[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 242 (Tuesday, December 19, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60190-60193]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-27223]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. CP18-11-000]


East Cheyenne Gas Storage, LLC; Notice of Intent To Prepare an 
Environmental Assessment for the Proposed Lewis Creek Amendment Project 
and Request for Comments on Environmental Issues

    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 Lewis Creek Amendment Project 
(Project). The Commission will use this EA in its decision-making 
process to

[[Page 60191]]

determine whether the project is in the public convenience and 
necessity. East Cheyenne Gas Storage, LLC (East Cheyenne) is seeking 
authorization to amend the certificate previously issued in FERC Docket 
No. CP10-34-000 for the East Cheyenne Gas Storage Project in Logan 
County, Colorado. Specifically East Cheyenne seeks authorization to 
combine the working gas capacity and cushion gas capacity for the West 
Peetz and Lewis Creek Storage Fields and utilize the same maximum 
bottom-hole pressure, thus eliminating separately certified capacities 
for each field. East Cheyenne requests this amendment because recent 
(updated) geologic information shows that the West Peetz and Lewis 
Creek D-sands in the storage field are a single integrated reservoir. 
As part of this consolidation, East Cheyenne would reconfigure certain 
natural gas facilities in the Lewis Creek portion of the Project; and 
expand the buffer zone of the Project.
    This notice announces the opening of the scoping process the 
Commission will use to gather input from the public and interested 
agencies on the project. 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. 
Your input will help the Commission staff determine what issues they 
need to evaluate in the EA. To ensure that your comments are timely and 
properly recorded, please send your comments so that the Commission 
receives them in Washington, DC on or before January 8, 2018.
    If you sent comments on this project to the Commission before the 
opening of this docket on October 27, 2017, you will need to file those 
comments in Docket No. CP18-11-000 to ensure they are considered as 
part of this proceeding.
    This notice is being sent to the Commission's current environmental 
mailing list for this project. State and local government 
representatives should notify their constituents of this proposed 
project and encourage them to comment on their areas of concern.
    If you are a landowner receiving this notice, a pipeline company 
representative may contact you about the acquisition of an easement to 
construct, operate, and maintain the proposed facilities. The company 
would seek to negotiate a mutually acceptable agreement. However, if 
the Commission approves the project, that approval conveys with it the 
right of eminent domain. Therefore, if easement negotiations fail to 
produce an agreement, the pipeline company could initiate condemnation 
proceedings where compensation would be determined in accordance with 
state law.
    East Cheyenne provided landowners with a fact sheet prepared by the 
FERC entitled An Interstate Natural Gas Facility On My Land? What Do I 
Need To Know? 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 website (www.ferc.gov).

Public Participation

    For your convenience, there are three methods you can use to submit 
your comments to the Commission. The Commission encourages electronic 
filing of comments and has expert staff available to assist you at 
(202) 502-8258 or [email protected]. Please carefully follow 
these instructions so that your comments are properly recorded.
    (1) You can file your comments electronically using the eComment 
feature on the Commission's website (www.ferc.gov) under the link to 
Documents and Filings. This is an easy method for submitting brief, 
text-only comments on a project;
    (2) You can file your comments electronically by using the eFiling 
feature on the Commission's website (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. If you are filing a comment on a particular project, please 
select ``Comment on a Filing'' as the filing type; or
    (3) You can file a paper copy of your comments by mailing them to 
the following address. Be sure to reference the project docket number 
(CP18-11-000) with your submission: Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary, 
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE, Room 1A, 
Washington, DC 20426.

