The US Bureau of Land Management is reviewing a proposal from Rocky Mountain Natural Gas (RMNG) to add an additional compressor to its existing Crystal Compressor Station west of Carbondale in western Colorado, the agency’s Colorado River Valley field office in Silt announced.
It said RMNG, a subsidiary of Black Hills Energy, is proposing the additional compressor to allow greater natural gas storage capacity to meet energy needs for the Roaring Fork and Eagle valleys.
“This compressor would replace the capacity currently provided by an older existing compressor, replacing aging technology with a state-of-the-art compressor,” the company said in a project description. “This will help to ensure that we can continue to meet high demand for gas in the Roaring Fork and Eagle Valleys during the winter months. The existing station would be kept for backup in the future.”
It said that the Crystal Compressor Station already has three units to compress gas for transmission and storage. “With the addition of a fourth unit, we’re proposing to add an additional building to house the unit along with the associated engine and cooler,” RMNG said. The new compressor building will be about 23 ft wide, 50 ft long, and 30 ft high and insulated for sound control, it added.
All construction activities will take place within the existing fenced boundaries at the station and are scheduled from September of this year through April 2017, RMNG indicated.
BLM’s Colorado Valley field office said in its Oct. 13 notice that it wants to hear about any issue or concerns from the public before it begins an environmental assessment of the proposal. Comments will be accepted until Nov. 14, it noted.
Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].
