White River National Forest seeks public comment for proposed pipeline replacement

The White River National Forest is seeking public comments on a proposal to upgrade 2.9 miles of pipeline in the Wolf Creek Storage Field in Pitkin County, approximately 10 miles to the southeast of Carbondale.

The Wolf Creek Storage Field is an underground natural gas storage area serving the Roaring Fork Valley, where natural gas gathered in storage wells during the summer is used to supply RFV residents with natural gas during high demand winter months. Rocky Mountain Natural Gas, LLC is proposing to replace an aging 3-inch natural gas pipeline with a new 10-inch natural gas pipeline to increase transmission capacity and meet current regulations and requirements, according to a press release.

The original pipeline was installed in 1965.

“The Federal Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has numerous requirements that were not in place in 1965, such as burial depth and pipeline coating,” David Boyd, public affairs officer for the White River National Forest, said.

Temporary disturbance would total about 17 acres along a previously disturbed right-of-way, but the area will be contoured and reseeded with a U.S. Forest Service-approved seed mix after installation of the new pipeline. The seed list would include native plants specific to that area and wildlife habitat, according to Boyd, and minimize the potential for invasive weed introduction.

Construction would occur seasonally from June through October, and is expected to take up to two years.

More information, including the proposal and how to comment by Sept. 15, is available at https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/whiteriver/projects/68621. Comments will help with the environmental review of the proposal, which Boyd said will inform any environmental or ecological concerns on the White River National Forest that this proposed project and construction would present.