Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement and To Conduct Public Scoping for the Monument Butte Area Oil and Gas Development Project, Duchesne and Uintah Counties, UT, 52362-52363 [2010-21184]
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Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 164 / Wednesday, August 25, 2010 / Notices
5240, TDD 916–978–5608, or via e-mail
at mmayville@usbr.gov. Please notify
Ms. Mayville as far in advance as
possible to enable Reclamation to secure
the needed services. If a request cannot
be honored, the requestor will be
notified. A telephone device for the
hearing impaired (TDD) is available at
916–978–5608.
Public Disclosure
Before including your name, address,
phone number, e-mail address, or other
personal identifying information in any
correspondence, you should be aware
that your entire correspondence—
including your personal identifying
information—may be made publicly
available at any time. While you may
ask us in your correspondence to
withhold your personal identifying
information from public review, we
cannot guarantee that we will be able to
do so.
Dated: July 14, 2010.
Pablo R. Arroyave,
Deputy Regional Director, Mid-Pacific Region.
[FR Doc. 2010–21141 Filed 8–24–10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310–MN–P
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Land Management
[LLUTG01100–09–L13100000–EJ0000]
Notice of Intent To Prepare an
Environmental Impact Statement and
To Conduct Public Scoping for the
Monument Butte Area Oil and Gas
Development Project, Duchesne and
Uintah Counties, UT
Bureau of Land Management,
Interior.
ACTION: Notice of intent.
AGENCY:
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
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)
to study the impacts of various
development alternatives for oil and
natural gas resources in the Monument
Butte Area. This notice announces the
public scoping period.
DATES: A 30-day public scoping period
will commence the date this notice is
published in the Federal Register.
Comments on issues, potential impacts,
or suggestions for alternatives can be
submitted in writing to the address
listed below by September 24, 2010.
Public meetings will be conducted
during the scoping period in Duchesne
and Vernal, Utah. The date, place, and
srobinson on DSKHWCL6B1PROD with NOTICES
SUMMARY:
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17:48 Aug 24, 2010
Jkt 220001
time will be announced through the
local news media and the BLM Web site
https://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/fo/vernal/
planning.html at least 15 days prior to
the meetings.
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.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Mark Wimmer, BLM Project Lead, at
(435) 781–4400.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This
document provides notice that the BLM
Vernal Field Office, Vernal, Utah,
intends to prepare an EIS and hold a
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 meetings, 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.
When submitting your comments,
please reference the Monument Butte
EIS for BLM’s recordkeeping purposes.
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.
The Vernal Field Office’s Approved
Resource Management Plan, RMP,
(October 2008) directs the management
of BLM-administered public lands
within the analysis area.
Implementation of oil and gas
development in the Monument Butte
Project Area would conform to all
applicable conditions and requirements
in the Vernal RMP.
The project and EIS will encompass
approximately 119,830 acres in
Duchesne and Uintah Counties, Utah.
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Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
The project is located on lands
administered by the BLM (103,912
acres), the BIA-Uintah and Ouray
Agency (36 acres), the State of Utah
(12,866 acres), and private interests
(3,016 acres). Mineral interests are
owned by the BLM (89 percent), the
State of Utah (10 percent), and private
interests (less than 1 percent).
The Monument Butte oil and gas field
has been largely developed. The
proposed action consists of secondary
recovery using waterflood methods and
deep gas drilling. Waterflood methods
involve the injection of water through
formerly producing or new wells into
the oil-producing geologic formation.
Nearby actively producing wells then
extract the hydrocarbons through the
formation as the water displaces the oil.
In addition to waterflood plans, some
portions of the project area along the
northwest and southern project
boundaries would be subject to step out
development (expansion away from
existing development).
Integral to the project is the phased
installation of a field electrification
system in the project area to be
completed over approximately 7 years.
Electrical power would then be used to
run water treatment and injection
facilities, centralized tank batteries,
compressor stations, engines and
turbines at the proposed gas processing
plant, and at most well site facilities to
power dehydrators, separators, and
pump jacks.
