Richland, Wash. – In Spring 2012, ProSource Technologies, Inc. selected Environmental Assessment Services to assess potential biological impacts from constructing, operating, and maintaining a 30-mile-long section of natural gas transmission line located in southeastern Washington.

The EAS team conducted biological resources surveys to assess potential disturbances from the Cascade Natural Gas Corporation – Hanford Natural Gas Pipeline Project. EAS team botanists focused on locating and documenting occurrences of priority species and habitats defined in the DOE Biological Resource Management Plan. They local several state plant species, including Coyote tobacco, Thompson’s sandwort, and hairy bugseed. Wildlife teams documented new locations of burrowing owl nests and ground squirrel colonies along the proposed transmission line corridor. Specialists also documented significant aggregations of special-status butterflies and invertebrates and a relative abundance of sagebrush lizards in the study area using GPS points or polygons.

EAS was selected for this project because of its cost-competitive advantages and biological and institutional knowledge of natural resources in the shrub-steppe region of eastern Washington.