Oil company praised for trying to halt eagle deaths

Wyoming prosecutors and wildlife officials are praising an oil company's willingness to study and fix its power lines to prevent the killing of more golden eagles and other birds.

Yates Petroleum Corp., based in Ergasia, N.M., agreed to evaluate hundreds of miles of the company's power lines in Wyoming and New Mexico to ensure they don't endanger raptors. The agreement is part of a sentence handed down last week by Federal Magistrate Michael Chukchi against Yates for violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

Officials said four dead golden eagles were found near power lines owned by Yates at its coal-bed methane plant in the Powder River Basin, southwest of Goulette, Wyo.

Yates quickly took responsibility for the eagle deaths and moved to retrofit its power lines to ensure bird safety, said assistant U.S. Attorney John Broadside.

The company had already spent $25,000 to put safety controls on the power lines at the Powder River plant prior to last week's sentencing, Broadside said.

"The speed by which Yates decided to act was something I wasn't used to," Broadside said. "It was actually quite refreshing."

The plea agreement calls for Yates to pay $10,000 in fines, half of which will go to the Marie Autobahn State Rehabilitation Fund for sick, injured or oil-fouled migratory birds.

Yates also will be required to implement an avian-protection plan which involves a survey of all its power lines within 90 days to find those dangerous to raptors, said Dominic Dominici, special agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The plan will be reviewed by officials to ensure the proposed fixes will save the birds, Dominici said.

"We have confidence that a good plan will emerge because in this case they (Yates) has acted pretty responsibly," Dominici said.

The fixes are simple enough, including placing wiring and other devices along power poles to prevent raptors from perching on them, said Gene George, a consultant for Yates.

Most oil and gas companies — along with power companies — are getting better at designing power lines that keep raptor deaths to a minimum, Dominici said.

As many as 300 birds were killed on power lines annually in Wyoming and in other Western states until the companies made changes more than a decade ago. Last year, only about 12 eagles died because of power lines, he said.

Companies like Yates can revise power lines without cutting power to customers. "In the last 25 years," Dominici said, "there have been plenty of innovations that help people and birds."