[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 243 (Monday, December 19, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 78636-78638]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-32376]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. CP11-481-000]


Southern Star Central Gas Pipeline, Inc.; Supplemental Notice of 
Intent To Prepare an Environmental Assessment for the Proposed Alden 
Gas Storage Field Expansion Project and Request for Comments On 
Environmental Issues

    As previously noticed on July 8, 2011, and supplemented herein, the 
staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or Commission) 
will prepare an environmental assessment (EA) that will discuss the 
environmental impacts of the Alden Gas Storage Field Expansion Project, 
involving the expansion of the certificated boundary and buffer zone of 
the existing Alden Gas Storage Field by Southern Star Central Gas 
Pipeline, Inc. (Southern Star) in Rice County, Kansas. This EA will be 
used by the Commission in its decision-making process to determine 
whether the project is in the public convenience and necessity.
    This Supplemental Notice of Intent announces the opening of a 
limited scoping period the Commission will use to gather input from the 
public and interested agencies on the project. Your input will help the 
Commission staff determine what issues need to be evaluated in the EA. 
Details on how to submit written comments are provided in the Public 
Participation section of this notice. Please note that the limited 
scoping period will close on January 13, 2012.
    This notice is being sent to the Commission's current environmental 
mailing list for this project. State and local government 
representatives are asked to notify their constituents of this project 
and encourage them to comment on their areas of concern.
    If you are a landowner or owner of mineral rights receiving this 
notice, you may be contacted by a storage company representative about 
the acquisition of mineral rights and an easement to convert, operate, 
and maintain the proposed facilities. The company would seek to 
negotiate a mutually acceptable agreement. However, if the project is 
approved by the Commission, that approval conveys with it the right of 
eminent domain. Therefore, if negotiations to obtain an easement or 
mineral rights fail to produce an agreement, the company could initiate 
condemnation proceedings where compensation would be determined in 
accordance with state or federal law.
    A fact sheet prepared by the FERC entitled ``An Interstate Natural 
Gas Facility On My Land? What Do I Need To Know?'' was attached to the 
project notice Southern Star provided to landowners and owners of 
mineral rights. This fact sheet addresses a number of typically-asked 
questions, including the use of eminent domain and how to participate 
in the Commission's proceedings. It is also available for viewing on 
the FERC Web site (www.ferc.gov).

Summary of the Proposed Project

    Southern Star requests authorization to expand its existing 
certificated boundary and buffer zone of its existing Alden Gas Storage 
Field located in Rice County, Kansas to ensure the field's integrity 
and protection. The certified storage boundary/buffer currently 
encompasses 3,540 acres and operates with a maximum storage capacity of 
14.7 billion cubic feet (Bcf) with a working capacity of 4.2 Bcf. 
Southern Star states it will attempt to acquire all mineral rights from 
the base of the

[[Page 78637]]

Kansas City Limestone to the top of the Arbuckle Limestone in this area 
to prevent any further production that could compromise the integrity 
of the Alden Storage Field.
    Southern Star proposes to expand the storage field boundary and 
buffer zone by an additional 1,592 acres for its storage reservoir in 
the Misener Sandstone and to acquire gas storage rights and related 
mineral rights in the Simpson Sandstone for 2,480 acres, which is below 
the Misener Sandstone. About 1,680 acres of the 2,480 acres in the 
Simpson Sandstone is within the currently certificated boundary of the 
Alden Storage Field. The total acreage affected by the requested 
authorizations is 3,272 acres.
    Southern Star also requests to convert two active oil/gas 
production wells within the planned expansion acreage, called the Rama 
Wellman 1 Well and the Langston Wellman Ranch 2 Well, 
into pressure observation wells. Southern Star states that the 
conversion of these production wells to observation wells is necessary 
because the wells are currently producing gas from its Alden Storage 
Field. Southern Star would also remove two existing tank battery 
facilities dedicated to each of the production wells. Southern Star's 
proposal would not change the current operational parameters or 
capabilities of the storage field.
    Pursuant to its blanket certificate, within 6 months of the receipt 
of the authority requested, Southern Star would install a small 
compressor unit of less than 50 horsepower and construct about 0.75 
mile of 4-inch-diameter pipeline parallel to an existing Southern Star 
16-inch-diameter pipeline to recover storage gas from the Simpson 
formation through an existing well, called the O-5 well, which would 
function as a gas recovery well to recycle gas back to the Misener 
reservoir.
    Within a year of receiving the authorizations requested, Southern 
Star would drill an observation well within the current boundaries of 
the northeast section of the Alden Storage Field in the Simpson 
Sandstone to monitor for storage gas migration. The location of this 
new observation well would be at the structural high in the Simpson 
formation, but the exact location has not yet been determined. Southern 
Star would obtain the required environmental clearances for this 
observation well and file a 30-day advance notice with the Commission 
in accordance with section 2.55(a)(2)(ii) of the Commission's 
regulations.
    The general location of the project area is shown in appendix 1.\1\
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    \1\ The appendices referenced in this notice will not appear in 
the Federal Register. Copies of appendices were sent to all those 
receiving this notice in the mail and are available at www.ferc.gov 
using the link called ``eLibrary'' or from the Commission's Public 
Reference Room, 888 First Street NE., Washington, DC 20426, or call 
(202) 502-8371. For instructions on connecting to eLibrary, refer to 
the last page of this notice.
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Land Requirements for Construction

