By Mike Donahue
Moapa Valley Progress
The presence of at least one juvenile Mojave Desert tortoise, perhaps more, has halted all local work on the UNEV petroleum pipeline currently under construction from North Salt Lake to North Las Vegas.
UNEV crews stopped work last week and began removing all the company’s heavy equipment from its worksite in Moapa. The approximately 100 workers were told little about the problem, other than that the project was being delayed for an indefinite period, the Progress has learned.
The work stoppage is expected to be short lived, although UNEV spokesperson Cindy Gubler said in an interview from Salt Lake City she could not be specific.
“Because of the desert tortoise, we’re being temporarily delayed on Spread 7: the Southern Nevada segment of the line,” Gubler said. “We should be back up and running before long but I just can’t say exactly when.
“We did a lengthy and involved environmental impact study (EIS) and we know all about the tortoises,” she continued. “We follow very strict guidelines in regard to endangered species. I don’t know exactly what happened in Nevada but we’ve stopped working.”
In addition to the local segment running through Moapa, construction on the 400-mile-long project has also been halted in other areas due to the presence of other native or endangered birds, Gubler said.
Again, Gubler said she couldn’t be more specific other than to say a nesting Red Tail Hawk near Tooele, UT, forced crews to stop work on that segment of the project.
“The pipeline overall is going well,” she said. “However, because of the time of year, because of desert tortoises and several native or endangered species of birds, we’ve run into a couple of hiccups on the line. There are 18 different situations where birds have affected construction; sightings, nestings that sort of thing. We have biologists out there monitoring the situations.”
The pipeline that will eventually carry gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from refineries in North Salt Lake to Southern Nevada is currently being constructed in seven different segments.
“We’ve hired different construction crews who are working sort of like on an assembly line,” Gubler explained. “One crew does one job and when it’s finished, the next crew comes in and does its job.”
Because of the staggered construction schedule, there is still work going on in a few areas of the pipeline and once the problems are ironed out, the company expects to continue work.
The pipeline is being built in a cooperative effort between Holly Corp. and Sinclair Oil and has been under construction since 2006. Two distribution terminals, one near Cedar City, UT, and the other at Apex on I-15 in North Las Vegas, will also be built.
