[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 49 (Friday, March 13, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 13366-13369]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-05691]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. PF14-21-000]


Alaska Gasline Development Corporation; BP Alaska LNG, LLC; 
Conoco Phillips Alaska LNG Company; ExxonMobil Alaska LNG, LLC; 
TransCanada Alaska Midstream, LP; Notice of Intent To Prepare an 
Environmental Impact Statement for the Planned Alaska Lng Project and 
Request for Comments on Environmental Issues

    The staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or 
Commission) will prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) that 
will discuss the environmental impacts of the Alaska LNG Project 
involving construction and operation of facilities by Alaska Gasline 
Development Corporation; BP Alaska LNG, LLC; Conoco Phillips Alaska LNG 
Company; ExxonMobil Alaska LNG, LLC; and TransCanada Alaska Midstream, 
LP (Applicants) in Alaska. The Commission will use this EIS in its 
decision-making process to determine whether the project is in the 
public convenience and necessity.
    This notice announces the opening of the scoping process the 
Commission and its cooperating agencies will use to gather input from 
the public and interested agencies on the project. Your input will help 
the Commission staff determine what issues they need to evaluate in the 
EIS. Understanding that affected stakeholders may include communities 
that depend on seasonal subsistence activities, the scoping period will 
remain open for an extended period, closing on December 4, 2015. This 
is not your only public input opportunity; please refer to the 
Environmental Review Process flow chart in attachment 1.
    You may submit comments in written form or verbally. Further 
details on how to submit written comments are in the Public 
Participation section of this notice. In lieu of or in addition to 
sending written comments, the Commission invites you to attend the 
public scoping meetings to provide verbal and/or written comments on 
the project.
    A schedule of the public scoping meeting dates, locations, and 
times will be issued in a separate notice at least one month prior to 
the date of the meetings.
    This notice is being sent to the Commission's current environmental 
mailing list for this project. The environmental mailing list includes 
potentially affected landowners (crossed by or adjacent to the project 
route); landowners within 0.5 mile of compressor station sites, the gas 
treatment plant (GTP), and the liquefaction terminal; federal, state, 
and local government agencies; elected officials; environmental and 
public interest groups; Alaska Native tribes; local libraries and 
newspapers; and other interested parties. State, local, and tribal 
government representatives are asked to notify their constituents of 
this planned project and encourage them to comment on their areas of 
concern.
    A fact sheet prepared by the FERC entitled ``An Interstate Natural 
Gas Facility On My Land? What Do I Need To Know?'' is available for 
viewing on the FERC Web site (www.ferc.gov). 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.

[[Page 13367]]

Summary of the Planned Project

    The Applicants plan to develop, construct, and operate facilities 
that would commercialize the natural gas resources on Alaska's North 
Slope.
    The Alaska LNG Project would consist of the following major 
facilities, associated ancillary facilities would also be needed:
    GTP/Associated Pipelines:
     Three parallel treatment systems (trains) with a capacity 
up to 4.3 billion cubic feet per day;
     a 1-mile-long, large diameter aboveground pipeline to 
transport gas from the existing central gas facility to the GTP;
     a 60-mile-long 30-inch-diameter pipeline to transport gas 
from the Point Thomson Unit to the GTP;
     Prudhoe Bay Unit improvements to the West Dock loading and 
unloading facilities; and
     water reservoir, pump facilities, and a transfer line to 
provide water to the GTP.
    Mainline facilities include:
     About 800 miles of 42-inch-diameter pipeline from the 
planned GTP to the planned liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Nikiski 
Alaska; and
     Eight natural gas driven compressor stations, four custody 
transfer meter stations, multiple pig launching/receiving \1\ stations, 
heater stations, cathodic protection facilities; and mainline block 
valves.
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    \1\ A pipeline ``pig'' is an internal device to clean or inspect 
the pipeline. A pig launcher/receiver is an aboveground facility 
where pigs are inserted into or retrieved from the pipeline.
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    LNG Liquefaction Facilities include:
     Marine terminal facilities;
     three liquefaction trains capable of liquefying 20 million 
tons per year of LNG; and
     three 160,000 cubic meter storage tanks.
    A number of support facilities that are not under FERC jurisdiction 
would also be undertaken to complete and operate the FERC 
jurisdictional facilities. These include:
     Updates to existing transportation infrastructure;
     gravel quarries; and
     construction camps.
    The planned Alaska LNG Project would start at the GTP and generally 
follow the existing Trans-Alaska Pipeline System crude oil pipeline 
(TAPS) and adjacent highways south to Livengood, Alaska. From 
Livengood, the mainline would diverge from TAPS and generally head 
south-southwest to Trapper Creek following the Parks Highway and Beluga 
Highway. Then the project turns south-southeast around Viapan Lake. 
Finally, it crosses the Cook Inlet in the vicinity of Shorty Creek to 
Boulder Point on the Kenai Peninsula. A map depicting the general 
location of project facilities is included as attachment 2.\2\
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    \2\ Attachments 1 (Process Flow Chart), 2 (General Location 
Map), and 3 (Mailing List/Environmental Document Request Form) are 
not being printed in the Federal Register. Copies are available on 
the Commission's Web site (www.ferc.gov) at the ``eLibrary'' link or 
from the Commission's Public Reference Room at 202-502-8371. For 
instructions on connecting to eLibrary, refer to the ``Availability 
of Additional Information'' section at the end of this notice. The 
General Project Map and Mailing List/Environmental Document Request 
Form were sent to all those receiving this notice in the mail.
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    The Applicants anticipate starting construction in 2018 or early 
2019, with construction and startup taking approximately seven years. 
On this basis, the planned project system would be placed into service 
about 2025-2026.

