Proposed water facility in Piceance

meeker I The Bureau of Land Management seeks public comment on a proposal from BOPCO, L.P., to construct a facility 20 miles west of Meeker, Colo., to treat produced water from oil and gas development on the Piceance Basin and discharge it into Yellow Creek.
The proposed Yellow Creek Produced Water Treatment Facility would treat up to 24,000 barrels of produced water from BOPCO’s Yellow Creek natural gas field and discharge up to 18,000 barrels into Yellow Creek each day. BOPCO has acquired a surface discharge permit from the State of Colorado for this project. If approved, construction of the facility is scheduled to begin in 2013.
The proposal includes new construction of buried pipelines, a power-line, a six-acre facility and associated structures along Rio Blanco County Road 20 on BLM and Colorado Parks and Wildlife surface. The six-acre facility would be entirely on BLM land. About 1.2 miles of the proposed 1.4-mile pipeline right-of-way would be on CPW land; and about 1.1 miles of the proposed 1.5-mile power line right-of-way would be on CPW land.
A separate agreement authorizing the pipelines and power-line across state land would be required between BOPCO and Colorado Parks and Wildlife before the project would be approved.
Before BLM begins an environmental assessment of this proposal, it wants to hear any issues or concerns from the public. When the environmental assessment is drafted, it will also be made available for public review and comment.
Copies of the proposal, including maps, are available online at http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/fo/wrfo/index.html, or by contacting the White River Field Office in Meeker at 970-878-3800.
Written comments can be mailed to Janet Doll, BLM WRFO, 220 E. Market St, Meeker, CO 81641 or sent via email to [email protected]. Please note “Yellow Creek Produced Water Treatment Facility” in the subject line for all emails. Comments will be most helpful if received by March 6, 2012.
Before including your address, phone number, email 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.