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British Columbians must be vigilant if they hope to avoid the horror stories associated with coalbed methane in the United States, says a pair of American environmental campaigners.

At the invitation of West Coast Environmental Law, the two Americans are making a series of B.C. appearances this week to highlight the environmental risks associated with coalbed methane exploration and development.

Powder River Basin Resource Council organizer Jill Morrison of Wyoming says British Columbians, particularly private property owners in areas considered viable for coalbed methane production, need to be aware of potential adverse impacts that include water and air pollution, noise, road construction, and contamination of wells.

Oil and Gas Accountability Project executive director Gwen Lachelt of Colorado said the situation in the U.S. Midwest is out of hand, with concern being registered by concerned citizens from all over the political spectrum.

In the Midwest some 21,000 wells are already in operation and there are plans to develop a further 87,000 in the next decade.

Lachelt says industry's portrayal of drilling critics as environmental extremists is losing credibility as right-leaning ranchers join the fray.

"This is an issue that environmentalists and ranchers agree on," said Lachelt. "There is going to be hardly anybody that doesn't have a well in their backyard."

The women came here at the invitation of West Coast Environmental Law, which has arranged for them to appear this week at town hall meetings in Courtenay, Fernie and Hudson's Hope -- three areas identified by the province as strong possibilities for the development of a coalbed methane industry.

They also appear in Vancouver, beginning at 12:30 p.m. today at the downtown Vancouver Public Library.

B.C. has already realized more than $50 million in land sales to companies interested in developing a coalbed methane industry here.

"We thought it would be a good idea to ask Jill and Gwen to come up and be able to help us out, get information to the public so that people have a sense of what the potential issues are -- so that they can ask the questions that need to be asked," said Karen Campbell, staff counsel with West Coast Environmental Law.

The coalbed methane industry is about 20 years old in the U.S., but Lachelt says it's still in a gold-rush phase with many environmental impact issues unresolved.

Horror stories abound.

For example the Denver Post in 2001 ran a front-page newspaper report about a woman whose household water taps were emitting enough methane -- apparently seeping from a nearby well site -- to catch fire.

The New York Times had a front page story last December about a Wyoming rancher whose artesian well failed because of water extraction by methane drillers in a connected aquifer, and who also suffered livestock and irrigation impacts when a river running through his land became flammable and started bubbling with escaping methane.

Los Angeles Times Magazine in February 2002 ran an article entitled "Prosperity's Brutal Price: Wyoming's New Energy Boom is Creating Jobs, Generating Wealth and Making the U.S. Less Dependent On Foreign Oil. But You Wouldn't Want to Live There."

Even hard-core supporters of George W. Bush are upset.

People magazine last October profiled Republican Party stalwart Tweeti Blancett, a Bush campaigner in 2000, who joined forces with environmental groups after coalbed methane operations killed livestock, wiped out vegetation and polluted water on the ranch that has been in her husband's family for six generations.

Morrison said there is big money at stake for government, and B.C. residents shouldn't let vigilance about environmental impact be relaxed for the sake of profits.

"Wyoming had a $200-million state budget deficit. In one year they went into a $700-million surplus, primarily from coalbed methane extraction," Morrison said.

"I'm quite sure that's why British Columbia is promoting this. They want the revenue that's generated."

Morrison said the situation in the U.S. is aggravated by a distinction between surface and sub-surface land rights that allows drillers on to private land even if they do not have express permission from landowners.

Drillers can't access the methane in underground coal seams until they pump out thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of gallons of water that's found with the gas.

The water can be turbid, saline, or contaminated with heavy metals. Morrison said many disposal methods are not adequate.

For example it's common to pump the water into settling ponds, with surrounding vegetation killed by the salinity of the water.

"B.C. has an opportunity to learn from the experiences of other places and take measures to reduce these impacts," said Campbell.

Campbell said B.C.'s new Energy and Mines Statues Amendment Act has weakened environmental protection measures previously in place, leaving landowners -- including the Crown itself -- in a position where regulation of coalbed drilling and extraction is no more effective than what's in place in the United States.