Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on a Proposed Carbon Dioxide Well-Field Development in Arizona/ New Mexico

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[NM-038-7122-00-824G]

Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement

(EIS) on a Proposed Carbon Dioxide Well-Field Development in Arizona/

New Mexico

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: Pursuant to Section 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental

Policy Act of 1969, the BLM, Socorro Field Office, will be directing

the preparation of an EIS by a third party contractor on the impacts of

a proposed well-field development for the production of carbon dioxide

(CO2) and helium gases. The proposed St. Johns, Arizona

CO2 Project (SJAC) is located on public, State trust, and

private lands in Apache County, Arizona and Catron County, New Mexico.

DATES: Public scoping meeting dates and locations will be determined in

the public scoping plan to be developed by the third party contractor.

The first scoping meeting may be held as early as the week of November

2, 1998, in Springerville, Arizona and other locations in the vicinity

of the project area.

ADDRESSES: Comments should be sent to the Field Manager, Bureau of Land

Management, 198 Neel Avenue, Socorro, NM 87801, Attn: St. Johns Arizona

CO2 Project.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Carol Van Dorn at the address above or

by calling (505) 835-0412.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The SJAC project is owned by Ridgeway

Arizona Oil Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ridgeway

Petroleum Corporation of Alberta, Canada. The third party contractor

selection process is currently underway at time of publication.

Potential issues include, but may not be limited to, air quality,

social and economic impacts, ground and surface water quality,

cultural, and wildlife issues.

Ridgeway Arizona first acquired State leases and drilled two

exploration wells in Apache County, Arizona in 1994. Although they were

looking for petroleum resources, they encountered CO2 and

helium. During 1995-1997, they continued to obtain State and then

Federal leases to develop 14 more wells on State trust land in both

Apache and Catron Counties, reaching a total of 10 wells in Arizona and

6 wells in New Mexico. Their Federal lease holdings now total 35,000

acres in Arizona and 90,600 in New Mexico; 134,000 acres on State trust

land in Arizona and 23,900 acres on State trust land in New Mexico; and

32,200 acres on fee land in Arizona and 3,000 acres on fee land in New

Mexico. Ridgeway lease acreage now totals approximately 314,000 acres.

Initial development would continue for 2 to 3 years, and would include

construction of a gas processing plant at the site of the Tucson

Electric Power Plant within the well-field, as well as approximately

200 miles of 25 foot-wide access roads and 66 miles of 10 foot-wide

spur roads. In addition, Ridgeway would construct a pipeline gathering

system to be primarily buried in these roads, to serve a total of 200

wells on 640-acre spacing. Thereafter, future construction might

include an additional 5 to 8 wells per year during the life of the

project, or for the next 25 to 40 years. Three hundred twenty-acre

well-spacing would be optional, up to a total of about 1,200 wells. No

electric power lines would be required within the well field.

Ridgeway Arizona has proposed that at some point in the future a

market transmission pipeline would carry pressurized CO2 to

market, either in southeast New Mexico/west Texas, or to southern

California. A separate company would market the CO2 and

construct this pipeline. Although it is a strong possibility that such

a transmission pipeline might parallel existing pipeline corridors

crossing Arizona and New Mexico, the market destination has not been

formally determined at this time. Environmental analysis will therefore

include one or two possible routes, and it will be assessed in greater

detail in a supplemental document.

The no-action alternative will be analyzed in the EIS. Items to be

considered for analysis within other alternatives to the proposed

action may include, but are not limited to: (1) construction timing

restrictions, and (2) construction avoidance areas.

The BLM's scoping process for the EIS will include: (1)

Identification of issues to be addressed; (2) Identification of viable

alternatives and (3) Notifying interested groups, individuals and

agencies so that additional information concerning these issues can be

obtained.

The scoping process will consist of a news release announcing the

start of the EIS; letters of invitation to participate in the scoping;

and a scoping document which further clarifies the proposed action.

Alternatives and significant issues being considered will be

distributed to selected parties and will be available upon request.

Dated: September 25, 1998.

Jon Hertz,

Assistant Field Manager.

[FR Doc. 98-26357 Filed 10-1-98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4310-VC-P