Comment by March 25 to: Comments@ITD.Idaho.gov
Office of Communications, Idaho Transportation Department
P.O. Box 7129, Boise, ID 83707-1129
Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition (PRDC)
Website: Paradise-Ridge-Defense.org
With latest purchase, Texans own 35,934 acres
GRANGEVILLE – The recent purchase of a 17,947-acre ranch on the Doumecq Plains southwest of Grangeville likely makes the two Texas billionaire brothers who bought it the second-largest landowners in Idaho County.
Farris C. Wilks, 60, and Dan H. Wilks, 56, of Cisco, Texas, bought the Delos Robbins Ranch in December. In January 2011, the brothers bought the 17,987-acre Hitchcock Ranch in the same area.
With a total of 35,934 acres, that ranks the brothers just behind Western Pacific Timber Company in total county holdings, Idaho County Assessor James Zehner said. Western Pacific owns about 38,000 acres in the Upper Lochsa region of Idaho County. Continue reading
A host of activist groups may have won the battle against Imperial Oil last year, but companies looking to ship oversized loads through Montana to the Alberta tar sands are far from done with the war. Megaloads are still rolling across Montana’s highways, with the latest traveling as recently as last week.
Missoula used to be the leader of boisterous opposition to what many dubbed the “heavy haul.” Not quite two years ago, more than 100 protesters lined Reserve Street as two massive ConocoPhillips loads passed through.
Read more: Megaloads: Quiet Rides through Montana
(By Alex Sakariassen, Missoula Independent)
![Natural Gas Flaring [Larger] - Argus Observer](https://wildidahorisingtide.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/natural-gas-flaring-larger-argus-observer.jpg)
Natural gas is burned off at a test well on Friday morning, January 4, 2013, just outside New Plymouth (Argus Observer/Cherise Kaechele photo).
Richard Brown, CEO of Snake River Oil and Gas, said the testing will go on for two to three weeks.
Snake River Oil and Gas, in partnership with Alta Mesa Holdings, purchased the assets of Bridge Resources last year, including 11 wells, seven of which have production capability, Brown said.
Three of the wells are now under intensive testing, which will help company officials understand the size of the reservoir and will be indicative of the production of the other four wells, Brown said.
The companies have approximately 300 to 400 oil and gas leases on about 130,000 acres with a number of landowners, he said. Seismic work was conducted in the area last fall, ending in November, Brown said. Continue reading
Idaho’s next chapter of drilling for natural gas has begun.
The Argus Observer reports that drivers northeast of New Plymouth or east of Payette may spot flames spouting from natural gas well testing in the region.
The Observer’s Larry Meyer reports that Snake River Oil and Gas has launched “intensive testing” at three wells, to help determine production viability. The testing is expected to last two to three weeks.
Snake River, in partnership with Alta Mesa Holdings, purchased a number of wells from Bridge Resources in 2012, after the Canadian-based company liquidated many of its assets, in the wake of financial troubles at the height of its 2011 drilling operations.
Snake River is currently testing wells purchased from Bridge Resources. No new wells have been drilled.
Read more: Observer: Gas Drilling Resumes in Payette County
(By George Prentice, Boise Weekly)
On the Monday, January 7, Climate Justice Forum radio program, Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) gratefully welcomes David Hall, board of directors president of the Palouse Prairie Foundation, a board member of the Palouse Water Conservation Network, 2012 Moscow Renaissance Fair King, and a core WIRT activist. David will discuss the draft environmental impact statement and technical reports recently released by the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD), proposing to expand and reroute U.S. Highway 95 through native Palouse Prairie remnants on Paradise Ridge south of Moscow, likely to accommodate international industrial traffic like tar sands megaloads. Broadcast on KRFP Radio Free Moscow between 7:30 and 9:30 pm PST live at 92.5 FM and online, the show also covers regional and continent-wide dirty energy developments and climate activism news. Please share your Highway 95 issue insights and resistance stories during the WIRT program, by calling the station studio at 208-892-9200. For more information about this ITD scheme, see the Highway 95 Re-Route section of the WIRT website. Thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as his KRFP DJ! Visit the station website soon to learn how you can adopt our inspiring fellow DJs.
Idaho officials say an extra-long load traveled across U.S. Highway 12 in north-central Idaho to the Montana border late Thursday and early Friday.
Idaho Transportation Department spokesman Adam Rush tells the Lewiston Tribune that the rig carrying a generator skid to an undisclosed destination went from the agency’s weigh station east of Lewiston to the state border in a single night of travel.
Rush says the cargo had been scheduled to move before Christmas but was delayed by weather.
The rig is 163 feet long, weighs about 250,000 pounds, and is 15 feet wide and about 16 feet tall.
(By The Missoulian/Associated Press)
The Idaho Transportation Department’s draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for its U.S. Highway 95 realignment project from Thorn Creek Road to Moscow is now available, and there is plenty of reading to get done prior to the January 23 public hearing.
The environmental study was required by U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill in 2003 when he sided with the Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition in a lawsuit against the transportation department.
The coalition claimed that highway regulators did not address concerns regarding plans to reroute that section of U.S. 95 along Paradise Ridge and the damage that might be done to Palouse prairie habitat.
Al Poplawsky, a research associate with the University of Idaho’s department of plant, soil, and entomological sciences, said he will continue to argue against a route that would affect the Palouse prairie habitat, as he did nine years ago. Continue reading
Environmental group ‘disappointed’ with latest proposal for road south of Moscow
MOSCOW – An environmental group that sued to block construction on U.S. Highway 95 south of Moscow nine years ago is ramping up to oppose the latest version of the project.
“We’re certainly disappointed that they’re still going with an eastern alternative,” said Al Poplawsky, who served as the treasurer of the Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition during its lawsuit against the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) and the Federal Highway Administration. “We were hoping otherwise.”
In 2003, the coalition joined with the Palouse Group of the Sierra Club and the Idaho Conservation League to secure an injunction from U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill, which forced the transportation department to complete a lengthy environmental impact review process.
The transportation department released a draft of the environmental impact statement this week that calls for an eastern route for the highway that crosses the western shoulder of scenic Paradise Ridge near Moscow. The study analyzed 11 potential routes in three corridors: western, central, and eastern.
A similar proposed route triggered the 2003 lawsuit, with wildlife concerns, protection of native Palouse prairie, wetland preservation, urban sprawl, and climate-related safety questions in a list of objections. Continue reading
An extra-long load traveled on U.S. Highway 12 in north central Idaho late Thursday and early Friday.
The rig, carrying a generator skid to an undisclosed destination, went from an Idaho Transportation Department weigh station just east of Lewiston to the Montana border in a single night of travel, said Adam Rush, a Boise spokesman for the agency.
The cargo had originally been scheduled to move the week before Christmas but was delayed by weather. It weighed close to 250,000 pounds, was about 15 feet wide, 16 1/2 feet tall, and 163 feet long, according to the transportation department. Continue reading
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