Questar Pipeline Co. has won federal approval for an 81-mile pipeline that will connect its northern and southern gas transmission systems in eastern Utah.
The company is a subsidiary of Salt Lake-based Questar Corp., the parent company of Mountain Fuel Supply.The 20-inch-diameter pipeline, which will cost an estimated $19.7 million to construct, will run from the company's Kastler Compressor Station in the Clay Basin storage field in Daggett County to the Fidlar Compressor Station near Bonanza, Uintah County.
Questar Pipeline's northern system runs from natural gas producing areas in northwestern Colorado and southwestern Wyoming to connections with a local distribution system operated by Mountain Fuel. Those connecting points are in Hyrum, Cache County; Sunset and Centerville in Davis County; and Sunnyside, Carbon County.
Mountain Fuel is the primary provider to residential and commercial natural gas users in Utah and southwestern Wyoming.
Questar Pipeline's northern system also interconnects with other interstate pipelines at points in Wyoming.
The southern system runs from producing areas in western Colorado through central Utah to Mountain Fuel's distribution system at Payson, Utah County, and Indianola, Sanpete County.
Construction is expected to begin soon and pipeline officials hope to complete work on a crossing over the Green River near Jensen, Uintah County, by the end of February.
A.J. Marushack, Questar Pipeline president, said efforts are being made to address environmental concerns. He said the winter work will allow the company to cross area farmland while is is not under cultivation and the river without disturbing area fisheries and seasonal raptor nesting areas at critical times.
Once the river crossing is complete, construction work will halt until weather conditions improve in the spring. The company hopes to have the pipeline operating by late fall.
Nearly 75 percent of the pipeline will follow existing pipeline rights-of-way, a factor Federal Energy Regulatory Commission officials believe will minimize environmental concerns.
Marushack said the new line will give the company more flexibility, allowing better management of the existing lines while providing more transportation options to gas producing companies.
The line's cost is not expected to affect rates. Officials believe that increased volume will sufficiently increase revenues to offset the cost.