7-31-10 Reno Gazette Journal

Lawsuit says pipeline will harm habitats

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit Friday against two federal agencies, claiming they haven't adequately analyzed the threats to wildlife posed by the Ruby Pipeline project that would cross wilderness in Nevada and four other Western states.

"The Ruby Pipeline will cause severe damage to rivers and streams, sensitive habitats for a host of fish and wildlife species and some of the most pristine lands in western North America," said Noah Greenwald, endangered species specialist for the center.

"Instead of creating an entirely new path of destruction, an existing pipeline route should have been utilized," he said.

The center said the pipeline could present a danger to the threatened Lahontan cutthroat trout, which can be found in small creeks and streams across Nevada. The pipeline would cross 168 streams across the state. Digging the pipeline would require blasts near 118 streams.

It also said allowing trucks to use roads in the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in northern Washoe County contradicts its mission to protect wildlife.

The 680-mile natural gas pipeline would cut across some of the pristine and remote lands in Wyoming, Utah , Nevada, Oregon and California. The pipeline in northern Washoe County is so remote that the project is required to set up a work camp at Vya, which is about 200 miles north of Reno.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, is against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It asks the court to order the agencies to review the project again.

El Paso Corp. spokesman Richard Wheatley said the company, which is building the pipeline, has no immediate comment on the lawsuit. He said the company plans to start construction any day, when the National Energy Regulatory Commission issues a notice to proceed, and he said the project will be finished in March as planned.

Earlier this month, the BLM agreed to issue rights-of-way on its land for the project in releasing its record of decision on environmental issues.

Ron Wenker, BLM director for Nevada, said El Paso has agreed to take numerous steps to mitigate the effects of its project on sage grouse, pygmy rabbits and wild horses as well as to protect migratory birds and fish.

While trucks will use roads in Sheldon refuge, any damage to the roads and nearby environment will be mitigated, he said.

El Paso Corp. is required to put the land back in shape and monitor it.

"(The company) has agreed full reclamation is expected and agreed to follow through to make sure it is successful," Wenker said.

Most of the pipeline is across BLM land in Nevada.

With the lawsuit filing, "it could really blow up in Ruby's face," said John Hadder, of the Great Basin Resource Watch in Reno.

"It's too bad," Hadder said. "If they have done everything right to begin with and looked at alternative routes, there wouldn't be all this opposition and they'd be building now and people would be employed."

The Great Basin group and the Sierra Club argued for the pipeline to follow a recently approved utility corridor along Interstate 80 across Nevada.

In Washoe County, the BLM said in its decision that it will continue to work with the company to investigate "microroute" changes around sensitive cultural resources.

In June, the Washoe County Commission issued a strong letter of protest, saying the Fort Bidwell Indian Tribe had not been adequately consulted concerning ancient artifacts. The tribe, in California near the Nevada border, also uses the area for gathering plants.

The report said the endangered Warner Creek sucker, Lost River sucker and Colorado pikeminnow also could be affected by the pipeline. The project also will disturb sage grouse and pygmy rabbits in Nevada.

Meanwhile, El Paso Corp. has angered ranchers in eastern Nevada with plans to create two trusts to spend $22 million to improve the sagebrush environment near the pipeline over the next 10 years.

The trusts could use those funds to purchase grazing rights on federal lands. But Wheatley said those purchases would be voluntary and the trusts would not be allowed to bid against ranchers in auctions.