Amended Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement

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

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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