Pike National Forest officials are delaying a decision - again - on a Texas company's controversial plan to drill for natural gas on Mount Herman near Monument.

   The proposal has been up for review since 2002, and the U.S. Forest Service announced Thursday that the agency won't release an environmental assessment until at least spring 2009. An environmental assessment includes a recommendation to approve or deny the request, followed by a 30-day public comment period and then final approval.

   It would be the first oil or gas drilling in the Pike National Forest since the 1950s, when energy companies looked unsuccessfully for fossil fuels in the Pikes Peak region. Dyad Petroleum Co. of Midland, Texas, owns mineral rights to 21,000 acres in the national forest west of Monument and wants to drill two exploratory wells.

   Residents have formed a group, the Front Range Environmental Resource Coalition, to oppose the drilling because of environmental and quality-of-life concerns. The area is popular with outdoor enthusiasts and, in recent years, has had many homes built up against the national forest.

   District Ranger Brent Botts said the Forest Service asked the company for more information on the proposed drilling, leading to the latest delay.

   "It'll take them a while to get us that information, and it'll take us a while to do that assessment," Botts said Thursday.

   The glacial pace of the Forest Service review dates to the 2002 Hayman fire. While drilling companies usually hire their own consultants to do environmental assessments, Dyad didn't, and the Forest Service's environmental experts were busy for several years on remediation of the Hayman burn area.

   The Forest Service began looking at the proposal again late last year. Officials asked Dyad for more information on how equipment would impact air quality; how the company would monitor groundwater in the area; what improvements it would make to Mount Herman Road to accommodate trucks; and for more details on the layout of the drill pads.

   "We're working on getting the information for them right now," said Dyad President Tom Dyches.

   He acknowledged some frustration with the delays. While this project is still under consideration after six years, elsewhere in Colorado the energy industry is booming, with 6,335 oil and gas drilling permits approved by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in 2007.

   "I think they're just really trying to cover all bases, given the sensitivity of the area up there," Dyches said of the Forest Service. "They realize there's some concern locally and they just want to make sure everything is covered to the fullest extent possible."

   Drilling opponents applauded the delay.

   "We think it's good news. It's good news for the reason it gives us more time to get prepared," said Fred Lanyon, of Monument, a Front Range Environmental Resource Coalition director. The group formed recently after media reports that the project is being actively reviewed.

   Lanyon said he lives about 1,000 feet from one of the proposed drilling sites. He doesn't believe Dyad would be able to mitigate the impacts enough to make it acceptable.

   "I don't think it's the appropriate thing to be doing in a Front Range, urban residential area," he said.