Land Requirements for Construction

    The planned Alaska LNG Project facilities current design includes 
about 30,000 acres of land that would be temporarily impacted during 
construction, with about half of those acres within the permanent (or 
operational) right-of-way.

The EIS 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 an 
Authorization under Section 3 of the Natural Gas Act. NEPA also 
requires us \3\ to identify 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 EIS on 
important environmental issues. By this notice, the Commission requests 
public comments on the scope of the issues to be addressed in the EIS. 
All comments received during the scoping period will be considered 
during the preparation of the EIS.
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    \3\ ``We,'' ``us,'' and ``our'' refer to the environmental staff 
of the FERC's Office of Energy Projects.
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    In the EIS, we will discuss impacts that could occur as a result of 
the construction and operation of the planned project under the 
following general headings:
     Geology and soils;
     water resources, fisheries, and wetlands;
     vegetation and wildlife;
     endangered and threatened species;
     cultural resources;
     socioeconomics and subsistence;
     land use, recreation, and visual resources;
     air quality and noise;
     public health and safety; and
     cumulative impacts.
    We will also evaluate possible alternatives to the planned project 
or portions of the project, and make recommendations on how to lessen 
or avoid impacts on the various resources.
    Although no formal application has been filed, we have already 
initiated our NEPA review under the FERC's pre-filing process.\4\ The 
purpose of the pre-filing process is to encourage early involvement of 
interested stakeholders and to identify and resolve issues before an 
application is filed with the FERC. As part of our pre-filing review, 
we have already started to meet with the Applicants, jurisdictional 
agencies, Alaska Native tribes, local officials, and other interested 
stakeholders to discuss the project and identify issues/impacts and 
concerns before the FERC receives an application. In addition, with 
this NOI, we are formally initiating government-to-government 
consultation with federally-recognized Alaska Native tribes.
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    \4\ The FERC granted the Applicants' request to begin the pre-
filing process on September 12, 2014.
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    We participated in 14 public open house meetings in Alaska hosted 
by the Applicants in October 2014 through January 2015. Additionally, 
we have begun meeting with interested state and federal agencies to 
discuss their possible involvement in the scoping process and the 
preparation of the EIS.
    Our independent analysis of the issues will be presented in the 
EIS. The draft EIS will be published and distributed for a 45-day 
public review and comment period. We will consider all timely comments 
and revise the document, as necessary, before issuing a final EIS. To 
ensure your comments are considered, please carefully follow the 
instructions in the Public Participation section of this notice.
    With this notice, we are asking agencies with jurisdiction and/or 
state-wide special expertise with respect to environmental issues to 
formally cooperate with us in the preparation of the EIS. Cooperating 
agencies will be expected to provide project-wide perspectives on 
environmental issues. These agencies may choose to participate once 
they have evaluated the proposal relative to their responsibilities. 
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.
    The FERC is the lead federal agency in preparing the EIS to satisfy 
the requirements of NEPA. In accordance

[[Page 13368]]

with the 2004 Interagency Agreement on the safety and security review 
of waterfront import/export LNG facilities, the U.S. Coast Guard and 
U.S. Department of Transportation will participate as cooperating 
agencies. Further, under our 2002 Memorandum of Understanding \5\ with 
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE), U.S. Bureau of Land Management 
(BLM), and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), these permitting agencies 
will participate as cooperating agencies in the preparation of the EIS 
to satisfy their NEPA responsibilities.
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    \5\ The Interagency Agreement on Early Coordination of Required 
Environmental and Historic Preservation Reviews Conducted in 
Conjunction with the Issuance of Authorizations to Construct and 
Operate Interstate Natural Gas Pipelines Certificated by the Federal 
Energy Regulatory Commission was put into place in May of 2002.
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    The COE has jurisdictional authority pursuant to Section 404 of the 
Clean Water Act, which governs the discharge of dredged or fill 
material into waters of the United States, and Section 10 of the Rivers 
and Harbors Act, which regulates any work or structures that 
potentially affect the navigability of a waterway.
    Under Section 3 of the Natural Gas Act, Title 15 of the U.S. Code, 
Part 717b, the DOE would authorize the export of natural gas, including 
LNG, to countries with which the United States has not entered into a 
free trade agreement requiring national treatment for trade in natural 
gas, unless it finds that the proposed export will not be consistent 
with the public interest. For the Project, the purpose and need for 
DOE's action is to respond to the Alaska LNG application, filed with 
DOE on July 18, 2014 (FE Docket No. 14-96-LNG) seeking authorization to 
export domestic natural gas as LNG for a 30-year term commencing the 
earlier of the date of first export or 12 years from the date that the 
requested authorization is granted. DOE's authorization of the Alaska 
LNG application would allow the export of LNG to any country with the 
capacity to import LNG and with which trade is not prohibited by U.S. 
law or policy.
    The BLM must issue a permit because the project would cross 
federally administered lands in Alaska. As a cooperating agency, the 
BLM would adopt the EIS per Title 40 of the Code of Federal 
Regulations, Part 1506.3 to meet its responsibilities under NEPA 
regarding the Applicants' application for a Right-of-Way Grant and 
Temporary Use Permit for crossing federally administered lands. Impacts 
on resources and programs, and the proposed project's conformance with 
land use plans, will be considered in the BLM's decision.

