[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 105 (Monday, June 2, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 29734-29735]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-14259]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Land Management
[WY-030-1310-00]
Amended Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact
Statement
AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.
ACTION: Amended Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an Environmental
Impact Statement (EIS) and to conduct Scoping for the Continental
Divide/Wamsutter II Natural Gas Development Project, Carbon and
Sweetwater Counties, Wyoming.
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SUMMARY: Under Section 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy
Act (NEPA) of 1969, as amended, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM),
Rawlins District Office, will prepare an EIS for the proposed
Continental Divide/Wamsutter II Natural Gas Development Project.
Several oil and gas operators (Operators) plan to expand natural gas
exploration and development operations in and adjacent to existing
developed oil and gas fields within the Continental Divide Area and the
Greater Wamsutter II Area.
The Continental Divide/Wamsutter II Project Area (CD/WIIPA) is
generally located in T. 15 N.-T. 23 N, R. 91 W.-R. 99 W. in Sweetwater
and Carbon Counties, south-central Wyoming, and encompasses
approximately 1,061,200 acres of mixed Federal (515,300 acres), State
(25,900 acres), and private (520,000 acres) land. The CD/WIIPA is
located approximately 25 miles west of Rawlins and 40 miles east of
Rock Springs along Interstate 80, which bisects the area. Operators
propose to
[[Page 29735]]
drill and develop approximately 3,000 well locations (1,500 on Federal
lands and 1,500 on private lands) and associated facilities (i.e.,
pipelines, roads, production facilities, etc.) in the CD/WIIPA
beginning in 1998 and continuing for the next 10-20 years. Well spacing
patterns on the area would vary from 640 to 80 acres per well (i.e., 1
to 8 wells per section). This area presently contains several active
natural gas fields, some with ongoing drilling programs. There are
approximately 720 producing or permitted well locations in the area.
The proposed action may be modified as a result of comments received
during scoping or anytime during the preparation of the draft EIS.
Affected Federal lands are administered by the BLM Rock Springs and
Rawlins District Offices. The EIS will be prepared for the BLM by a
third party contractor.
DATES: Comments on the scoping process will be accepted through June
30, 1997. Public meetings to discuss the proposed project are scheduled
for 7 p.m., June 18, 1997, at the Community Room of the Sweetwater
County Court House, 80 West Flaming Gorge Way in Green River, Wyoming,
and on June 19, 1997, at the Jeffrey Memorial Community Center located
on the corner of Third and Spruce Streets in Rawlins, Wyoming.
ADDRESSES: Comments should be sent to the Bureau of Land Management, J.
Clare Miller, Team Leader, 1300 North Third Street, Rawlins, Wyoming
82301.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Bureau of Land Management, J. Clare Miller, Team Leader, 1300 North
Third Street, Rawlins, Wyoming 82301, phone (307) 328-4245.
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT CONSIDERATIONS: Public comments submitted
for this scoping review, including names and street addresses of
respondents, will be available for public review at the above address
during regular business hours (7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.), Monday through
Friday, except holidays. Individual respondents may request
confidentiality. If you wish to withhold your name or street address
from public review or from disclosure under the Freedom of Information
Act, you must state this prominently at the beginning of your written
comment. Such requests will be honored to the extent allowed by law.
All submissions from organizations or businesses, and from individuals
identifying themselves as representatives or officials of organizations
or businesses, will be made available for public inspection in their
entirety.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This amended Notice of Intent combines two
adjoining proposed natural gas development projects, the Continental
Divide Natural Gas Project and the Greater Wamsutter II Natural Gas
Project. Scoping for the Continental Divide Natural Gas Project was
conducted in March and April 1995. A Draft Environmental Impact
Statement (DEIS) was being prepared but has not been released to the
public. Scoping for the Greater Wamsutter II Project was conducted in
December 1993. The draft and final EIS's were released in 1995 and a
Record of Decision (ROD) was issued in November 1995. Development
within the Greater Wamsutter II Area is rapidly approaching the levels
analyzed in the EIS for that project. Initially, the EIS analyzed a
maximum of 750 wells on 300 well locations. Since directional drilling
has proved to be technically impractical or uneconomical in many areas,
additional well locations beyond those analyzed in the Greater
Wamsutter II EIS may be required. The expanded development within the
Greater Wamsutter II Area would require additional environmental
analysis, above and beyond that provided in the original EIS.
BLM will prepare a combined EIS for the Continental Divide project
and the expanded Greater Wamsutter II project. BLM is conducting
additional scoping to obtain public comment on the combined proposal.
This EIS will address cumulative impacts of this project and other
ongoing oil and gas projects, addressed in the recently completed EISs
for the Mulligan Draw Gas Project, the Creston/Blue Gap Natural Gas
Project, the Greater Wamsutter II Natural Gas Project, and the proposed
South Baggs Unit Natural Gas Project. Potential issues to be addressed
in the EIS include, but are not limited to: Impacts to wildlife
populations and their habitat, access road development and
transportation management, surface and ground water resources, noxious
weed control, reclamation, conflicts with livestock grazing operations,
protection of cultural resources, threatened and endangered species,
impacts to air quality, impacts to recreation, impacts to private
residences, and cumulative impacts.
Dated: May 27, 1997.
Alan R. Pierson,
State Director, Wyoming.
[FR Doc. 97-14259 Filed 5-30-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-22-M
