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Enviros can’t stop Bull Mountain pipeline
A federal appeals court decision this week ends environmentalists’ efforts to stop construction of a natural gas pipeline through western Colorado roadless areas.
A three-judge 10th Circuit Court of Appeals panel has lifted a temporary injunction prohibiting construction on the Bull Mountain pipeline. The decision clears the way for work to proceed despite a pending lawsuit challenging the project.
Environmental group representatives said Thursday that even though the pipeline can’t be stopped, they might continue to pursue the lawsuit in order to seek a ruling on the larger question at stake.
“The issue of pipelines and roadless areas in general terms is still an important one, and one that can be addressed by this case,” said Dan Morse, public lands director for the High County Citizens’ Alliance.
On Wednesday afternoon, the court held a hearing in Denver on the environmental groups’ appeal of a federal judge’s earlier refusal to grant an injunction while the lawsuit continues.
On June 6, the appeals court agreed to impose a temporary injunction. Later Wednesday, the court said it was dissolving that injunction, and would issue an opinion on the merits of the case “in due course.”
The 25.5-mile pipeline will cross about eight miles of roadless areas in the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison national forests and White River National Forest. It will run from northwest Gunnison County to the Divide Creek area south of Silt.
Environmentalists say the project violates the federal government’s 2001 roadless rule, which bars road-building on about 58 million acres of forests. The U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management said the roadless rule doesn’t apply to temporary construction corridors.
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