Durango – After six years and 70,000 critical comments, natural-gas drilling in two southwestern Colorado counties could be delayed by the most mundane of problems: traffic.
A final federal decision on a plan to drill on a swath of La Plata and Archuleta counties was supposed to be just weeks away.
But the Colorado Department of Transportation is now raising safety issues stemming from the increase in heavy truck traffic and warning that required upgrades to roads could be costly.
Officials’ concerns center on southwestern Colorado’s only east- west highway, U.S. 160, and on 10 other state and county roads.
A final Environmental Impact Statement for an industry proposal to drill coal-bed methane wells in and around the HD Mountains, on both public and private land, was years in the making and withstood widespread public criticism and unanimous opposition by local governments.
The companies want to build 127 well pads and 72 miles of new roads on 650 acres under federal jurisdiction. Companies could build an additional 100 or so well pads on private land.
“We don’t know if this development will have a huge impact on roads,” CDOT regional director Richard Reynolds said Thursday.
“We need more information and more review and analysis. U.S. 160 functions like an interstate in this area. … We hold it near and dear and like to protect safety on that road.”
In a Monday letter to the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, Reynolds said the highway department had not received a copy of the draft environmental study.
He said the final environmental statement does not adequately describe how the project will affect U.S. 160, Colorado 151 and their intersections with county and forest roads, and he wants a traffic study before a decision is reached on the project.
Highway access permits and road improvements could be required. And Reynolds said that the impact to the highway surface from heavy trucks has been understated.
San Juan forest supervisor and BLM manager Mark Stiles, who will make the final decision on the project, said that, after an initial review of CDOT’s concerns, he believes the appropriate analysis has been done and is not faulty.
“We will follow up with them (CDOT),” Stiles said.
He said he believes CDOT has overstated the number of industry truck trips, which it estimated as 371 annual maintenance trips to well pads. Stiles said the number is closer to 45.
He also said that many of the trucks used by industry are pickups rather than large vehicles.
Stiles said that industry would have to perform traffic studies as development ensues in specific areas. And, although Stiles said he doubts many significant road upgrades would be required, they would be the obligation of the developers, not the federal government.
Staff writer Electa Draper can be reached at 970-385-0917 or edraper@denverpost.com.