The project includes a total of 5,750
wells consisting of: 750 vertical oil
wells (to be converted to injection wells
for waterflood recovery), 2,500
directional oil wells, 2,500 vertical deep
gas wells, 238 miles of new access road,
361 miles of upgraded road, 599 miles
of rights-of-way (some collocated with
roads), 20 new compressor stations,
expansion of 3 existing compressor
stations, 8 new and expansion of 6
existing electric water treatment and
injection facilities, 12 new and
expansion of 2 existing centralized tank
batteries, 1 new 50 MMscf/d (Million
standard cubic feet per day) centralized
gas processing plant, 599 miles of
overhead or buried electrical
distribution/transmission lines for fieldwide electrification, 1 freshwater
collector well for waterflood operations,
and 6 new 200-hp water pump stations.
The following resources have been
identified by the Vernal Field Office as
potentially impacted by the Monument
Butte Project: Air quality, cultural
resources, livestock grazing,
paleontological resources, recreation,
socioeconomics, soil resources, Pariette
and Lower Green River Areas of Critical
Environmental Concern, suitable Lower
E:\FR\FM\25AUN1.SGM
25AUN1
Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 164 / Wednesday, August 25, 2010 / Notices
Green River Wild and Scenic River
segment, wilderness characteristics,
threatened or endangered plant species,
vegetation, visual resources, water
resources, and wildlife. This is not an
all-inclusive list, but rather a starting
point for public input and a means of
identifying resource disciplines needed
to conduct the analysis.
Juan Palma,
State Director.
[FR Doc. 2010–21184 Filed 8–24–10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310–DQ–P
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
[FWS–R4–R–2009–N272; 40136–1265–0000–
S3]
Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife
Refuge, Ouachita Parish, LA
Fish and Wildlife Service,
Interior.
ACTION: Notice of availability: Final
comprehensive conservation plan and
finding of no significant impact.
AGENCY:
We, the Fish and Wildlife
Service (Service), announce the
availability of our final comprehensive
conservation plan (CCP) and finding of
no significant impact (FONSI) for the
environmental assessment for Black
Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge
(NWR). In the final CCP, we describe
how we will manage this refuge for the
next 15 years.
ADDRESSES: You may obtain a copy of
the CCP by writing to: Mr. George
Chandler, North Louisiana National
Wildlife Refuge Complex, 11372
Highway 143, Farmerville, LA 71241.
The CCP may also be accessed and
downloaded from the Service’s Web
site: https://southeast.fws.gov/planning/
under ‘‘Final Documents.’’
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr.
George Chandler; telephone: 318–726–
4222; fax: 318–726–4667; e-mail:
george_chandler@fws.gov.
SUMMARY:
srobinson on DSKHWCL6B1PROD with NOTICES
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
Introduction
With this notice, we finalize the CCP
process for Black Bayou Lake NWR. We
started this process through a notice in
the Federal Register on May 8, 2008 (73
FR 26139).
The Black Bayou Lake NWR is a unit
of the North Louisiana National Wildlife
Refuge Complex. In addition to Black
Bayou Lake NWR, the Complex includes
D’Arbonne, Upper Ouachita, Handy
Brake, and Red River NWRs, and the
Louisiana Farm Service Agency Tracts.
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17:48 Aug 24, 2010
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Each refuge has unique issues and has
had separate planning efforts and public
involvement.
The Black Bayou Lake NWR plays an
important role regionally in fulfilling
the national goals of the National
Wildlife Refuge System. Its close
proximity to a major metropolitan
center gives the public the ability to
participate in educational opportunities
that promote wildlife stewardship and
to learn about environmental issues.
