Forest Service considers possibility of oil and gas drilling

Friday, April 30, 1999 | 5:34 a.m.

The agency is gathering public comments through June 11 in preparation for an environmental impact statement in response to requests by several companies to allow leasing in parts of the forest.

"So far we've got 10 to 15 scoping letters, ranging from a sentence to three or four pages," Jim Winfrey, the USFS team leader, told the Elko Daily Free Press.

The EIS will look at the White Pine, Grant and Quinn mountain ranges in White Pine and Nye counties, the Forest Service said.

The White Pine Range is roughly 30 miles west of Ely, and the other two ranges are about 60 to 90 miles southwest of Ely.

The scoping document states that the EIS will address the effects of leasing on the ecological and social setting of the ranges, which border on Railroad Valley, and the USFS will decide whether the lands are suitable for leasing.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management handles the actual leasing, however, Winfrey said, and BLM already has leases in Railroad Valley.