Southern Trails Pipeline Survey, Long Beach, California, to Bloomfield, New Mexico
Survey, evaluation, compliance documentation, and Native American consultation
Questar Corporation
180 East 100 South St.
Salt Lake City, UT 84145
Approximate Cost: $940,000
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| The DW-3 segment of the pipeline, looking south. |
In early 1999, SRI began providing cultural resource management services for the Questar Southern Trails Pipeline. This multistate pipeline was converted from petroleum to natural gas, and the conversion required the approval of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and compliance with both the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). The pipeline crosses both private and Bureau of Land Management-administered lands and links the Bloomfield, New Mexico, feeder lines to the ARCO refinery at Long Beach, California. The original oil pipeline survey was conducted in 1957. This survey had to be updated, and all new facilities and access roads had to be inventoried.
SRI completed survey of 255 miles of pipeline in southern California and 420 miles in Arizona and New Mexico. Four-person SRI teams reviewed pipeline interconnects and facilities as Questar project components were designed or identified. The variable right-of-way was standardized to a 100-foot area of potential effect, which was surveyed on foot. As sites were found, they were recorded and their exact locations plotted using GPS technology. Supporting activities included conducting reviews of records at regional clearinghouses, state museums, and Bureau of Land Management offices. SRI Principal Investigator Dr. Edgar Huber was directly involved in project activities, reviewing field operations, coordinating Native American and governmental agency contact, and discussing project objectives with the client. Dr. Huber generated interim reports that were provided to reviewing agencies so that all were informed of survey findings on a regular basis.
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| An SRI staff member records a site during a Questar survey. |
SRI located approximately 200 archaeological resources during the survey, ranging from aboriginal stone material prospects along the lower Colorado River, to campsites, pot breaks, and aboriginal foot trails, to a historic railway depot in Beaumont, California, and Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railway trestles. Because archaeological survey methods have changed considerably since the original inventory was conduced in 1957, SRI staff relocated and reinventoried rockshelters recorded during the original survey. The pipeline crosses historic Route 66; therefore, surveyors paid close attention to features and structures that may have been associated with this designated historic national trail.
The initial review of records for much of the survey area showed that no prior research had been undertaken and that no sites had been located. SRI's final report for the project, Cultural Resources Survey of Portions of the Southern Trails Pipeline, edited by Edgar K. Huber and Teresita Majewski (Technical Report 99-32), contributes a wealth of information about little-known areas of the Mojave Desert and its surrounding uplands. A series of reports on specific portions of the pipeline corridor were also produced at the request of the client, to meet the needs of different stakeholders in the project.