Corps holding ASAP public meetings

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has issued a draft supplemental environmental impact statement for the Alaska Stand Alone Pipeline and began holding public meetings in July in the northern part of the state.

Remaining meetings are Aug. 1 in Anchorage at the Alaska Pacific University lecture hall from 6:30-9:30 p.m.; at the Tri-Valley Community Center in Healy Aug. 2 from 5:30-8:30 p.m.; at the Cantwell Community Hall Aug. 3, 5:30-8:30 p.m.; and at the Trapper Creek Park Building Aug. 4, 5:30-8:30 p.m.

The draft supplemental EIS addresses changes proposed since the Corps published the final EIS in October 2012. The National Environmental Policy Act process was initiated in December 2009 and the draft EIS issued in January 2012.

Since 2012, the Corps said, the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. has selected locations for material sites, access roads and other infrastructure, and proposed changes to the project to improve efficiency, make the natural gas more accessible and affordable and reduce environmental impacts.

The Corps said it determined a supplemental EIS was necessary based on a revised application from AGDC in July 2014, an application which was amended in January 2016 and July 2016.

Changes include: use of lean natural gas rather than enriched natural gas; need for a 23-barge sealift, which requires dredging of a navigation channel at West Dock; reduction in length of the mainline by 4 miles; reduction in the Fairbanks lateral by 4 miles; pipeline diameter increased to 36 inches from 12 inches; refinements in number and locations of materials sites, access roads and other infrastructure and support facilities; and route refinements.

- KRISTEN NELSON