mitigation for the impacted water sources identified by adjacent landowners. The CGAP addresses water quantity issues.
Water quality is another issue.
DEQ staff are working with counterparts at the Wyoming DEQ to ensure that discharges do not violate water quality standards and thus cause impacts to water users such as irrigators on the Powder River. It will be difficult to improve water quality while accommodating substantial upstream development in Wyoming and development here in Montana. Impoundments built at the request of landowners or as storage facilities to avoid water discharge may experience increasing salinity because of evaporation. Increasing salinity may make the water unusable for stock, and may pose a threat to wildlife and waterfowl at some future point. Increasing salinity may cause localized saline seep, vegetation impacts, and pose reclamation problems at the end of the 15-year project life.