GENERAL32961

• Permit No: M1999002
• IBM Index Class Name: General Documents
• Doc Date: 8/18/1998
• Doc Name: COMMERCIAL MINE PLAN SUBMITTED TO BLM SECTION 7
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

least one grazing allotment. The Piceance Site also contains six oil and gas leases,
one pipeline right-of-way, one telephone right-of-way, and four road rights-of-way
(BLM 1982).
Current land uses of the Piceance Site and immediate vicinity include livestock
grazing, irrigated agriculture along Piceance Creek, wildlife and wild horse habitat,
and dispersed recreation such as hunting and wildlife observation. The Colorado
Division of Wildlife owns and operates the Square S Ranch State Wildlife Area
adjacent to the Piceance Site along Piceance Creek.
Various natural gas pipelines parallel Piceance Creek in the vicinity of the Piceance
Site and portions of the proposed project pipeline route. South of Piceance Creek
along the proposed project pipeline route, land uses include irrigated agriculture
(hay meadows) and cattle grazing in the valley bottoms and wildlife habitat and
dispersed recreation on the adjacent uplands. South of the Piceance Site to about the
Garfield County line, the surface and subsurface are generally administered by the
BLM. Private ownership of the surface and subsurface occurs along Piceance Creek
and along the bottoms of major gulches that are tributary to Piceance Creek (see
Figure 7-37).
In the Parachute Creek valley, from Davis Point south to the terminus of the
proposed rail spur, current land uses include irrigated agriculture along Parachute
• Creek (primarily hay meadows), cattle grazing, rural residences, natural gas wells
and associated gathering pipelines, and various industrial facilities related to the oil
and gas industry. Existing industrial facilities in the Parachute Creek valley include
a natural gas compressor station, a gas pipeline metering station, and a large
(currently inactive) oil shale processing plant at the proposed Parachute Site. From
about the Garfield County line south to the Parachute Site, surface ownership is
entirely private. With respect to the subsurface mineral estate, roughly half of the
southern portion of the project area is administered by the BLM, while the other
half is privately owned.
7.15.2 Areas of Critical Environmental Concern
The Ryan Gulch Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) overlaps the
Piceance Site in the vicinity of Horse Draw in the northern half of T1S, R97W,
Section 29. The Ryan Gulch ACEC, which comprises 1,440 acres, was established by
the BLM because of the presence of two federally threatened plant species, the
Dudley Bluffs twinpod (Physaria obcordata) and the Dudley Bluffs bladderpod
(Lesquerella congesta). In general, the BLM's management objectives for the ACEC
are to protect populations of these species within the ACEC. Surface disturbing
activities that would directly or indirectly impact these plant populations would be
prohibited (BLM 1997b).
• The Dudley Bluffs ACEC is located to the southeast of the Piceance Site and about 1
mile south of the proposed project pipeline route on the east side of Piceance Creek.
Amencan Soda, L.L.P. '7_5[3
Commercial Mine Plan
Augus[ 18, 1998