[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 224 (Thursday, November 19, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 73841-73843]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-25237]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Maritime Administration

[Docket No. MARAD-2019-0094]


Deepwater Port License Application: Bluewater Texas Terminal LLC; 
Correction

AGENCY: Maritime Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation.

ACTION: Notice; correction.

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SUMMARY: The Maritime Administration (MARAD) and the U.S. Coast Guard 
(USCG) published a document in the Federal Register of August 7, 2020, 
concerning Deepwater Port License Application: Bluewater Texas 
Terminal, LLC; Project Scope Changes; Request for Comments. This 
document had errors in the ``Summary of the Revised Project 
Description'' and ``Inshore Components'' captions. This notice also 
seeks public comment regarding the proposed project scope changes. 
Please note, MARAD and USCG have determined that this notice is 
sufficient for satisfying National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) 
requirements for public scoping and seeking public comment on an agency 
action.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Roddy Bachman, U.S. Coast Guard, 
telephone: 202-372-1451, email: [email protected], or Ms. Yvette 
M. Fields, Maritime Administration, telephone: 202-366-0926, email: 
[email protected]. For questions regarding viewing the Docket, call 
Docket Operations, telephone: 202-366-9317 or 202-366-9826.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

[[Page 73842]]

Corrections

    1. In the Federal Register of August 7, 2020, in FR Doc 2020-17327, 
on page 48071, in the second column, correct the ``Summary of the 
Revised Project Description'' caption to read:
    Bluewater is proposing to construct, own, and operate a deepwater 
port terminal in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) to export domestically 
produced crude oil. The proposed project involves the design, 
engineering, construction of a deepwater port, and approximately 56.48 
miles of pipeline infrastructure. The Bluewater deepwater port would 
allow for up to two (2) very large crude carriers (VLCCs) or other 
crude oil carriers to moor at single point mooring (SPM) buoys and 
connect with the deepwater port via floating connecting crude oil 
hoses. During single vessel loading operations, the proposed project is 
capable of loading rates of up to approximately 80,000 barrels per hour 
(bph) and during simultaneous vessel loading operations, the proposed 
project is capable of loading rates of 40,000 bph. The facility is 
expected to service 16 VLCCs per month.
    For the purposes of this application, the proposed Bluewater 
project is described in three distinguishable segments by locality, to 
include the onshore components, the inshore components and the offshore 
components.
    Onshore components associated with the proposed Bluewater project 
are defined as those components on the landward side of the western 
Redfish Bay Mean High Tide (MHT) line, located in San Patricio and 
Aransas Counties, Texas. The onshore project components include:
     Approximately 22.20 miles of two (2) new parallel 30-inch-
diameter crude oil pipelines extending from a planned Multi-Use 
Terminal located south of the City of Taft in San Patricio County, 
Texas. The planned multi-use terminal will consist of multiple inbound 
and outbound crude oil pipelines. Two of those outbound pipelines 
compose the proposed pipeline infrastructure that will extend to the 
inshore pipeline which connects to the proposed Harbor Island 
operational facility described below.
    Inshore components associated with the proposed Bluewater project 
are defined as those components located between the western Redfish Bay 
MHT line and the MHT line located at the interface of San Jose Island 
and the GOM. Inshore project components include:
     Approximately 7.15 miles of two (2) new 30-inch-diameter 
crude oil pipelines connecting to the onshore facility, an 
approximately 12-acre operations station and a connection to the 
offshore pipeline. The onshore pipeline would be located within San 
Patricio County, Texas and Nueces County, Texas and a proposed 
operations facility would be located on Harbor Island in Nueces County, 
Texas. The operations facility located on Harbor Island will cover 
approximately 12 acres of land and house the necessary infrastructure 
to support the transport of crude oil through the proposed pipeline 
infrastructure to the deepwater port for the loading of moored vessels. 
The facility would consist of pig launchers/receivers, meters and 
valves, operations building, and a communications facility.
    Offshore components associated with the proposed Bluewater project 
are defined as those components located seaward of the MHT line located 
at the interface of San Jose Island and the GOM. Offshore project 
components include:
     Approximately 26.76 miles of two (2) new 30-inch-diameter 
crude oil pipelines extending from the shoreline crossing at the 
interface of San Jose Island to the offshore Bluewater deepwater port 
for crude oil delivery to Single Point Mooring (SPM) buoys.
     Two (2) SPMs in Outer Continental Shelf Matagorda Island 
Area TX4 lease blocks 698 and 699, approximately 15 nautical miles 
(17.26 statute miles) off the coast of San Patricio County, Texas in a 
water depth of approximately 89 feet.
     A catenary anchor leg mooring (CALM) system for each SPM 
buoy connected to a pipeline end manifold (PLEM) system, mooring 
hawsers, floating hoses, and sub-marine hoses to allow for the loading 
of crude oil to vessels moored at the proposed deepwater port. The SPM 
buoy system will be permanently moored with a symmetrically arranged 
six-leg anchor dual chain configuration extending to twelve (12) 72-
inch-diameter pile anchors installed on the seafloor.
     Each of the proposed SPM buoy systems will consist of 
inner and outer cylindrical shells subdivided into twelve equal-sized 
watertight radial compartments. A rotating table will be affixed to the 
SPM buoy and allow for the connection of moored vessels to the SPM buoy 
system via mooring hawsers. Two floating hoses equipped with marine 
break-away couplings will be utilized for the transfer of crude oil 
from the SPM buoy systems to the moored vessel. Floating hoses will be 
equipped with strobe lights at 15-foot intervals for detection at night 
and low-light conditions.
    2. In the Federal Register of August 7, 2020, in FR Doc 2020-17327, 
on page 48071, in the second column, correct the ``Inshore Components'' 
caption to read:
    On May 30, 2019, Bluewater Texas Terminal, (BWTT) revised the 
design and layout of the proposed facility located on Harbor Island, in 
Nueces County, Texas. The following notice provides corrected 
information regarding the originally submitted design and the revised 
proposed design with respect to the facility located on Harbor Island.
    The originally proposed Harbor Island facility occupied an 
approximate 19-acre area and included two (2) 181,000-barrel (bbl) 
crude oil storage tanks and two (2) 181,000 bbl water storage tanks. 
The tanks served to allow for the flushing of crude oil from the 
offshore pipeline infrastructure in the event of an emergency or for 
maintenance purposes.
    The correct proposed project scope change and BWTT preferred option 
design eliminates the originally proposed four (4) storage tanks and 
pumps from Harbor Island. The revised design still maintains pipeline 
flushing capabilities. This will be accomplished through the use of 
previously-planned crude oil storage tanks and a new water storage tank 
located at the planned onshore Multi-Use Terminal (MUT). Based on this 
design, the facility on Harbor Island would now occupy an approximate 
12-acre area, a reduction of 7 acres of permanent impacts.
    The preferred Harbor Island project design would still consist of a 
number of originally proposed infrastructure components, which are 
required for the operation of the deepwater port (DWP). These 
facilities include pig launchers/receivers, meters and valves, an 
operations building, and a communications facility. The USCG valve 
(i.e., first on land valve from the proposed DWP) is the same as that 
proposed in the original design at Harbor Island. The facility located 
on Harbor Island would be surrounded by a 10-foot-tall storm surge 
protection levee including a 20-footwide vehicle access road, as 
originally proposed. Based on this design, the facility on Harbor 
Island would occupy an approximate 12-acre area. The temporary 
construction workspace located on Harbor Island remains the same as 
originally proposed to allow the space necessary for the installation 
of pipeline infrastructure utilizing horizontal directional drill (HDD) 
installation methods. The 30-inch diameter pipelines entering and 
exiting the facility located on Harbor Island are proposed to remain 
the same and be

