[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 208 (Monday, November 1, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60332-60334]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-23807]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Maritime Administration

[Docket No. MARAD-2019-0094]


Deepwater Port License Application: Bluewater Texas Terminal LLC

AGENCY: Maritime Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation; 
U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security.

ACTION: Notice of availability; notice of virtual public meeting; 
request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The Maritime Administration (MARAD) and the U.S. Coast Guard 
(USCG) announce the availability of the Draft Environmental Impact 
Statement (DEIS) for the Bluewater Texas Terminal SPM (Bluewater) 
Deepwater Port License Application for the export of crude oil from the 
United States to nations abroad. Additionally, MARAD and USCG announce 
a virtual public meeting and informational open house website for the 
Bluewater DEIS. Publication of this notice announces availability of 
the DEIS, initiates a 45-day comment period, requests public 
participation in the environmental impact review process, provides 
information on how to participate in the environmental impact review 
process, and announces the virtual informational open house and public 
meeting that will take place online to best comply with Coronavirus 
Disease 2019 safety guidelines. Previously, a notice of application 
summarizing the original

[[Page 60333]]

Bluewater Deepwater Port License Application was published June 26, 
2019, and notices of intent to prepare an environmental impact 
statement and public meeting were published on July 3, 2019.

DATES: The virtual public meeting will be held on Thursday November 18, 
2021 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
    Additionally, materials submitted in response to this request for 
comments on the Bluewater DEIS must be submitted to the 
www.regulations.gov website or the Federal Docket Management Facility 
as detailed in the ADDRESSES section below no later than 45 days after 
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) publishes its notice of 
availability of the DEIS for the Bluewater Deepwater Port Application 
in the Federal Register.

ADDRESSES: The public docket for the Bluewater Deepwater Port License 
Application is maintained by the U.S. Department of Transportation, 
Docket Management Facility, West Building, Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 
1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590. Comments on the DEIS 
may be submitted to this address and must include the docket number for 
this project, which is MARAD-2019-0094. The Federal Docket Management 
Facility's telephone number is 202-366-9317 or 202-366-9826; the fax 
number is 202-493-2251.
    We encourage you to submit comments electronically through the 
Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov. If you submit 
your comments electronically, it is not necessary to also submit a hard 
copy by mail. If you cannot submit material using http://www.regulations.gov, please contact either Mr. Ken Smith, USCG or Mr. 
Carlos Perez-Perez, MARAD, as listed in the following FOR FURTHER 
INFORMATION CONTACT section of this document below.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Ken Smith, Project Manager, USCG, 
telephone: 202-372-1413, email: [email protected] or Mr. Carlos I. 
Perez-Perez, Environmental Protection Specialist, Office of Deepwater 
Port Licensing and Port Conveyance, MARAD, telephone: 202-366-3790, 
email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: A Notice of Application that summarized the 
original Bluewater Deepwater Port License Application was published in 
the Federal Register on Wednesday, June 26, 2019 (80 FR 30301).
    A Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement and 
Notice of Public Meeting was published in the Federal Register on 
Wednesday, July 3, 2019 (80 FR 32005). This Notice of Availability 
incorporates the aforementioned Federal Register Notices by reference.
    The Bluewater Deepwater Port License Application proposes the 
construction and operation of a deepwater port terminal in the Gulf of 
Mexico (GOM) off Corpus Christi, Texas and close by Aransas and San 
Patricio Counties to export domestically produced crude oil.

Virtual Public Meeting

    MARAD and USCG will hold one virtual public meeting in connection 
with the Bluewater DEIS. As stated, the virtual public meeting will be 
held remotely due to the nationwide impacts of the existing public 
health emergency under Section 319 of the Public Health Service Act in 
response to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Further, the 
President's declaration of a national emergency due to the COVID-19 
outbreak, and state and local actions in response to COVID-19, have 
impacted the public's ability to assemble and provide feedback on the 
Bluewater Deepwater Port License Application through in-person public 
meetings.
    The public meeting may end later than the stated time, depending on 
the number of persons who wish to make a comment on the record. Anyone 
that is interested in attending the virtual public meeting or speaking 
during the virtual public meeting must register. Information on how to 
register for the virtual public meeting is provided in the Virtual 
Public Meeting and Informational Open House website section.

