USFS, BLM seek comment on pipeline proposal

GLENWOOD SPRINGS (Sept. 13, 2006) – The U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management are seeking public comment on a proposal for a natural gas pipeline system. The 20-inch pipeline, which would be on National Forest, BLM and private lands, would deliver natural gas from existing leased production areas to the national energy market.

In June 2004, SG Interests I, LTD of Houston, Texas, applied to the White River National Forest (WRNF), Grand Mesa-Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forest (GMUG) and the BLM’s Glenwood Springs Field Office to permit the project. The federal offices jointly developed the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), which is now available for public review. A final EIS is anticipated to be released in early 2007.

Under the Preferred Alternative of the DEIS, natural gas would be transported from operations in the Bull Mountain Gas Lease Unit located 21 miles northeast of Paonia. Gas from the unit would travel along a 25.5 mile pipeline to the existing Divide Creek Compressor Station and pipeline, which is located 10 miles south of Silt.

In the Preferred Alternative, the Bull Mountain Pipeline would cross 8.33 miles of Inventoried Roadless Areas on National Forest lands. Approximately 5.7 of those miles would follow an existing pipeline constructed in 1983. No new permanent or temporary roads would be built to construct the pipeline, as access would occur from existing roads. Pipeline construction activities within the 100-foot construction right-of-way would be reclaimed.

The DEIS studied two alternatives that circumvent roadless areas, but both result in a number of issues including increased stream crossings and wetlands disturbance, heightened safety and traffic issues, increased visual impacts, an additional year of construction time and up to an additional 15 miles of pipeline.

Of the approximately 25.5 miles of proposed pipeline in the Preferred Alternative: 3.8 miles are on BLM public lands in Garfield County; 8.4 miles are on GMUG NFS lands within Delta and Gunnison Counties; 8.2 miles are on WRNF NFS lands within Mesa and Garfield Counties; and the remaining 5.0 miles are located on private lands.

In addition to the pipeline, the WRNF and the GMUG have also proposed designating this route as a utility corridor management prescription.

The DEIS and other documents related to this project are available at the following website: http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/whiteriver/projects/bull_mtn/. Comments on the DEIS will be accepted for 60 days after the draft is published in the Federal Register and can be sent to: Bull Mountain Pipeline Project, Bill Jackson (Project Manager), 620 Main Street, Carbondale, CO 81623. E-mail comments to: comments-rocky-mountain-white-river-westzone@fs.fed.us.

-BLM-