Cultural resource resource inventory, monitoring, and testing for the Meeker Lateral Pipeline in Colorado and Utah
Project Name: Meeker Lateral Pipeline
Location:Colorado and Utah
Rural and/or Urban: Rural
Client: Enterprise Products Partners L.P. and Enserca, L.L.C.
Dates: November 2005 – August 2009
CRA Project Manager: Marc Greenberg
Project Description: In 2005, Enterprise Products Partners, L.P. and Enserca, L.L.C. contracted CRA to conduct Class III cultural resource inventory, monitoring, and testing for the Meeker Lateral Pipeline. The project consisted of survey of various proposed right-of-ways for pipelines in Rio Blanco and Garfield Counties, Colorado, and in Uintah County, Utah. The primary goals of the project were to identify all cultural properties eligible for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places in order to comply with the National Historic Preservation Act (16 USC 470) and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (43 USC 1701) and recommend management strategies for all eligible sites. Identification of sites with possible traditional or spiritual ties to American Indians was also an important feature of the inventory.
Between November 2005 and August 2009, CRA crews inventoried various pipeline right-of-ways, reroutes, monitored construction activities, and conducted test excavation. During the course of this project, CRA identified and documented 37 sites and 41 isolated finds. Class III archaeological survey over the multiple phases of this project covered roughly 100 miles of proposed pipeline right-of-way and reroutes.
Monitoring for this project consisted of having CRA crew on-site during pipeline construction. The 48.5-mile long pipeline segment originates near the Meeker Gas Plant, passes westward through Rio Blanco County, Colorado, and ends just over the state line in Uintah County, Utah. Previous cultural resource inventories along the pipeline corridor identified several prehistoric archaeological sites in proximity to the pipeline right-of-way that required monitoring of all ground-disturbing activities in their vicinity to ensure that these resources were not adversely affected by the construction. A crew of two completed the survey over 5 days.
One prehistoric site, 5RB5596, discovered during monitoring of pipeline construction, was test excavated. This site was a prehistoric open camp in which a hearth feature was uncovered in the pipeline trench wall. This hearth feature yielded a radiocarbon date of 2305 ± 15BP. This date places the hearth at the Archaic-Formative transition. Three important historic sites related to the extraction of gilsonite from Utah were encountered by the project. These include the Uintah Railroad, established specifically for mineral transport; the town of Atchee, established to fix and load rail cars, and the town of Carbonera, with mines to extract the coal necessary for transport. No further work was conducted at these sites because only a portion of the pipeline was ultimately built.
