[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 157 (Monday, August 16, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 50395-50397]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-18590]



DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

Coast Guard

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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Maritime Administration

[USCG-2004-18474]


Pearl Crossing LNG Terminal LLC Liquefied Natural Gas Deepwater 
Port License Application; Preparation of Environmental Impact Statement

AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS; and Maritime Administration, DOT.

ACTION: Notice of intent; notice of public meeting; and request for 
public comments.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Coast Guard and the Maritime Administration 
(``MARAD'') announce that the Coast Guard intends to prepare an 
environmental impact statement (``EIS'') as part of the environmental 
review of the license application for the proposed Pearl Crossing LNG 
Terminal deepwater port, to be located approximately 41 miles (66 
kilometers) southeast of Cameron, Louisiana, with its associated 
onshore and offshore components. Onshore components include pipelines, 
pipeline shore crossings, and a graving dock. Proposed locations for 
the graving dock are near Corpus Christi, Texas, and Freeport, Texas. 
Publication of this notice begins a public scoping process that will 
help determine the scope of issues to be addressed in the EIS and 
identify the significant environmental issues related to this license 
application. Finally, this notice solicits public involvement in the 
scoping process, and announces public meetings and a public comment 
period to facilitate that involvement.

DATES: The public meetings will be held August 30 and 31, and September 
1 and 2, 2004, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. in Lake Charles, Louisiana; 
Orange, Texas; Lake Jackson, Texas; and Port Aransas, Texas, 
respectively. Each meeting will consist of an informational open house, 
from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., and a public scoping meeting, from 5 p.m. to 
7 p.m. All meeting spaces will be wheelchair-accessible. Comments and 
related material must reach the docket on or before September 15, 2004.

ADDRESSES: The Lake Charles informational open house and public meeting 
will be held at: Lake Charles Civic Center, Contraband Room, 900 
Lakeshore Drive, Lake Charles, Louisiana 70602; (337) 491-1256.
    The Orange, Texas informational open house and public meeting will 
be held at: Thomen Community Center, 1413 North 20th Street, Orange, 
Texas 77630; (409) 883-1017.
    The Lake Jackson, Texas informational open house and public meeting 
will be held at: Brazosport College, Room K-101, 500 College Drive, 
Lake Jackson, Texas 77566; (979) 230-3000.
    The Port Aransas, Texas informational open house and public meeting 
will be held at: City of Port Aransas Civic Center, 710 W. Avenue A, 
Port Aransas, Texas 78373; (361) 749-4111.
    You need not attend the meetings in order to comment. You may also 
submit comments identified by docket number USCG-2004-18474 to the 
Docket Management Facility at the U.S. Department of Transportation. To 
avoid duplication, please use only one of the following methods:
    (1) Electronically through the Web site for the Docket Management 
System, at http://dms.dot.gov.
    (2) By mail to the Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of 
Transportation, Room PL-401, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 
20590-0001.
    (3) By fax to the Docket Management Facility at (202) 493-2251.
    (4) By delivery to Room PL-401 on the Plaza level of the Nassif 
Building, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC, from 9 a.m. to 5 
p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. The telephone 
number is (202) 366-9329.
    (5) By the Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov/.
    The Docket Management Facility maintains the public docket for this 
notice. Comments and material received from the public will become part 
of this docket and will be available for inspection or copying in Room 
PL-401 on the Plaza level of the Nassif Building, 400 Seventh Street, 
SW., Washington, DC, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 
except Federal holidays. This docket may also be found on the Internet 
at http://dms.dot.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If you have questions on the 
application, this notice, or the meetings, or if you want to be 
notified when the draft and final environmental impact statements 
become available, contact Lieutenant Ken Kusano, U.S. Coast Guard, at 
(202) 267-1184 or e-mail at [email protected]. If you have 
questions regarding the National Environmental Policy Act (``NEPA'') 
process, contact Joan Lang, at (202) 267-2498 or e-mail at 
[email protected]. If you have questions on viewing or submitting 
material to the docket, call Andrea M. Jenkins, Program Manager, Docket 
Operations, telephone (202) 366-0271.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Scoping Meetings and Request for Comments

