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ANGDA contracts out spur line EIS URS will conduct the environmental assessment under oversight of Army Corps of Engineers; scoping meetings planned for spring Eric Lidji Petroleum News
In possibly the largest step taken by the agency, the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority announced Dec. 3 that it hired a contractor to conduct a major environmental study of a proposed pipeline running to Fairbanks from the utilities grids in Beluga.
ANGDA hired URS Corp to conduct the environmental impact statement of the pipeline under the oversight of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. URS is a global engineering firm based in San Francisco with local offices in Anchorage and Fairbanks.
An environmental impact statement, or EIS, examines how a proposed project could impact the lands, waters, people and animals in its path. It is a keystone of the National Environmental Policy Act and the first step for any major construction project.
The ANGDA contract, worth more than $1.5 million, will be formally announced in January. URS and the corps plan to hold scoping meetings starting next spring, and to create a Web site for posting public documents and accepting comments on the project.
“There’s going to be lots of opportunities to look at information on this project,” said Jon Issacs, vice president and federal lands manager for URS in Alaska.
URS hopes to finish the project by fall of 2010.
A versatile pipeline proposal The proposed pipeline is the centerpiece of ANGDA’s efforts to connect Alaskans to natural gas supplies in the state. In the long term, the pipeline is designed as a spur that would connect the Anchorage area with a much larger pipeline running from gas fields on the North Slope to the pipeline grid covering the Lower 48 and Canada.
As currently envisioned, the ANGDA line would start at the Beluga gas fields near Anchorage and run east to Glennallen, where it would head north to Delta Junction along the corridor of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. From Delta Junction, ANGDA plans to build a plastic pipeline running to Fairbanks, the second largest city in the state.
The temporary plastic segment is designed to address the short-term need for cheaper fuel in Fairbanks. The hope is that a pipeline connecting Anchorage and Fairbanks would spur exploration and development of gas fields in the Cook Inlet basin, allowing the pipeline to run south to north for several years until construction of the main pipeline is complete.
ANGDA is a public corporation of the state created by voter mandate in 2002.
Working early to avoid rush The early announcement of the EIS, which comes as efforts on the main line remain at preliminary field work and the project is far from being sanctioned, is part of a larger ANGDA strategy to “pre-build” the spur line before construction of the main line.
The hope is to avoid the demand on contractors and federal agencies expected for the big pipeline, according to Harold Heinze, ANGDA president and CEO. The large pipeline is believed to be the largest private sector construction project in North American history.
“We had three capable contractors that responded to this (request for proposals). I think if we were doing this a year from now, I might find zero or one,” Heinze said.
In addition to finding contractors, Heinze said by working early ANGDA was able to hire contractors at a much cheaper rate than it would have even a few years from now.
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