[[Page 73843]]

installed using the construction methodology originally proposed.

Privacy Act

    The electronic form of all comments received into the Federal 
Docket Management System can be searched by the name of the individual 
submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf 
of an association, business, labor union, etc.). The DOT Privacy Act 
Statement can be viewed in the Federal Register published on April 11, 
2000 (Volume 65, Number 70, pages 19477-78) or by visiting http://www.regulations.gov.

DATES:

    Comments must be received on or before December 21, 2020.
    The license application is available for viewing at the 
Regulations.gov website: http://www.regulations.gov under docket number 
MARAD-2019-0094.
    We encourage you to submit comments electronically to the public 
docket at http://www.regulations.gov. If you submit your comments 
electronically, it is not necessary to also submit a hard copy. If you 
cannot submit material using http://www.regulations.gov, please contact 
either Mr. Roddy Bachman, USCG or Ms. Yvette M. Fields, MARAD, as 
listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of this document. 
This section provides alternate instructions for submitting written 
comments. Additionally, if you go to the online docket and sign up for 
email alerts, you will be notified when comments are posted. Anonymous 
comments will be accepted. All comments received will be posted without 
change to http://www.regulations.gov and will include any personal 
information you have provided. The Federal Docket Management Facility's 
telephone number is 202-366-9317 or 202-366-9826, the fax number is 
202-493-2251.

(Authority: 33 U.S.C. 1501, et seq.; 49 CFR 1.93(h))

    Dated: November 10, 2020.

    By Order of the Maritime Administrator.
T. Mitchell Hudson, Jr.,
Secretary, Maritime Administration.
[FR Doc. 2020-25237 Filed 11-18-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-81-P