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Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and To Conduct Public Scoping for the Natural Buttes Area Gas Development Project, Uintah County, UT

Note: EPA no longer updates this information, but it may be useful as a reference or resource.


[Federal Register: October 5, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 193)]
[Notices]
[Page 57064-57065]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr05oc07-69]

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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Land Management
[UTU-080-2007-9141-EJ]

Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement
(EIS) and To Conduct Public Scoping for the Natural Buttes Area Gas
Development Project, Uintah County, UT

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of Intent (NOI).

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SUMMARY: Pursuant to Section 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Vernal
Field Office, Vernal, Utah, will prepare an EIS on the impacts of
efficient and orderly development of the natural gas resources of the
Greater Natural Buttes Field area. This notice announces the public
scoping period.

DATES: A public scoping period of 30 days will commence on the date
this notice is published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
in the Federal Register. Comments on issues, potential impacts, or
suggestions for alternatives can be submitted in writing to the address
listed below within 30 days of the date this Notice is published. A
public meeting will be conducted during the scoping period in Vernal.
The date, place, and time will be announced through the local news
media and the BLM Web site http://www.blm.gov/utah/vernal/nepa.html at
least 15 days prior to the meeting.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted by any of the following methods:
    • Mail: Bureau of Land Management, Vernal Field Office, 170
South 500 East, Vernal, Utah 84078.
    • E-mail: UT_Vernal_Comments@blm.gov.
    • Fax: (435) 781-4410.
    Please reference the Greater Natural Buttes Area when submitting
your comments. Comments and information submitted, including names, e-
mail addresses, and street addresses of respondents, will be available
for public review at the address listed above. The BLM will not accept
anonymous comments. Before including your address, phone number, e-mail
address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you
should be aware that your entire comment--including your personal
identifying information--may be made publicly available at any time.
While you can ask us in your comment to withhold your personal
identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we
will be able to do so. All submissions from organizations and
businesses, and from individuals identifying themselves as
representatives or officials of organizations or businesses, will be
available for public inspection in their entirety.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Stephanie Howard, Project Manager, BLM
Vernal Field Office, 170 South 500 East, Vernal, UT 84078. Ms. Howard
may also be reached at 435-781-4400.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This document provides notice that the BLM,
Vernal Field Office, Vernal, UT, intends to prepare an EIS, and
announces the public scoping period. The purpose of the public scoping
process is to determine relevant issues that will influence the scope
of the environmental analysis and EIS alternatives. You may submit
comments in writing to the BLM at the public scoping meeting, or you
may submit them to the BLM using one of the methods listed in the
ADDRESSES section above. The public is encouraged to participate during
the scoping process to help identify issues of concern related to the
proposed action, determine the depth of the analysis needed for issues
addressed in the EIS, identify potential mitigation measures, and
identify reasonable alternatives to be evaluated in the EIS.
    Proposed Project Description: The EIS will encompass 162,911 acres
in Townships 8 through 11 South, Ranges 20 through 24 East (Salt Lake
Meridian) in Uintah County, Utah. The project is located on lands
administered by the BLM (88,565 acres), Northern Ute Tribe as
administered by the BIA (39,399 acres), the State of Utah (32,755
acres), and private interests (2,192 acres). Mineral interests are
owned by the BLM (79 percent), the State of Utah (20 percent), and
private interests (one percent). The Natural Buttes gas field was
discovered in the 1950s and has produced around 1.0 trillion cubic feet
of natural gas and 5.0 million barrels of crude oil and condensate and
is among the top 15 gas fields in the United States in terms of natural
gas reserves. As of August 2006, the Greater Natural Buttes Area
contained approximately 1,077 producing gas wells and 20 oil wells.
    Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Onshore LP (KMG) a wholly-owned subsidiary of
Anadarko Petroleum Corporation proposes to conduct infill drilling to
develop the hydrocarbon resources from oil and gas leases within the
Greater Natural Buttes Project Area in Uintah County, Utah. KMG's
intent is to explore and develop potentially productive subsurface
formations underlying the land in the Greater Natural Buttes Project
Area. Although actual operations are subject to change as the project
proceeds, KMG's plan is to drill 3,496 additional wells over a period
of 10 years. It is assumed that up to 179 new wells would be drilled by
other operators having leasehold rights in the project area. The
productive life of each well is estimated to be approximately 30 to 50
years.
    Infill drilling would be performed on 40-acre and 20-acre surface
spacing throughout the project area, i.e., with 16 to 32 surface well
pads per section. KMG defines a 40-acre well pad as the first well pad
located in a governmental 40-acre quarter-quarter section. A 20-acre
pad is defined as the second well pad located in a 40-acre quarter-
quarter section. Well spacing in the subsurface would be based on the
KMG's reservoir engineering evaluation on an on-going basis and will be
site-dependent, potentially ranging from 16 wells per section (40-acre
spacing) to 64 wells per section (10-acre spacing) or more.
    Project development would utilize existing roads and, when
necessary, new roads would be constructed. Equipment required by most
wells includes a gas gathering line, a separator, gas meter, produced
water and liquid hydrocarbon storage tanks, and chemical tanks. Gas
would be transported via pipeline to centralized compression and
treatment facilities. Produced water would be transported by truck or
pipeline to the KMG-operated produced water disposal wells or to KMG-
owned or commercially owned evaporation ponds or disposal wells. To
minimize new disturbance, KMG would utilize the existing ancillary
facility infrastructure within the project area, where possible,
including gas compression facilities, power lines, water disposal and
treatment facilities, and gas gathering pipelines. Total surface
disturbance for the proposed project is estimated to be

[[Page 57065]]

7,804 acres, or approximately 5% of the project area.
    Relationship to Existing Plans and Documents: The Book Cliffs
Resource Management Plan (RMP) Record of Decision (ROD) (May 1985)
directs management of BLM-administered public lands within the analysis
area. Implementation of oil and gas development in the Greater Natural
Buttes Project Area would conform to conditions and requirements
mandated in the RMP and ROD. The ROD calls for oil and gas, tar sands,
oil shale, and gilsonite to be leased while other resource values will
be protected or mitigated (page 7 of the ROD).
    Identified Resource Management Issues, Concerns, and Opportunities:
The following resources have been identified as potentially impacted by
the Vernal Field Office. It is not meant to be an all-inclusive list,
but rather a starting point for public input and a means of identifying
the resource disciplines needed to conduct the analysis. The
potentially impacted resources include: air quality, cultural
resources, livestock grazing, paleontological resources, recreation,
socioeconomics, soil resources, special designations (potential Area of
Critical Environmental Concern and eligible Wild and Scenic River
segments), threatened or endangered animal and plant species,
vegetation, visual resources, water resources, wilderness
characteristics, and wildlife.

Selma Sierra,
Utah State Director.
 [FR Doc. E7-19692 Filed 10-4-07; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4310-DQ-P

 
 

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