Garfield County Commissioners voted unanimously to sign a letter of support to the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management for the West Mamm Creek Pipeline Project during a work session on Monday.
The Forest Service and BLM conducted an environmental assessment of the pipeline project, which would move water and natural gas through National Forest and BLM managed lands, as well as private property in Garfield County. The natural gas will also be shipped to national markets, the letter states.
The letter, which was presented to the commissioners by the county’s Oil and Gas Liaison Kirby Wynn, asks White River National Forest Supervisor Scott Fitzwilliams to approve the project.
Wynn said if it is approved, and there is no other oil and gas development in the area, the pipeline would remove around 1,000 truck trips per year.
“Over the last 15 years, the way operators have piped, and they’ve developed these centralized water handling facilities,” he said. “And it’s just taken thousands and thousands and thousands of trucks off of our county roads, where residents are trying to get around.”
The letter states a key benefit of the pipeline is to reduce these traffic impacts to residents and reduce county road maintenance costs when produced water is piped rather than trucked.
It went on to say that “Garfield County believes the project will have overall beneficial impacts on social, environmental and economic conditions in Garfield County,” and the county supports the project as an “appropriate and beneficial use of federal lands that will allow efficient produced water transport between existing and future well pads and associated infrastructure.”
Members of the community can still comment on the project’s draft environmental assessment until Friday, Feb. 7, 2025.
