Garfield County commissioners on Monday voted unanimously to sign a letter supporting the West Mamm Creek Pipeline Project. 

Proposed by TEP Rocky Mountain LLC and Grand River Gathering LLC, the project involves constructing approximately 7 miles of pipeline near West Mamm Creek, which runs south of the Garfield County Airport.

Crossing 2.9 miles of National Forest System lands, 2.1 miles of land managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and 2.1 miles of private property, the pipeline would collect and deliver low pressure natural gas and expand TEP’s water transfer and delivery system. 

The letter, presented to the commissioners by Kirby Wynn, Garfield County’s oil and gas liaison, urges White River National Forest Supervisor Scott Fitzwilliams to approve the project. 

“We support the pipeline project as an appropriate and beneficial use of federal lands that will allow efficient produced water transport between existing and future well pads,” the letter states, later adding that the project is “well planned” to minimize negative long-term surface impacts.

Future actions that TEP can “reasonably foresee” are included in the pipeline project’s draft environmental assessment. This includes the addition of a well pad and frac pad and the expansion of three existing pads, all on private land, to accommodate 47 new wells in the West Mamm Creek area. 

TEP’s existing development near the creek, comprising nine wells on private land, currently requires 156 water truck trips annually. 

Drilling 47 new wells would necessitate up to 1,000 truck trips per well, and future production for two years would require 17,167 annual trips, according to the environmental assessment. In the letter, the county states that the pipeline would alleviate future and current water truck traffic.

LuLu Colby, organizer of the Save West Mamm Creek Coalition, is concerned that the pipeline’s role in future oil and gas development is being overlooked. “What they don’t want to admit is that if we don’t approve the pipeline, there will be no more development up here in West Mamm Creek,” Colby said. “Therefore, none of those predicted 1,000 truck trips would even happen.”

Signed by commissioners Tom Jankovsky, Mike Samson and Perry Will, the letter highlights the county’s financial benefits from over 11,000 producing oil and gas wells in the area. 

“Oil and gas property and production tax revenues comprise a majority of county and special taxing district annual funding in support of social, health and emergency services to our communities,” the county’s letter states. “As such, the pipeline project will add important new infrastructure to bolster our local economy.”

Members of the community can still comment on the project’s draft environmental assessment by going to http://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2025023/510. The comment period closes on Friday, Feb. 7.