United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management Environmental Assessment DOI-BLM-UT-Y010-2017-0240-EA March 2018 Competitive Oil and Gas Lease Sale Location: Canyon Country District, Moab & Monticello Field Offices Grand & San Juan Counties, Utah Applicant/Address: U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management Utah State Office 440 West 200 South, Suite 500 Salt Lake City, Utah 84145-0155 Moab Field Office 82 East Dogwood Moab, Utah 84532 Office (435) 259-2100 Fax (435) 259-2158 Monticello Field Office 365 North Main, P.O. Box 7 Monticello, Utah 84535 Office (435) 587-1500 Fax (435) 587-1518 November 2017 TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 1.1 PROJECT LOCATION AND LEGAL DESCRIPTION .............................................. 1 1.2 BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................... 1 1.3 PURPOSE AND NEED .................................................................................................... 3 1.4 PLAN CONFORMANCE REVIEW .............................................................................. 4 1.5 PUBLIC PARTICIPATION ............................................................................................ 6 1.6 RELATIONSHIP TO STATUTES, REGULATIONS, POLICIES OR OTHER PLANS ....................................................................................................................................... 7 1.7 DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE ................................................ 8 CHAPTER 2 - ALTERNATIVES ............................................................................................... 9 2.1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................. 9 2.2 REASONABLY FORESEEABLE DEVELOPMENT SCENARIO ............................ 9 2.3 ALTERNATIVES ANALYZED IN DETAIL .............................................................. 14 2.4 ALTERNATIVES CONSIDERED BUT NOT ANALYZED IN DETAIL ............... 15 CHAPTER 3 – AFFECTED ENVIRONMENT....................................................................... 15 3.1 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................... 15 3.2 GENERAL SETTING .................................................................................................... 16 3.3 RESOURCES/ISSUES BROUGHT FORWARD FOR ANALYSIS ......................... 16 CHAPTER 4 – ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS .................................................................... 32 4.1 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................... 32 4.2 DIRECT AND INDIRECT IMPACTS ......................................................................... 32 4.3 CUMULATIVE IMPACTS ........................................................................................... 66 CHAPTER 5 – COORDINATION AND CONSULTATION ................................................ 70 5.1 PUBLIC PARTICIPATION .......................................................................................... 70 5.2 LIST OF PERSONS, AGENCIES, AND ORGANIZATIONS CONSULTED......... 72 5.3 LIST OF PREPARERS AND PARTICIPANTS ......................................................... 73 CHAPTER 6 – REFERENCES, ACRONYMS, AND APPENDICES .................................. 75 6.1 REFERENCES CITED .................................................................................................. 75 6.2 LIST OF ACRONYMS .................................................................................................. 78 6.3 LIST OF APPENDICES ................................................................................................ 80 Appendices: Appendix A – Parcel List, Stipulations, and Notices Appendix B – Maps Appendix C – Parcels Recommended For Removal Appendix D – Interdisciplinary Team Checklists Appendix E – Responses to Public Comments Appendix F – Reasonably Foreseeable Development Scenario Calculations Appendix G – Maps-Lands with Wilderness Characteristics CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION 1.1 PROJECT LOCATION AND LEGAL DESCRIPTION This Environmental Analysis (EA) addresses only those parcels on the preliminary list located within the Canyon Country District Office (CCDO) exclusive of the Moab Master Leasing Plan (MLP) area. Those parcels on the preliminary list located within the Moab MLP area are addressed in a separate Determination of NEPA Adequacy (DNA #DOI-BLM-UT-Y010-2017-0285-DNA). The preliminary lease sale parcels are located in Utah’s Grand and San Juan Counties. Exclusive of parcels within the MLP, thirty-two parcels, a total of 46,539.72 acres within the district, have been nominated by industry for consideration. Three parcels consisting of approximately 5,673.08 acres of split-estate with the surface owned by the Navajo Nation and administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) are recommended for removal. As a result, the EA for the CCDO March 2018 competitive oil and gas lease sale considers leasing 40,866.64 acres in twenty-nine parcels. Twenty-one parcels totaling approximately 30,341.83 acres are located in the Monticello Field Office (MtFO) area, and eight parcels totaling approximately 10,524.81 acres are located in the Moab Field Office (MFO) area. See the parcel list in Appendix A and maps in Appendix B. Parcels recommended for removal are contained in Appendix C. 1.2 BACKGROUND It is the policy of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as derived from various laws, including the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 (MLA) and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA), to make mineral resources available for disposal and to encourage development of mineral resources to meet national, regional, and local needs. Utah is a major source of natural gas for heating and electrical energy production in the lower 48 states. The continued sale and issuance of lease parcels facilitates exploration and production as oil and gas companies seek new areas for production or attempt to develop previously inaccessible or uneconomical reserves. The BLM’s Utah State Office conducts quarterly competitive lease sales to sell available oil and gas lease parcels. A Notice of Competitive Lease Sale (NCLS), which lists lease parcels to be offered at the auction, is published by the Utah State Office at least 90 days before the auction is held. Lease stipulations applicable to each parcel are specified in the NCLS. The decision as to which public lands and minerals are open for leasing and what leasing stipulations may be necessary, based on information available at the time, is made during the land use planning process. Constraints on leasing and any future development of split-estate parcels are determined by the BLM in consultation with the appropriate surface management agency or the private surface owner. In the process of preparing a lease sale, the Utah State Office compiles a list of lands nominated and legally available for leasing, and sends a preliminary parcel list to the appropriate District Office where the parcels are located. Field Office staff then review the legal descriptions of the parcels to determine if they are in areas open to leasing under the relevant Resource Management Plan (RMP) and that appropriate stipulations have been included; verify whether any new 1 information has become available that might change any analysis conducted during the planning process; confirm appropriate consultations have been conducted; and identify any special resource conditions of which potential bidders should be made aware. The nominated parcels are posted online for a 30-day public scoping period. The BLM then prepares an analysis in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), usually in the form of an EA. After the Field Office completes the draft parcel review and NEPA analysis and returns them to the State Office, a list of available lease parcels and associated stipulations and notices is made available to the public through a NCLS. Lease sale notices are posted on the Utah BLM website at: http://go.usa.gov/xXk8ch. On rare occasions, the BLM may defer or withhold additional parcels prior to the day of the lease sale. In such cases, the BLM prepares an erratum to the sale notice. The EA and an unsigned Finding of No Significant Impacts (FONSI) (if appropriate) are made available to the public for a 30-day public comment period by posting the documents on the BLM ePlanning page at: https://go.usa.gov/xNfAT. The BLM also typically issues press releases to publicly announce the public comment period for the EA and unsigned FONSI. Comments received from the public are reviewed and incorporated into the NEPA document, as applicable. The EA, with any revisions determined appropriate following the public comment period, and, if still considered appropriate, an unsigned FONSI are again made available to the public through the concurrent posting of those documents and a NCLS at least 90 days in advance of the scheduled lease sale. The posting of the NCLS, EA and FONSI initiates a 30-day public protest period for the proposed lease sale offering that will end 60 days before the scheduled lease sale. The stipulations and notices applicable to each parcel proposed for lease will be specified in attachments to the NCLS. If any changes are needed to the parcels or stipulations and notices identified