    Construction of the Rama Wellman 1 Well would disturb 
about 0.9 acre of land including the temporary workspaces and access 
road for the well conversion and to remove associated tank battery 
facilities. Construction of the proposed Langston Wellman Ranch 
2 Well would disturb about 2.3 acres of land that includes the 
temporary workspaces and an access road for this well conversion and to 
remove tank battery facilities. Following construction, about 0.3 acre 
would be maintained for permanent operation of each of the observation 
wells; the remaining acreage would be restored and allowed to revert to 
former uses. Permanent access roads at each observation well are 
proposed.

The EA Process

    The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires the 
Commission to take into account the environmental impacts that could 
result from an action whenever it considers the issuance of a 
Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity. NEPA also requires us 
\2\ to discover and address concerns the public may have about 
proposals. This process is referred to as ``scoping''. The main goal of 
the scoping process is to focus the analysis in the EA on the important 
environmental issues. By this notice, the Commission requests public 
comments on the scope of the issues to address in the EA. All comments 
received will be considered during the preparation of the EA.
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    \2\ ``We,'' ``us,'' and ``our'' refer to the environmental staff 
of the Commission's Office of Energy Projects.
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    In the EA, we will discuss impacts that could occur as a result of 
the removal, coversion, and operation of those facilities related to 
the proposed expansion of the storage field boundary and buffer zone 
under these general headings:
     Geology and soils;
     Land use;
     Water resources, fisheries, and wetlands;
     Cultural resources;
     Vegetation and wildlife;
     Air quality and noise;
     Endangered and threatened species; and
     Public safety.
    We will also evaluate reasonable alternatives to the proposed 
project or portions of the project, and make recommendations on how to 
lessen or avoid impacts on the various resource areas.
    The EA will present our independent analysis of the issues. The EA 
will be available in the public record through eLibrary. Depending on 
the comments received during the scoping process, we may also publish 
and distribute the EA to the public for an allotted comment period. We 
will consider all comments on the EA before making our recommendations 
to the Commission. To ensure we have the opportunity to consider and 
address your comments, please carefully follow the instructions in the 
Public Participation section beginning on page 5.
    With this notice, we are asking agencies with jurisdiction by law 
and/or special expertise with respect to the environmental issues of 
this project to formally cooperate with us in the preparation of the 
EA.\3\ Agencies that would like to request cooperating agency status 
should follow the instructions for filing comments provided under the 
Public Participation section of this notice.
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    \3\ The Council on Environmental Quality regulations addressing 
cooperating agency responsibilities are at Title 40, Code of Federal 
Regulations, Sec.  1501.6.
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Consultations Under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation 
Act

    In accordance with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation's 
implementing regulations for section 106 of the National Historic 
Preservation Act, we are using this notice to initiate consultation 
with the Kansas State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), and to 
solicit its views and those of other government agencies, interested 
Indian tribes, and the public on the project's potential effects on 
historic properties.\4\ We will define the project-specific Area of 
Potential Effects (APE) in consultation with the SHPO as the project is 
further developed. On natural gas facility projects, the APE at a 
minimum encompasses all areas subject to ground disturbance (examples 
include construction right-of-way, contractor/pipe storage yards, 
compressor stations, and access roads). Our EA for this project will 
document our findings on the impacts on historic