Currently Identified Environmental Issues

    We have already identified a number of issues that we think deserve 
attention based on the public open houses, interagency meetings, and 
our review of the information provided by the Applicants. This 
preliminary list of issues may be changed based on your comments and 
our analysis.
 Permafrost, Soils, and Reclamation
--Construction limitations and slope stabilization in steep terrain and 
permafrost.
--Potential for problematic reclamation due to poor soils and 
permafrost conditions.
--Material, design, and operations and maintenance procedures/
specifications for permafrost and subsidence locations for installation 
and on-going future maintenance and integrity management.
--Potential for introduction or spread of invasive and/or noxious 
species of vegetation during and after construction.
 Cultural Resources
--Impacts on traditional Alaska Native culture, historic sites, and 
landscapes.
 Water Resources and Wetlands
--Effects of construction and operation on waterbodies and wetlands.
--Effects of dredging, dock construction, and dumping dredged material 
into ocean waters.
 Fish, Wildlife, Vegetation, and Sensitive Species
--Effects of project construction on fish and wildlife and their 
habitat, including federally listed threatened and endangered species, 
marine mammals, migratory birds, and big game species.
--Effects of water depletion from hydrostatic test water withdrawals 
and ice road construction.
 Seismic Activity and Geohazards
--Pipeline and facility design in seismically active areas.
--Construction in geohazard areas.
 Land Use, Recreation, and Special Interest Areas
--Impacts on potential wilderness areas.
--Impacts on existing conservation system units (e.g., Denali National 
Park).
--Private land crossings.
--Impacts on recreation (e.g., fishing, hunting, boating, camping, 
hiking, skiing, mushing, and snowmachining).
 Socioeconomics
--Effects of construction workforce demands on public services and 
temporary housing.
--Economic impacts on local communities.
--Environmental Justice.
 Subsistence and Public Health
--Effects of construction and operation on fish, wildlife, marine 
mammal, and plant species used for subsistence.
--Impacts on access to subsistence resources.
--Health impacts on local communities.
 Air Quality and Noise
 Reliability and Safety
 Cumulative Impacts

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 applicable State Historic Preservation Office(s) (SHPO), and to 
solicit their views and those of other government agencies, interested 
Indian tribes, and the public on the project's potential effects on 
historic properties.\6\ We will define the project-specific Area of 
Potential Effects (APE) in consultation with the SHPO as the project 
develops. 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 EIS for this project will document our 
findings on the impacts on historic properties and summarize the status 
of consultations under section 106.
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    \6\ The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation regulations 
are at Title 36, 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 of 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

[[Page 13369]]

recorded, please send your comments so that the Commission receives 
them in Washington, DC on or before December 4, 2015. This is not your 
only public input opportunity; please refer to the Environmental Review 
Process flowchart in attachment 1.
    For your convenience, there are three methods you can use to submit 
your comments to the Commission. In all instances, please reference the 
project docket number (PF14-21-000) with your submission. The 
Commission encourages electronic filing of comments and has expert 
staff available to assist you at (202) 502-8258 or [email protected].
    (1) You can file your comments electronically using the eComment 
feature located on the Commission's Web site (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 using the eFiling 
feature located on the Commission's Web site (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.
    In addition to the methods listed above, we will also hold public 
scoping meetings and mail notices to our environmental mailing list 
identifying the date, time, and locations of these meetings later this 
year.

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 
may be used temporarily for project purposes, or who own homes within 
certain distances of aboveground facilities, 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 
planned project.
    Copies of the completed draft EIS 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 (attachment 3).

Becoming an Intervenor

    Once the Applicants file its application with the Commission, 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. Please note that the Commission will not accept requests for 
intervenor status at this time. You must wait until the Commission 
receives a formal application for the project.

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 (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., PF14-
21). 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/docs-filing/esubscription.asp.
    Further, public meetings or site visits will be posted on the 
Commission's calendar located at www.ferc.gov/EventCalendar/EventsList.aspx along with other related information. Finally, 
additional information about the project can be seen from the 
Applicant's Web site at http://ak-lng.com.

    Dated: March 4, 2015.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2015-05691 Filed 3-12-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P