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Alyeska gears up for renewal process State and federal requirements similar but not identical; BLM requiring environmental impact statement Kristen Nelson PNA Editor-in-Chief
Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. formed a task force in 1997 to begin work on the renewal of its state and federal rights-of-way for the trans-Alaska pipeline — but with all that must be done to get the renewals, the company thinks it will be right up against the January 2004 expiration date of its federal grant and right-of-way before a renewal can be issued.
Steve Jones, director of the right-of-way renewal project for Alyeska, told the Alaska Support Industry Alliance in early February that Alyeska and the pipeline’s owner companies plan to file applications for renewal by the end of the first quarter.
In addition to demonstrating that the owners are still in business, that the line is in commercial operation and in compliance with the terms of the lease, the Bureau of Land Management is requiring an environmental impact statement.
And the state only allows a 10-year renewal, so the administration is asking the Legislature for a statutory change. Requirements to be met Alyeska deals with the Joint Pipeline Office daily on issues of compliance, Jones said. For the renewal, it’s probably an issue of systems, he said:
“Do we have the systems in place to ensure compliance? Can we ensure for the next 30 years that if in fact the right-of-way renewal is extended for that period that we will be in compliance? Do we have the procedures in place to identify problems when they arise and correct them?”
In addition, the owner companies will have to supply evidence that they are in business. A physical life and economic life evaluation of the pipeline will be done. And then the EIS.
The Secretary of the Interior will also decide whether the renewal will be for 30 years or for some other period, Jones said, and the state will have to change its statutory requirements to allow a renewal of more than 10 years. Timing tight “When you look at timing, we have been confident that we thought we would be ready to go with the application sometime in the first quarter of 2001,” Jones said. Filing kicks off the formal process of review and will also kick off the NEPA process that BLM will be conducting.
From the time the EIS is started until it’s completed is probably a 24 to 26-27 month process, he said.
“So when you kind of do the math, we’ve got a filing sometime around the end of the first quarter this year. Tack on 24, 26, 27 months and of course as you all know, the EIS process is not exactly a precise process when it comes to timing, but you add it on and that takes you pretty much down into the third, fourth quarter of 2003. And that’s just about all the time we’ve got, because the federal right-of-way lease expires in early January of 2004.”
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