Tesoro plans it's new pipeline through Bountiful

[Sombeech]

BOUNTIFUL -- About 90 people attended the Uinta Express Pipeline information open house at Bountiful High Thursday.
There, Tesoro representatives fielded questions on its proposed 135-mile waxy crude oil pipeline to go from the Uinta Basin in Duchesne County, to the oil refineries on the Davis/Salt Lake County border.
The proposed route follows a line over the Wasatch mountains between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Bountiful temple and the Bountiful High 'B', before heading west onto the area refineries.
Patti Hendricks of Centerville attended the meeting and had concerns. Even though Hendricks lives about four miles from the projected pipeline route, she said she fears the pipeline may increase refinery production, adding to the poor air quality in the area.
The Centerville woman, originally from California, is also concerned the alignment the pipeline takes along 400 North in Bountiful, puts several schools and homeowners along the route in the event a disaster should cause the pipeline to break, Hendricks said.
"It's too populated, and if there was an accident you would be impacting so many people," Hendricks said.
Tesoro officials defend the 400 North route, saying although they are still looking at route options, but the existing alignment through Bountiful follows an existing Questar right-of-way.
To minimize any potential disruption in installing the buried 12-inch pipeline, the hope is to have the pipe route follow street corridors and railroad line easements that may be available, officials said.
The pipeline will also not result in any increased productivity for the area refineries, said Cindy Gubler, with Wilkinson Ferrari & Co. of Salt Lake City, which is representing Tesoro, a Texas-based company.
The pipeline is really only providing a "transportation mechanism" for the crude oil the refineries are already permitted to receive, Gubler said. "Refineries have an extensive separate permitting process they need to go through to increase production.
"The biggest question we had (Thursday) came from the landowners. They wanted to know what we were thinking and how it might impact them," Gubler said of the pipeline that currently takes a projected route through four south Davis cities, including Bountiful, in making its way to the Holly Refinery in West Bountiful.
The other Davis cities impacted are Woods Cross and North Salt Lake.
"The production of waxy crude oil in the Uinta Basin has been rapidly growing and is predicted to grow further in the future," Gubler said previously. "There are currently no existing pipelines that are suitable to move this to market."
The pipeline, to be operational by 2016, is to carry 60,000 barrels of waxy crude oil per day, said Michael Gebhardt, vice president of business development for Tesoro Companies.
That in turn will take 250 crude oil tanker trucks off the road that are now making daily round trips from Duchesne County to the Salt Lake City area, Gebhardt said.
The latest technology in construction will be used in building the pipeline, including being able to monitor it in preventing any pipeline incidents, officials said.
But before any pipe is put in the ground, Tesoro is looking to have additional meetings with the communities as the project proceeds.
Tesoro representatives have met with city officials from the four Davis cities that would be impacted by the pipeline, Gubler said. "That is just the start of what our interactions will be," she said.
The next steps will be more scheduled meetings with city and county officials; permit applications;an outreach to landowners living along the proposed alignment and for the environmental study to continue, Gubler said.
"It will take a while for the environmental studies to be conducted," Gubler said, where Tesoro is at the beginning of that process.
But Tesoro officials did find Thursday's hearing productive, with a good exchange of information taking place between landowners, stakeholders and the company, she said.
"We want to answer questions and get information out," Gubler said.

[Sombeech]

I thought it was interesting the only opposition opinion they printed was from somebody who moved from California.

It would take 250 tanker trucks off the road? Wow.