Proponents of the Bull Mountain pipeline, a 25.5-mile-long natural gas pipeline from Gunnison County to Garfield County, will ask the Mesa County Planning Commission tonight for a conditional-use permit.
The County Commission will have the final say about whether to grant SG Interests of Houston, Texas, a 13.5-mile-long, 50-foot-wide easement for the Mesa County portion of the pipeline, which the company wants to build this summer. The County Commission is expected to consider the matter in June.
The company says the pipeline is needed because the existing 8-inch Ragged Mountain natural gas line has reached capacity. The new line would carry 80 million standard cubic feet of natural gas per day, which is the projected output of the Bull Mountain well sites in Gunnison County, according to an April 28 project review generated by Planning Commission staff.
The new natural gas line will be accompanied by an 8-inch diameter line transporting production water from wells in Gunnison County to disposal facilities in Garfield County. The lines will be laid along the same path as the 8-inch Ragged Mountain pipeline.
The new natural gas pipeline is regarded as a menace by environmentalists who say its installation could set national precedent for the building of roads in designated roadless areas of the national forests. But government agencies and a federal court have ruled against them.
In December, the U.S. Forest Service approved a 50-year, 30-foot right of way for the pipeline.
On April 30, a federal judge ruled against a temporary injunction filed by environmentalists in an effort to hold up the pipeline until a lawsuit in federal court is settled.
And Tuesday, the Gunnison County Commission approved a conditional-use permit for seven miles of the 20-inch-diameter pipeline to proceed through its county.
“We are still pursuing this issue and think preserving those roadless areas is an important issue for everyone,” said Dan Morse, public lands director for the High Country Citizens’ Alliance, which filed suit in U.S. District Court to stop the pipeline.
All the issues raised by the lawsuit have been addressed in the Record of Decision issued by the U.S. Forest Service, said Lee Ann Loupe, spokeswoman for the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests.
The roads are temporary construction corridors that will be reseeded once construction of the line is finished, she said.
“There will be some short-term effects to wildlife, but long term there won’t be,” Loupe said.
The approval by the Forest Service took into account that the majority of the pipeline parallels an existing smaller pipeline and that alternative routes would have caused greater impacts to the environment, Loupe said.
“Overall, environmentally, this is the better alternative,” she said.
Mesa County planning staff is recommending the planning commission approve the request for a conditional-use permit.
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E-mail Le Roy Standish at lstandish@gjds.com.
PERMIT SOUGHT
The Mesa County Planning Commission meets at 7 tonight at the Mesa County Courthouse, Sixth Street and Rood Avenue.