Summary of the Proposed Project

    East Cheyenne proposes to amend its current certificated Project 
by:
    1. Reconfiguring the Injection/Withdrawal (I/W) wells in the Lewis 
Creek portion of the Project by converting one existing non-
jurisdictional well to an I/W well (LC-D021) and collocating on the 
existing, non-jurisdictional well pad five directionally drilled I/W 
wells (LC-D022, LC-D023, LC-D024, LC-D025, and LC-D026).
    2. combining the certificated maximum working gas and cushion gas 
capacities of the West Peetz and Lewis Creek Storage Fields, 
eliminating the separate certificated West Peetz and Lewis Creek 
working and cushion gas capacities and reallocating cushion gas 
capacity as working gas capacity;
    3. decreasing the total cushion gas capacity to 12.1 billion cubic 
feet and increasing the total working gas capacity to 22.5 billion 
cubic feet; \1\
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    \1\ East Cheyenne states that there would be no changes proposed 
to the injection and withdrawal capacities for the Project.
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    4. eliminating the currently certificated maximum bottom-hole 
pressure distinction between the West Peetz Storage Field (2,353 pounds 
per square inch absolute [PSIA]) and the Lewis Creek Storage Field 
(1,900 PSIA) and applying a maximum bottom-hole pressure of 2,353 PSIA 
uniformly across the single, integrated storage reservoir;
    5. reconfiguring the pipelines originally certificated for the 
Lewis Creek Storage Field by:
    a. Reducing the diameter of the previously authorized 20-inch-
diameter Lewis Creek natural gas mainline pipeline to a 16-inch-
diameter pipeline; and
    b. reconfigure the 16-inch-diameter Lewis Creek natural gas 
mainline and the 6-inch-diameter water disposal pipeline as the Lewis 
Creek produced water mainline to connect directly to the reconfigured 
I/W wells LC-D021 through LC-D026 on the single LC-D021 well pad.\2\
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    \2\ East Cheyenne would no longer require the unconstructed 
natural gas and produced water laterals.
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    6. reconfiguring the monitoring wells originally certificated for 
the Lewis Creek Storage Field. Eight monitoring wells are currently 
certificated in the Lewis Creek Storage Field: Two are existing and in 
service, (LC-M001 and LC-M002) and six are authorized but unconstructed 
(LC-M003, LC-M005 through LC-M009). LC-M003 would be relocated and 
installed as a new well (LC-M003 was previously authorized to be 
converted from an existing non-jurisdictional well). East Cheyenne 
would install one new monitoring well, LC-M004. There would be no 
change to monitoring wells LC-M005 and LC-M006. East Cheyenne would 
relocate and convert three existing non-jurisdictional wells to 
monitoring wells, LC-M007, LC-M008, LC-M009, for a total of nine wells 
to monitor the D-Sands in the Lewis Creek Storage Field; and

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    7. Eliminating the currently certificated, but unconstructed 
produced water disposal well (LC-W002), well pad, and appurtenant 
facilities certificated for the Project.
    The general location of the project facilities is shown in appendix 
1.\3\
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    \3\ 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

    The changes along with the pipelines, wells, well pads, and access 
roads that East Cheyenne no longer requires as a result of the 
reconfiguration of the Lewis Creek portion of the certificated Project, 
would result in a reduction in the overall land requirements for the 
Project on the order of 55 acres associated with construction and 35 
acres for operation. Land requirements for the amended Project would 
include land to be used temporarily for construction and land to be 
retained during operations as aboveground facility sites in the Lewis 
Creek storage field (well pads and access roads). The current land 
requirements for the amended Project is on the order of 53 acres for 
construction and 14 acres for operation.

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 
\4\ 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. We will 
consider all filed comments during the preparation of the EA.
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    \4\ 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 construction and operation of the proposed project under these 
general headings:
     Geology and soils;
     water resources, fisheries, and wetlands;
     vegetation and wildlife;
     endangered and threatened species;
     cultural resources;
     land use;
     air quality and noise;
     public safety; and
     cumulative impacts.
    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 2.
    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.\5\ 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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    \5\ The Council on Environmental Quality regulations addressing 
cooperating agency responsibilities are at Title 40, Code of Federal 
Regulations, Part 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 applicable State Historic Preservation Office (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 EA 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's 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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Environmental Mailing List

    The environmental mailing list includes federal, state, and local 
government representatives and agencies; elected officials; 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 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 
``Document-less Intervention Guide'' under the ``e-filing'' link on the 
Commission's website. Motions to intervene are more fully described at 
http://www.ferc.gov/resources/guides/how-to/intervene.asp.

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 website 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

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digits in the Docket Number field (i.e., CP18-11). 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.
    Finally, public sessions or 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 8, 2017.
Kimberly D. Bose,
 Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2017-27223 Filed 12-18-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6717-01-P