The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently fast-tracked approval for an expansion of the Wildcat Loadout Facility near Helper, Utah. And Eagle County has filed suit.
”The county challenges BLM’s decision to approve the facility’s expansion using emergency procedures that bypass standard environmental review and public input requirements,” said attorney Nathan Hunt, who represents the county in the case. “The county is also challenging [the Interior Department’s] alternative procedures that allow the agency to fast-track approval of oil-related projects under the pretext that there is an ‘energy emergency’.”
This was the second go-round for BLM’s approval of the oil depot. This time, the agency circumvented the usual National Environmental Policy Act environmental review process and approved the expansion in a matter of weeks. “Eagle County contends that BLM’s use of emergency procedures under the pretext of “energy emergency” unlawfully circumvented environmental analysis and public engagement required under federal law,” Hunt said in an email to The Sopris Sun.
Wildcat, managed by BLM’s Green River Field Office, is a crossroads for waxy crude oil coming out of the Uinta Basin. Trucks bring the oil to Wildcat, which handles about 20,000 barrels per day (bpd). The oil is loaded onto heated train cars and shipped out along the national rail line to Gulf Coast refineries. The expansion would increase the amount of oil passing through the facility to 100,000 bpd — a 400% increase, Eagle County said.
Proponents of the Uinta Basin Railway (UBR), a proposed 88-mile route to the loadout facilities through a roadless area in Utah’s Ashley National Forest, have promoted the UBR as a way to reduce the time it takes to haul crude from the Basin over windy roads to the loadout facilities.
Eagle County filed suit in a federal appeals court in May 2023 against the Federal Surface Transportation Board’s (STB) 2021 approval of the UBR, which overturned the STB decision three months later. Ten counties and municipalities in Colorado joined the suit, citing, among other things, environmental and economic disasters should an oil train derail along the Colorado River.
But, in October 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the appeals court decision, putting the UBR back on track.
The railway is far from becoming reality at this point, which could be a reason behind the Wildcat expansion, said Deeda Seed, senior campaigner for the Center for Biological Diversity. “It looks like oil producers are pursuing any means possible to get more oil out of the Uinta Basin, and onto trains that would travel along the Colorado River,” she said. Proponents deny any connection with Wildcat.
Hunt said that the Eagle County lawsuit maintains the threat of train derailments, especially due to increased oil extraction in the Uinta Basin caused by the increase in processing capacity at Wildcat. “A derailment of a train or an oil spill could have devastating impacts on Eagle County’s community, economy and environment,” he said, adding that federal law gives Eagle County and other Colorado communities the right to participate in the approval process. “BLM violated federal law when it authorized the expansion of [Wildcat] without a public review process and sufficient environmental review,” he said. Hunt expects the federal government to respond to the complaint in May.