    We seek public review of and comment on this license application, 
particularly with respect to the environmental review discussed in this 
notice. Public input on environmental concerns related to the 
application, suggested sources of relevant data, and suggested methods 
for environmental analysis are especially welcome.
    The Coast Guard will hold informational open houses and scoping 
meetings for interested members of the public, as described under DATES 
and ADDRESSES. Meeting facilities are wheelchair accessible. If you 
need other special assistance in order to participate in these sessions 
(for example, sign language interpretation), please contact the person 
named in FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT, and we will try to make 
reasonable accommodation for your needs. We ask that you make such 
requests at least three (3) business days before the scheduled meeting. 
Include a contact person's name and telephone number, your specific 
need, and (for persons with hearing impairments) a TDD number.
    If you submit comments or related material to the docket (see DATES 
and ADDRESSES), please make your comment as specific as possible and 
give us the reasons for each comment. If you mail or hand-deliver 
printed documents, please submit them unbound and in a format suitable 
for copying and electronic filing, no larger than 8\1/2\ by 11 inches. 
If you submit comments or material by mail and want confirmation that 
it has reached the facility, please enclose a stamped, self-addressed 
postcard or envelope. We will consider all comments and material 
received during the comment period. All comments received will be 
posted, without change, to http://dms.dot.gov/ and will include any 
personal information you have provided.

[[Page 50396]]

    Anyone can search the electronic form of all comments received into 
any of the Department of Transportation (``DOT'') dockets by the name 
of the individual submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if 
submitted on behalf of an association, business, labor union, etc.). 
You may review the Department of Transportation's Privacy Act Statement 
in the Federal Register published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477), or 
you may visit http://dms.dot.gov/.

