Environmental assessment released on Rifle-area pipeline project | News
Federal agencies are seeking public comment on a draft environmental assessment for a proposed pipeline project south of Rifle that would significantly reduce truck traffic related to energy development but has raised concerns related to wildlife and other impacts.
A Terra Energy Partners subsidiary and Grand River Gathering LLC, a Summit Midstream Partners subsidiary, are proposing a project in the West Mamm Creek area involving both produced-water and natural gas pipelines.
They would cross a total of about seven miles of land that includes 2.1 miles of private land, with the rest being BLM and national forest land.
Terra is proposing building 8-inch-diameter and 6-inch-diameter produced water pipelines, and Grand River Gathering is proposing building two 8-inch-diameter natural gas pipelines to feed gas into a pipeline system and to national markets. Various pipelines would share and use various segments of the seven miles of pipeline corridors.
The project would support Terra’s existing natural gas production in the area and potential future development and production there. Terra has three well pads on private land in the immediate vicinity. Those pads have a total of nine wells on them, three of which tap federally owned minerals, and the rest involving privately owned minerals.
By tapping into an existing pipeline system, the project would allow produced water from the existing wells and any future ones to be shipped to a water management facility in the Rulison area along Interstate 70. Recycled produced water from that facility could be shipped by pipeline back to the West Mamm Creek area for hydraulic fracturing of future wells.
The produced water pipelines would eliminate 156 truck trips a year to haul produced water from the existing wells. Terra Energy also has plans to potentially drill up to 47 wells from the existing pads and one new one in the area. According to the environmental assessment, up to 1,000 water truck trips per well would be required for those wells, and more than 17,000 annual truck trips would be required to transport from produced water from those wells once they are producing gas, but the new pipelines would eliminate those trips.
During an initial public comment period on the proposal, Garfield County voiced support for the project, as did some individuals saying the pipelines are preferable to truck traffic. But Colorado Parks and Wildlife raised concerns, including about potential impacts to elk and mule deer, while a number of activist groups voiced concerns about things including the potential impacts to wildlife and plants, the possibility for pipeline spills that could affect water quality, and the potential for the project to foster future drilling in the area.
“This is not a ‘small’ pipeline proposal, but rather one that is seeking to install infrastructure with significant capacity abilities to further fossil fuel build out in an area where other important and potentially incompatible values still exist,” says a letter from representatives of the Center for Biological Diversity, Wilderness Workshop and Western Colorado Alliance.
They point to other proposed drilling in the area, and say that the impacts of this additional development that the pipeline project could support must be accounted for and analyzed by the federal government.
The Western Colorado Alliance has been concerned about the lack of analysis of cumulative impacts of oil and gas development in the West Mamm Creek area, including to local landowners already surrounded by hundreds of wells and associated infrastructure. It also considers the area important recreationally to hikers, hunters, anglers and others.
“Much of the surrounding area has been disturbed by oil and gas activities, and community members want to keep this area intact and as undisturbed as possible to protect the values. BLM must prioritize a balanced use of public land management in the Mamm Creek area,” the group wrote in a letter to the BLM separate from the letter it signed along with the two other groups.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has concurred with a determination by the BLM that the project may affect but isn’t likely to adversely affect the western yellow-billed cuckoo and Canada lynx, which are federally protected species.
According to the environmental assessment, the project may impact individual Harrington’s beardtongue plants but isn’t likely to cause a trend toward the plant being federally listed for protection. The plant, a penstemon, is considered a sensitive species now by the BLM and Forest Service.
When it comes to big game, the assessment says impacts would be minimal because the two energy companies have agreed not to do construction from Dec. 1 to April 30 for winter concentration areas and winter range, or from May 15 to June 30 for elk production areas. The pipelines also would eliminate water trucking, avoiding truck traffic impacts to big game, it notes.
Public comments on the draft environmental assessment are being accepted through Jan. 3. More information on the project and how to comment may be found at https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2025023/510.
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