BLM issues finding of no significant impact for Alyeska’s reconfiguration plan

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News editor-in-chief

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has issued a finding of no significant impacts and a decision record approving Alyeska Pipeline Service Co.’s proposed strategic reconfiguration.

Jerry Brossia, BLM’s Office of Pipeline Monitoring authorized officer, said in the Jan. 30 decision, “Based on an analysis of the environmental impacts contained in the attached environmental assessment, I have determined that impacts to the human environment are not expected to be significant and an environmental impact statement is not required…”

Brossia said there would be short-term impacts from the reconfiguration, which includes installation of new equipment and facilities (including replacement of the turbine-driven mainline pumps with electric-driven mainline pumps), new on-site electric power generation facilities and greater automation through upgrades to electrical and control systems. The reconfiguration also includes implementation of a regional center concept for maintenance and oil spill response.

“Impacts associated with the installation and modification of equipment on the existing pump stations would be predominantly negative, but short-term and local,” Brossia said. But the long-term impacts, from the new equipment “would reduce overall environmental impacts of continued operation,” he said.

“Air emissions would be reduced, leading to air quality improvements. A reduction in requirements for liquid turbine fuel delivered by truck would likely reduce risk of spills associated with such delivery and would reduce traffic volumes of heavy-duty commercial vehicles.” The reconfiguration proposed by the trans-Alaska pipeline owners would “allow the flexibility to adapt to changes” in pipeline throughput, BLM said in its environmental assessment, to respond to “throughput decline, technological improvements, and optimization of support infrastructure and resource utilization.”

Alyeska has already received conditional approval for amendments to its oil discharge prevention and contingency plan from BLM and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. Both approvals require the company to update its 2001 screening risk analysis, perform a crude oil fate and transport study and provide a management of change plan to address the transition before it implements any plans.

Alyeska spokesman Mike Heatwole told Petroleum News in early January that the company submitted the strategic reconfiguration plan to the pipeline owners for review and decision at the end of 2003, and hopes for a decision by the end of the first quarter. Heatwole said a strategic reconfiguration proposal for the Valdez Marine Terminal is about a year behind where Alyeska is with the pipeline, and the company will be taking a look at ideas generated for changes at the terminal in the first two quarters of the year.