Despite local opposition, the BLM has recommended a proposal to transport new petroleum products across Southwest Colorado through an existing Williams pipeline.

On Friday, the BLM released the final environmental-impact statement for the Questar, Williams, & Kern River Pipeline Project.

The Williams Pipeline Company proposal would use a 10-inch natural-gas pipeline constructed in 1982 to transport refined petroleum products such as jet fuel, diesel, and gasoline nearly 235 miles from Bloomfield, N.M., to Crescent Junction, Utah.

The project would reverse the flow of natural gas and other petroleum products currently being transported from Utah to New Mexico.

If the project is approved, Williams would construct four new pump stations along the pipeline. One of the new pump stations would lie on BLM land south of the New Mexico-Colorado border, one west of Durango on private land, a third on BLM land north of Moab, and the fourth near Crescent Junction.

Williams plans to modify the existing pump stations, and begin construction of its terminals at Crescent Junction and Nephi over a two-year period.

Five existing stations at Ignacio, Dolores, Dove Creek, Lisbon, and Moab would be modified by adding new pumps and piping, and new valves would be installed. The Southwest Colorado section would be retrofitted with a total of 43 valves.

The pipeline runs through an electric-transmission utility corridor between Mancos and Dove Creek, crossing private, BLM, and Forest Service land, and would carry up to 100,000 barrels of refined petroleum products per day. Each barrel holds 42 gallons.

The terminal at Crescent Junction is a 50-acre facility that will store the transported petroleum products, which will be trucked out to the retail market from there.

The final EIS recommended the draft preferred alternative with a minor change to pipeline construction plans in the Manti-La Sal forest in Utah.

The noise of the new pumps and piping generated concern at a March public meeting from Dolores residents who live near the station.

At the meeting, Jack Spence, who lives within a mile of the Dolores pump station, said the noise level from the gas turbines is "somewhere between detectable and very annoying." Spence estimated the proposed pump modification would double the current noise level far past what the draft EIS estimated.

The final EIS corrected an earlier error and admitted that the new pumps would create a noise levels of up to 64.7 decibels. This would raise the noise level at nearby residences past the 55 dBA standard.

But the EIS said that Williams committed in a May letter to reducing noise at the Dolores pump station with new- or modified-horsepower installations.

The final EIS promises that the pipeline would be routinely monitored and inspected for corrosion and pipeline damage, but citizens commenting on the proposal were skeptical of this promise.

Although the BLM is the lead agency, the U.S. Forest Service and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission are also involved.