Black Bayou Lake NWR, established
in 1997, is 3 miles north of the city of
Monroe, Louisiana, just east of Highway
165 in Ouachita Parish. It contains 4,522
acres of wetland, bottomland hardwood,
and upland mixed pine/hardwood
habitats. Although the suburban sprawl
of the city of Monroe surrounds much
of its boundary, the refuge itself
represents many habitat types and is
home to a diversity of plants and
animals. Black Bayou Lake NWR is
situated in the Mississippi Flyway, the
Mississippi Alluvial Valley Bird
Conservation Region, and the Lower
Mississippi River Ecosystem.
Black Bayou Lake NWR was
established for ‘‘the conservation of the
wetlands of the nation in order to
maintain the public benefits they
provide and to help fulfill international
obligations contained in various
migratory bird treaties and conventions’’
16 U.S.C. 3901 (b) (Wetlands Extension
Act).
The central physical feature of the
refuge is the lake itself. Black Bayou
Lake, consisting of approximately 1,500
acres, is studded with baldcypress and
water tupelo trees. The western half of
the lake is open and deeper, unlike the
eastern side, which is thick with trees
and emergent vegetation. This portion of
the lake is naturally filling in. The lake
is owned by the city of Monroe, which
manages its water level as a secondary
source of municipal water. The Service
has a 99-year free lease on the lake and
some of its surrounding land,
constituting a total of 1,620 acres. The
refuge owns the remaining 2,902 acres,
consisting of upland pine/hardwood
and bottomland hardwood forests.
We announce our decision and the
availability of the final CCP and FONSI
for Black Bayou Lake NWR in
accordance with the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) [40
CFR 1506.6(b)] requirements. We
completed a thorough analysis of
impacts on the human environment,
which we included in the Draft
Comprehensive Conservation Plan and
Environmental Assessment (Draft CCP/
EA). The CCP will guide us in managing
and administering Black Bayou Lake
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Fmt 4703
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52363
NWR for the next 15 years. Alternative
B is the foundation for the CCP.
The compatibility determinations for
wildlife observation and photography;
environmental education and
interpretation; big game hunting; small
game hunting; migratory bird hunting;
fishing; hiking, jogging, and walking;
boating; all-terrain vehicles; plant
gathering; bicycling; and forest
management/timber harvest are
available in the CCP.
Background
The National Wildlife Refuge System
Administration Act of 1966 (16 U.S.C.
668dd–668ee) (Administration Act), as
amended by the National Wildlife
Refuge System Improvement Act of
1997, requires us to develop a CCP for
each national wildlife refuge. The
purpose in developing a CCP is to
provide refuge managers with a 15-year
plan for achieving refuge purposes and
contributing toward the mission of the
National Wildlife Refuge System,
consistent with sound principles of fish
and wildlife management, conservation,
legal mandates, and our policies. In
addition to outlining broad management
direction on conserving wildlife and
their habitats, CCPs identify wildlifedependent recreational opportunities
available to the public, including
opportunities for hunting, fishing,
wildlife observation, wildlife
photography, and environmental
education and interpretation. We will
review and update the CCP at least
every 15 years in accordance with the
Administration Act.
Comments
We made copies of the Draft CCP/EA
available for a 30-day public review and
comment period via a Federal Register
notice on September 20, 2009 (74 FR
50237). We received four comments on
the Draft CCP/EA.
Selected Alternative
The Draft CCP/EA identified and
evaluated three alternatives for
managing the refuge. After considering
the comments we received and based on
the professional judgment of the
planning team, we selected Alternative
B for implementation.
Under Alternative B, biological
potential of historical habitats will be
restored and enhanced, with most
management actions emphasizing
natural ecological processes to foster
habitat functions and wildlife
populations. We will focus our efforts
on reducing invasive species
threatening the biological integrity of
the refuge. Baseline inventorying and
monitoring of management actions will
E:\FR\FM\25AUN1.SGM
25AUN1
]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 164 (Wednesday, August 25, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 52362-52363]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-21184]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Land Management
[LLUTG01100-09-L13100000-EJ0000]
Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement and
To Conduct Public Scoping for the Monument Butte Area Oil and Gas
Development Project, Duchesne and Uintah Counties, UT
AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of intent.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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 Environmental Impact
Statement (EIS) to study the impacts of various development
alternatives for oil and natural gas resources in the Monument Butte
Area. This notice announces the public scoping period.
