A proposal to ship crude oil from eastern Utah to a Davis County refinery via a 64-mile pipeline will be unveiled to the public in a pair of meetings this week. But the plan, put forth by a Dallas-based energy company, is already drawing flak from environmentalists.
    Holly Energy Partners, which operates a refinery in West Bountiful, says it wants to build the pipeline to address the Wasatch Front's growing energy demands, increase efficiency in moving oil to Davis County from a connection point with the Frontier Pipeline near the Wyoming border and lower the number of tanker trucks on Utah highways. Fewer trucks would decrease the potential for accidents that, in turn, could cause oil spills, the company says.
    The buried, 16-inch diameter pipeline would run in a series of pre-existing pipeline corridors and mostly across private land, but one 4-mile stretch would be located on the Wasatch-Cache National Forest.
    Forest Service officials don't foresee a lot of complications because of the established rights-of-way - the corridor currently houses a pair of natural gas pipelines, and a power line - and because that portion of the forest has been designated in the 2003 Wasatch-Cache land use plan as a utility corridor.
    "It's really not that unusual," Loren Kroenke, district ranger for the Salt Lake Ranger District, said Monday. "It's not like pipelines run everywhere. But this pipeline would be placed in common corridors used for other utilities. This isn't something you see a lot on the forests, but it is a common activity on public lands."
    However, the Utah Environmental Congress, which monitors activities on the state's 8 million acres of national forest lands, has voiced opposition to the proposal. It plans to petition the Forest Service to conduct an environmental impact study of the project, which runs through hilly, mountainous terrain throughout its length, reaching an elevation of 8,700 feet at about the 50-mile mark before descending to Davis County.
    UEC Executive Director Kevin Mueller maintains that the proposal "is not consistent" with the 2003 Wasatch-Cache forest plan and will be routed through what the Forest Service calls a "Regionally Significant Wildlife Corridor" and an area identified as a lynx migration corridor.
    "Crude oil pipelines in this rugged terrain and important municipal watershed above the Wasatch Front would present significantly greater chances of environmental harm should the oil line break," Mueller said. "The natural gas lines that follow some of this alignment - and small power line - do not present the same risks. Leaking oil lines can destroy the watershed, whereas a leaking natural gas line does not."
    But Mark Cunningham, the Holly Energy Partners representative who has been working with the Forest Service on the project, notes that two existing crude oil pipelines already feed the West Bountiful and North Salt Lake refineries. He says the company is committed to addressing any potential environmental concerns.
    "The existing Forest Service corridor will be surveyed as part of the process to make sure we don't damage or endanger animals or plants," said Cunningham. "But the existing corridor is the key. This is a proven route for these types of utilities."
    Because of the existing utility route, Kroenke says the pipeline proposal could qualify for a streamlined review process under the 2005 Energy Policy Act.
    "It's in an existing corridor and the corridor was designated in the land-use plan, so that fits our criteria under the federal law," said the district ranger.
    jbaird@sltrib.com