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<br />recreation, the Yankee Gulch Project would result in an insignificant impact on <br />recreation in the BLM White River Recreation Management Area. <br />Construction of the pipeline could disrupt recreational activities, particularly <br />hunting, in the immediate vicinity of active construction work. However, as <br />indicated in Section 8.6.1, mule deer do not use the area near the pipeline corridor <br />heavily during the mid-summer (July) to early fall (September) construction <br />window, and, furthermore, that construction window only overlaps the earliest big <br />game hunting seasons. Therefore, neither deer nor deer hunters would be expected <br />to be using areas near the pipeline corridor during the construction period, and <br />there would be minimal impacts to hunting due to the timing of construction. <br />Once pipeline construction is finished, any recreational uses of areas along the <br />pipeline route could continue. <br />Because the preferred Parachute Site is located at an existing industrial site, there <br />would be no impact to public recreation associated with constructing and operating <br />the product processing operation there. Transportation of finished products along <br />the rail spur would not impact recreation because the rail spur is sited entirely on <br />private property with little or no recreational value to the general public. <br />5.11 VISUAL RESOURCES <br />• The Yankee Gulch Project would have limited visual impacts because it is generally <br />located in a remote and sparsely populated region. The Piceance Site and the <br />pipeline corridor are located far from population centers in the region, and roads <br />that pass these facilities are only lightly traveled. The primary observation points <br />from which the project would be visible to the public are Rio Blanco County Road 5 <br />(Piceance Creek Road) near the Piceance Site and in the vicinity of the two pipeline <br />corridor crossings, the community of Battlement Mesa, and Garfield County Road <br />215 (Parachute Creek Road) in the vicinity of the preferred Parachute Site. <br />The Piceance Site is visible from Piceance Creek Road around Piceance Creek Road <br />milepost 29. Members of the public driving on the road looking west can observe <br />the current experimental test mining operation (Figure 7-30) and ridgelines that <br />would be partially developed for solution mining. Over the life of the project, <br />ground disturbance and modifications of the vegetative cover would be visible from <br />the road in isolated locations. In some cases, drilling rigs and other heavy <br />equipment could be visible for short periods of time as individual well pads are <br />developed and drilled. As wells are taken out of service over time and the pads are <br />reclaimed, the visual appearance of disturbed sites would return to a condition <br />similar to their historical appearance, with some alteration of the character of the <br />natural vegetative cover (see Sections 6.5.1 and 8.5). While some portions of the <br />Piceance Site would be visible from Piceance Creek Road, areas of visible activity <br />would be located approximately 1 mile away from the road and would appear <br />• distant to the observer. It is important to note that, due to topographic screening, <br />the vast majority of surface-disturbing activities at the Piceance Site would not be <br />Amencan Soda, L.L.P. 8_30 <br />Commercial Mine Plan <br />August 13, 1998 <br />