Kern River Pipeline Expansion Project
Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California
Overview:
SWCA was contracted to conduct cultural and biological services, construction monitoring, and general staff support for the Kern River Pipeline Expansion Project, which involved looping an existing 700-mile natural gas pipeline from Opal, Wyoming to Bakersfield, CA.
Services Provided:
- Prepared and reviewed compliance documentation
- Facilitated communication and information exchange among federal, state and local agencies
- Updated and maintained meeting notes, records and data
- Cultural resources data recovery (excavation) on eight archaeological sites
- Archaeological monitoring
- Developed a treatment plan for mitigation of cultural resources
Results:
Throughout this project, SWCA devised innovative solutions to streamline processes for the client. SWCA negotiated with involved land agencies, state historic preservation officers and other interested parties to perform “off right-of-way” mitigations, saving the client several hundred thousand dollars and, more importantly, reducing the overall construction completion time by several months. SWCA also created a time saving GIS database of all historic linear features that crossed the pipeline right-of-way. SWCA was able to rapidly deploy environmental monitoring and mitigation staff over hundreds of miles to maintain the clients schedule and meet the needs of oversight agencies.
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