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<br />Permitting Overview
<br />
<br />The Ute Water Conservancy District (Ute Water) has filed a Right-of-Way (ROW) application
<br />with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to replace the Plateau Creek Pipeline. Ute
<br />Water provides high quality drinking water to approximately 55,000 residents of the Grand Valley
<br />in and around the City of Grand Junction, Colorado. The existing pipeline is the lifeline of the
<br />Grand Valley and delivers Grand Mesa runoff, tributary to the Colorado River, to the Ute Water
<br />Treatment Plant, located near Palisade. The existing pipeline alignment roughly parallels Plateau
<br />Creek from Molina to a location immediately upstream of its confluence with the Colorado River.
<br />From this point the pipeline follows an alignment which is approximately parallel to Interstate
<br />Highway 70 to the treatment plant. This alignment is shown on Figure 1.
<br />
<br />Anew ROW application is required because approximately 20 percent of the existing pipeline
<br />is located on property that is owned and administered by the BLM. The BLM has determined
<br />that the approval of the ROW is a major federal action and must be reviewed in accordance
<br />. with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969. The BLM will be the lead federal
<br />agency for NEP A documentation and has determined that an Environmental Assessment (EA) will
<br />be prepared to establish whether there are significant impacts to the human environment.
<br />
<br />If significant impacts are found during the preparation of the EA, the NEP A permitting process
<br />must proceed as an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), a more lengthy and involved
<br />permitting effort. Therefore, this EA effort encompasses selected elements that would also
<br />facilitate the preparation of an EIS, including the public scoping process.
<br />
<br />An estimate of the schedule for the permitting and subsequent project phases is provided below:
<br />
<br />PROJECT SCHEDULE
<br />
<br /> TASK 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
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