Duchesne County hears study tying oilfield traffic to road damage; industry says proposed fee is unaffordable

Duchesne County commissioners on Sept. 30 heard a technical presentation proposing a transportation mitigation fee to cover road damage caused by heavy truck traffic from new oil and gas wells. Consultants from Jones & DeMille and county advisers said the fee links projected truck traffic to pavement life reduction and would fund a dedicated road‑repair account.

"The court found that this is a fee that can be charged," consultant Cody said, summarizing a 2016 Utah Supreme Court ruling the presenters said authorizes such fees when there is a clear link between the demand for a service and the charge. Jones & DeMille’s simplified estimate, the consultants said, used core pavement data and industry traffic projections and put a typical paved‑road replacement cost at about $1,760,000 per mile.

Using that base and the firm’s formula, the presentation said an average new horizontal well can remove about 2.3% of a road’s remaining service life; the study’s worked examples produced a county example figure on the order of $41,400 per well, per mile. Michael of Jones & DeMille said the model includes a 1.5‑year weighting factor and a 4.1% annual inflation factor to reflect when costs will be incurred.

Industry representatives and several speakers pushed back sharply. One industry participant summarized legal counsel’s reaction: "This is as proposed is unacceptable and unworkable, and litigation will be contemplated," and others warned that a county projection of roughly $20 million in initial fees for a subset of operators would be economically disruptive. Industry representatives asked why the study used full replacement cost rather than more limited repair or rehabilitation estimates; consultants said full replacement reflects realistic outcomes for roads that have not been built for heavy, concentrated truck traffic and that other reconstruction approaches were considered but were not uniformly applicable.

Commissioners debated alternatives including a flat per‑well fee, a cap on charges, or a shared cost approach (50/50 county‑industry). Commission members said they were not "married" to a single formula and signaled willingness to continue discussions. The board voted to schedule another work session on Oct. 7 to continue negotiations.

The presentation prompted multiple requests for more detail from both sides: commissioners and attendees asked for the dataset behind traffic projections, the pavement‑core sampling locations, and comparison to Utah Department of Transportation unit prices. Consultants agreed to provide a written summary of assumptions and the supporting data used to develop the fee schedule.

What’s next: Duchesne County has set a follow‑up work session for Oct. 7 at approximately 2:30 p.m. to continue the transportation fee discussion and to give industry time to produce counter‑proposals and for county staff to circulate additional supporting analysis.