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Show Chevron to hold hearings on phosphate pipeline Public hearing will be held this month to discuss a proposed 84-mile-long slurry pipeline which would run from Vernal to Rock Springs, Wyo. The line would carry phosphate from Chevron Resource Co.'s mine north of Vernal to a fertilizer plant the company wants to build 4.5 miles southeast of Rock Springs. The phosphate would be mixed with sulfur from Chevron's gas wells in the Overthrust Belt to produce the fertilizer. Robert Ternus, business development manager for Chevron Chemical Co.'s phosphate operations, said the material would be carried in an 11-inch diameter, high pressure line that would be buried. Several alternative routes are being considered, all of which would follow existing roads, pipelines or power corridors for at least part of the way. Cost of expanding the mine and building the slurry line would be approximately $100 million. The preferred source of water for the slurry is water which is being used at the mine to separate phosphate from the other minerals, said Mr. Ternus. That water is being released into a tailings pit where it is lost to evaporation. He said this water would be sufficient to meet all of the needs of the slurry in addition to half of the water needs of the plant in Wyoming. The Utah state engineer has been asked to authorize this additional use of the water. If the option isn't successful, Mr. Ternus said Chevron would pump water from the Green River and carry it through a second pipeline to the mine at Vernal. Public hearings will be held July 28 in Dutch John, Daggett County, and July 29 in Vernal to allow comment on the scope of an environmental impact statement the Bureau of Land Management and Wyoming Industrial Siting Administration are preparing on the project. |