Environmental Review

    Deepwater ports for the transportation, storage, or further 
handling of oil, liquefied natural gas (``LNG'') or natural gas must be 
licensed in accordance with the Deepwater Port Act of 1974, as amended, 
33 United States Code (U.S.C.) 1501 et seq. (``the Act''). The Coast 
Guard and MARAD jointly process applications for deepwater port 
licenses. A notice of application for the Pearl Crossing LNG Terminal 
liquefied natural gas deepwater port was published in the Federal 
Register on July 21, 2004 (69 FR 43618). That notice contains a fuller 
description of the proposed deepwater port. The application, including 
environmental documentation provided by the applicant, is available in 
the public docket. The approximately 64-mile (103 kilometers) onshore 
portion of this pipeline beyond the mean high water line falls under 
the jurisdiction of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (``FERC'') 
and must receive a separate authorization from FERC. As required by 
their regulations, FERC will also maintain a docket. Comments sent to 
the FERC docket will be incorporated into the DOT docket and EIS to 
ensure consistency with the NEPA process. Additional information about 
the onshore segment of the project is available on the FERC Internet 
Web site (http://www.ferc.gov) using the eLibrary link. Click on the 
eLibrary link, click on ``General Search'' and enter the docket number 
excluding the last three digits in the Docket Number field (e.g., CP04-
374-000, CP04-375-000 and CP04-376-000). Be sure you have selected an 
appropriate date range. For assistance with eLibrary, the eLibrary 
helpline can be reached at 1-866-208-3676, TTY (202) 502-8659, or email 
FERC Online Support at [email protected].
    As required by their regulations the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 
(``ACOE'') will maintain a permit file. Comments sent to the ACOE will 
be incorporated into the DOT docket and the EIS to ensure consistency 
with the NEPA process.
    In addition to analyzing the locations for the siting of the Port, 
this EIS will also analyze six potential locations for the construction 
of the coastal graving dock site to build the gravity-based, deepwater 
port structure. The site locations are: Freeport Site, Freeport, Texas; 
Kiewit Site, Ingleside, Texas; Welder Site, Ingleside, Texas; McDermott 
Site, Harbor Island, Texas; Zachary Site, Harbor Island, Texas; and 
Campamento Fabrication Facility Site, Algeciras, Spain. The graving 
dock site will be at least 75 acres (30 hectares) in size. The 
Campamento Fabrication Facility Site is a previously developed site. 
For construction of any of the other proposed graving docks, the 
applicant proposes to excavate a basin large enough to accommodate the 
590 feet (180 meters) long by 295 feet (90 meters) wide deepwater port 
structure and construct offices, utilities, roads, a concrete batch 
plant, and other fabrication infrastructure.
    The Act establishes a licensing process for proposed deepwater 
ports, and that process includes review of the proposed port's natural 
and human environmental impacts. Consistent with the Act, this 
environmental review must comply with the National Environmental Policy 
Act of 1969, 42 U.S.C. 4332, and with the following authorities: Coast 
Guard regulations in 33 Code of Federation Regulations (``CFR'') part 
148, Council on Environmental Quality regulations in 40 CFR parts 1500-
1508, DOT Order 5610.1C (Procedures for Considering Environmental 
Impacts), and Coast Guard Commandant's Instruction (``COMDTINST'') 
M16475.1D. Environmental review includes public involvement, and 
consultation with States deemed adjacent to the proposed port (in this 
case, Louisiana). The Coast Guard is the lead agency for determining 
the required scope of environmental review, and in this case the Coast 
Guard has determined that an EIS must be prepared. The EIS is a Coast 
Guard document with several agencies, including the ACOE and FERC, 
acting as cooperating agencies in the NEPA process as described by 40 
CFR 1501.6. The Coast Guard is the lead Federal agency in the 
preparation of the EIS for the LNG terminal, graving dock facility, and 
the offshore pipeline. The joint document will satisfy the requirements 
of the Act. The ACOE will assist in the preparation of the EIS for 
permits pursuant to Section 10 of the River and Harbor Act of 1899 (33 
U.S.C. 403) and Section 404 of the Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. 1344). 
FERC will assist in the preparation of the EIS for approximately 0.5 
mile of offshore pipelines and the approximately 64-mile-long (103 
kilometers) onshore pipeline. Even though an affiliate of Pearl 
Crossing LNG Terminal LLC must separately apply for and receive an 
authorization from FERC for the onshore pipeline, and from the ACOE for 
appropriate Section 10 and 404 permits, this EIS will assess the 
environmental impacts of both the onshore and offshore portions of the 
project. We have consulted with FERC and understand that the affiliate 
applied to FERC for onshore pipeline authorization under Docket Number 
CP04-374-000, CP04-375-000 and CP04-376-000. Therefore, we are 
publishing the notice of intent described in 40 CFR 1508.22, to 
announce our intention to prepare and consider an EIS, and to describe 
our proposed action and possible alternatives, describe the scoping 
process required by 40 CFR 1501.7, and provide contact information. All 
comments related to this project, including the onshore pipeline and 
ACOE permits, may be submitted in accordance with the guidance under 
ADDRESSES. Contact information is provided above, under FOR FURTHER 
INFORMATION CONTACT.
    The proposed action requiring environmental review is the Federal 
licensing of the Pearl Crossing LNG Terminal LLC deepwater port 
application. The alternatives to licensing approval are licensing with 
conditions (including conditions designed to mitigate environmental 
impact), and denying the application, which for purposes of 
environmental review is the ``no-action'' alternative.
    Public scoping is an early and open process for determining the 
scope of issues to be addressed in an EIS and for identifying the 
significant issues related to a proposed action. The scoping process 
begins with publication of this notice, extends through the public 
comment period (see DATES), and ends when the Coast Guard completes the 
following actions:
     Invites the participation of Federal, State, and Local 
agencies, any affected Indian tribe, the applicant and other interested 
persons;
     Determines the actions, alternatives and impacts described 
in 40 CFR 1508.25;
     Identifies and eliminates from detailed study those issues 
that are not significant or that have been covered elsewhere;
     Allocates responsibility for preparing EIS components;
     Indicates any related environmental assessments or 
environmental impact statements that are not part of the EIS;

[[Page 50397]]

     Identifies other relevant environmental review and 
consultation requirements;
     Indicates the relationship between timing of the 
environmental review and other aspects of the application process; and,
    * At its discretion, exercises options provided in 40 CFR 
1501.7 (b).
    Once the scoping process is complete, the Coast Guard will prepare 
a draft EIS, and we will publish a Federal Register notice announcing 
its public availability. If you want to be mailed or emailed the draft 
EIS notice of availability, please contact the person named in FOR 
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT. We will provide the public with an 
opportunity to review and comment on the draft EIS. After the Coast 
Guard considers those comments, we will prepare the final EIS and 
similarly announce its availability and solicit public review and 
comment.

    Dated: August 9, 2004.
Howard L. Hime,
Acting Director of Standards, Marine Safety, Security, and 
Environmental Protection, U.S. Coast Guard.
H. Keith Lesnick,
Senior Transportation Specialist, Deepwater Ports Program Manager, U.S. 
Maritime Administration.
[FR Doc. 04-18590 Filed 8-13-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-15-P