DATES: A 30-day public scoping period will commence the date this
notice is published in the Federal Register. Comments on issues,
potential impacts, or suggestions for alternatives can be submitted in
writing to the address listed below by September 24, 2010. Public
meetings will be conducted during the scoping period in Duchesne and
Vernal, Utah. The date, place, and time will be announced through the
local news media and the BLM Web site https://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/fo/vernal/planning.html at least 15 days prior to the meetings.
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.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mark Wimmer, BLM Project Lead, at
(435) 781-4400.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This document provides notice that the BLM
Vernal Field Office, Vernal, Utah, intends to prepare an EIS and hold a
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 meetings, 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.
When submitting your comments, please reference the Monument Butte
EIS for BLM's recordkeeping purposes. 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.
The Vernal Field Office's Approved Resource Management Plan, RMP,
(October 2008) directs the management of BLM-administered public lands
within the analysis area. Implementation of oil and gas development in
the Monument Butte Project Area would conform to all applicable
conditions and requirements in the Vernal RMP.
The project and EIS will encompass approximately 119,830 acres in
Duchesne and Uintah Counties, Utah. The project is located on lands
administered by the BLM (103,912 acres), the BIA-Uintah and Ouray
Agency (36 acres), the State of Utah (12,866 acres), and private
interests (3,016 acres). Mineral interests are owned by the BLM (89
percent), the State of Utah (10 percent), and private interests (less
than 1 percent).
The Monument Butte oil and gas field has been largely developed.
The proposed action consists of secondary recovery using waterflood
methods and deep gas drilling. Waterflood methods involve the injection
of water through formerly producing or new wells into the oil-producing
geologic formation. Nearby actively producing wells then extract the
hydrocarbons through the formation as the water displaces the oil. In
addition to waterflood plans, some portions of the project area along
the northwest and southern project boundaries would be subject to step
out development (expansion away from existing development).
Integral to the project is the phased installation of a field
electrification system in the project area to be completed over
approximately 7 years. Electrical power would then be used to run water
treatment and injection facilities, centralized tank batteries,
compressor stations, engines and turbines at the proposed gas
processing plant, and at most well site facilities to power
dehydrators, separators, and pump jacks.
The project includes a total of 5,750 wells consisting of: 750
vertical oil wells (to be converted to injection wells for waterflood
recovery), 2,500 directional oil wells, 2,500 vertical deep gas wells,
238 miles of new access road, 361 miles of upgraded road, 599 miles of
rights-of-way (some collocated with roads), 20 new compressor stations,
expansion of 3 existing compressor stations, 8 new and expansion of 6
existing electric water treatment and injection facilities, 12 new and
expansion of 2 existing centralized tank batteries, 1 new 50 MMscf/d
(Million standard cubic feet per day) centralized gas processing plant,
599 miles of overhead or buried electrical distribution/transmission
lines for field-wide electrification, 1 freshwater collector well for
waterflood operations, and 6 new 200-hp water pump stations.
The following resources have been identified by the Vernal Field
Office as potentially impacted by the Monument Butte Project: Air
quality, cultural resources, livestock grazing, paleontological
resources, recreation, socioeconomics, soil resources, Pariette and
Lower Green River Areas of Critical Environmental Concern, suitable
Lower
[[Page 52363]]
Green River Wild and Scenic River segment, wilderness characteristics,
threatened or endangered plant species, vegetation, visual resources,
water resources, and wildlife. This is not an all-inclusive list, but
rather a starting point for public input and a means of identifying
resource disciplines needed to conduct the analysis.
Juan Palma,
State Director.
[FR Doc. 2010-21184 Filed 8-24-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-DQ-P
