Corridor Project Experience
Yankee Gulch Sodium Minerals Project
Steigers Corporation conducted the permitting effort to acquire the necessary environmental permits for dual 44-mile-long pipelines as part of the Yankee Gulch Sodium Minerals Project in western Colorado. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, two counties, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers all required permits for the pipeline. Steigers Corporation developed the Pipeline Plan of Development, two county Special Use Permits, and the Section 404 permit. We also completed or managed several environmental studies required for assessing resource impacts along the proposed pipeline corridor, including wetlands delineations, raptor nesting surveys, endangered plant surveys, archaeological inventories, and paleontological surveys.
In reviewing these surveys, we were able to assist the client in adjusting the proposed pipeline route to minimize resource impacts and consequently expedite permitting. We worked closely with the project engineers to ensure that engineering constraints were identified and addressed within the permitting process. In the end, due to its minimal environmental impacts and its viability from an engineer-ing perspective, the final route selected was acceptable to both the client and the agencies.
Coast Guard Cogeneration Project
Steigers Corporation had primary responsibility for developing numerous environmental permits for the Coast Guard Cogeneration Project in Kodiak, Alaska. The project included a utility combustion turbine power generation project and associated 69-kV transmission line to be sited on a U.S. Coast Guard base. Key issues included land use, air quality, noise, fish and wildlife, and hazardous materials.
The project transmission line featured an underwater crossing in important salmon habitat within the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and an aerial crossing of a river within a bald eagle high use area. Our analysis addressed alternate routes and potential impacts to wetlands and other waters of the U.S., including preparation of Section 10 and Section 404 permits for the transmission line.
We successfully completed the environmental report and resolved several contentious issues, which allowed the project to be constructed in time to provide replacement power for a scheduled outage of Kodiak's primary hydroelectric power supply.