Request for Comments

    We request public comments or other relevant information related to 
the DEIS for the proposed Bluewater Deepwater Port License Application. 
These comments will inform our preparation of the Final Environmental 
Impact Statement (FEIS). We encourage attendance at the virtual public 
meeting; however, you may submit comments electronically and it is 
preferred that comments be submitted electronically. Regardless of the 
method you use to submit comments or materials, all submissions will be 
posted, without change, to the Federal Docket Management Facility 
website (http://www.regulations.gov) and will include any personal 
information you provide. Therefore, submitting this information makes 
it public. You may wish to read the Privacy and Use Notice that is 
available on the www.regulations.gov website, and the Department of 
Transportation (DOT) Privacy Act Notice that appeared in the Federal 
Register on March 24, 2005 (70 FR 15086), see PRIVACY ACT. You may view 
docket submissions at the DOT Docket Management Facility or 
electronically at the www.regulations.gov website.

Virtual Public Meeting and Informational Open House Website

    You are invited to learn about the proposed Bluewater Deepwater 
Port License Application at the virtual informational open house 
website (www.BluewaterEIS.com) and to comment on the proposed action 
and the environmental impact analysis contained in the DEIS during the 
virtual public meeting.
    The public meeting will be hosted on the Zoom platform. The public 
meeting will be recorded and transcribed for placement in the public 
docket for the Bluewater Deepwater Port License Application. Comments 
will be accepted during the public meeting. The Zoom program can be 
accessed online by visiting the Zoom website at www.zoom.us. Speaker 
and attendee registration are available online at www.BluewaterEIS.com.

Meeting Procedure and Special Assistance

    Registered speakers will be recognized in the following order: 
Elected officials, public agency representatives, then individuals or 
groups in the order in which they registered. In order to accommodate 
all speakers, speaker time may be limited, meeting hours may be 
extended, or both. Speakers' transcribed remarks will be included in 
the public docket. You may also submit written material for inclusion 
in the public docket. Written material must include the author's name. 
We ask attendees to respect the meeting procedures in order to ensure a 
constructive information-gathering session. The presiding officer will 
use their discretion to conduct the meeting in an orderly manner.
    Public meetings are intended to be accessible to all participants. 
Individuals who require special assistance such as sign language 
interpretation, non-English language translation services, or other 
reasonable accommodations, please notify the USCG or MARAD (see FOR 
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT) at least 7 business days in advance of the 
virtual public meeting. Include your contact information as well as 
information about your specific needs.

[[Page 60334]]

Summary of the License Application

    For the purposes of this application, the proposed Bluewater 
Deepwater Port 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 22.13 miles of two 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 connect to multiple 
inbound and outbound crude oil pipelines. Two of those outbound 
pipelines are the proposed pipeline infrastructure that will extend to 
the inshore pipeline(s), which connect to the proposed operation 
facility located on Harbor Island described below. One water tank will 
be constructed at the Multi-Use Terminal to flush the offshore 
pipelines running to the Single Point Mooring (SPM) buoys described 
below.
    Inshore components associated with the proposed Bluewater Deepwater 
Port 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 Gulf of Mexico. Inshore project components 
include:
     Approximately 7.29 miles of two 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 
include 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, but no crude oil storage.
    Offshore components associated with the proposed Bluewater 
Deepwater Port Project are defined as those components located seaward 
of the MHT line located at the interface of San Jose Island and the 
Gulf of Mexico. The offshore project components include:
     Approximately 26.76 miles of two 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 
Project for crude oil delivery to Single Point Mooring (SPM) buoys.
     Two 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 submarine 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 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.

Privacy Act

    You may wish to read the Privacy and Security Notice and the User 
Notice that are available at https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2005/03/24/05-5823/establishment-of-a- new-system-of-records-notice-
for-the-federal-docket-management-system. The Privacy Act notice 
regarding the Federal Docket Management System is available in the 
March 24, 2005 issue of the Federal Register (70 FR 15086).

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


    By Order of the Acting Maritime Administrator.
T. Mitchell Hudson, Jr.,
Secretary, Maritime Administration.
[FR Doc. 2021-23807 Filed 10-29-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-81-P