[[Page 78638]]

properties and summarize the status of consultations under section 106.
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    \4\ The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation's regulations 
are at Title 36 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 800. Those 
regulations define historic properties as any prehistoric or 
historic district, site, building, structure, or object included in 
or eligible for inclusion in the National Register for Historic 
Places.
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Public Participation

    You can make a difference by providing us with your specific 
comments or concerns about the project. Your comments should focus on 
the potential environmental effects, reasonable alternatives, and 
measures to avoid or lessen environmental impacts. The more specific 
your comments, the more useful they will be. To ensure that your 
comments are timely and properly recorded, please send them so that the 
Commission receives them in Washington, DC on or before January 13, 
2012.
    For your convenience, there are three methods which you can use to 
submit your comments to the Commission. In all instances please 
reference the project docket number (CP11-481-000) with your 
submission. The Commission encourages electronic filing of comments and 
has expert eFiling staff available to assist you at (202) 502-8258 or 
[email protected].
    (1) You can file your comments electronically using the eComment 
feature on the Commission's Web site at www.ferc.gov under the link to 
Documents and Filings. This is an easy method for interested persons to 
submit brief, text-only comments on a project;
    (2) You can file your comments electronically by using the eFiling 
feature on the Commission's Web site at www.ferc.gov under the link to 
Documents and Filings. With eFiling you can provide comments in a 
variety of formats by attaching them as a file with your submission. 
New eFiling users must first create an account by clicking on 
``eRegister.'' You must select the type of filing you are making. If 
you are filing a comment on a particular project, please select 
``Comment on a Filing''; or
    (3) You can file a paper copy of your comments by mailing them to 
the following address: Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary, Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE., Room 1A, Washington, DC 
20426.

Environmental Mailing List

    The environmental mailing list includes federal, state, and local 
government representatives and agencies; elected officials; 
environmental and public interest groups; Native American Tribes; other 
interested parties; and local libraries and newspapers. This list also 
includes all affected landowners (as defined in the Commission's 
regulations) who are potential right-of-way grantors, whose property or 
mineral rights may be used permanently or temporarily for project 
purposes, and anyone who submits comments on the project. We will 
update the environmental mailing list as the analysis proceeds to 
ensure that we send the information related to this environmental 
review to all individuals, organizations, and government entities 
interested in and/or potentially affected by the proposed project.
    If we publish and distribute the EA, copies will be sent to the 
environmental mailing list for public review and comment. If you would 
prefer to receive a paper copy of the document instead of the CD 
version or would like to remove your name from the mailing list, please 
return the attached Information Request (appendix 2).

Becoming an Intervenor

    In addition to involvement in the EA scoping process, you may want 
to become an ``intervenor'' which is an official party to the 
Commission's proceeding. Intervenors play a more formal role in the 
process and are able to file briefs, appear at hearings, and be heard 
by the courts if they choose to appeal the Commission's final ruling. 
An intervenor formally participates in the proceeding by filing a 
request to intervene. Instructions for becoming an intervenor are in 
the User's Guide under the ``e-filing'' link on the Commission's Web 
site.

Additional Information

    Additional information about the project is available from the 
Commission's Office of External Affairs at (866) 208-FERC, or on the 
FERC Web site at 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 (i.e., CP11-
481). Be sure you have selected an appropriate date range. For 
assistance, please contact FERC Online Support at 
[email protected] or toll free at (866) 208-3676, or for TTY, 
contact (202) 502-8659. The eLibrary link also provides access to the 
texts of formal documents issued by the Commission, such as orders, 
notices, and rulemakings.
    In addition, the Commission offers a free service called 
eSubscription which allows you to keep track of all formal issuances 
and submittals in specific dockets. This can reduce the amount of time 
you spend researching proceedings by automatically providing you with 
notification of these filings, document summaries, and direct links to 
the documents. Go to www.ferc.gov/esubscribenow.htm.
    Any public meetings or additional site visits will be posted on the 
Commission's calendar located at www.ferc.gov/EventCalendar/EventsList.aspx along with other related information.

    Dated: December 9, 2011.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2011-32376 Filed 12-16-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P