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Corps lists Nanushuk EIS alternatives Agency expects to issue draft environmental impact statement in mid-2017; five alternatives range from Armstrong plan to no action KRISTEN NELSON Petroleum News
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has put out a newsletter listing the alternatives to be considered in an environmental impact statement for the Nanushuk project. The Corps said it expects to release a draft EIS for the project in mid-2017. Five alternatives will be considered and the draft EIS will describe potential impacts associated with a no action alternative, a proposed action and other alternatives.
Armstrong Energy is the developer at Nanushuk, which is in the southern portion of the company’s Pikka unit on Alaska’s North Slope.
The project will include three drill sites, a central processing facility and an operations center, as well as new pipelines, access and infield gravel roads.
Applicant’s proposal Armstrong Energy’s proposal calls for an all-season gravel access road from Kuparuk River unit drill site 2M, using 0.1 miles of the existing Mustang Road and crossing the Miluveach River to the Nanushuk Pad which would house both drill site 1 and the central processing facility. The 13.5-mile gravel access road would connect to 11.9 miles of gravel infield roads accessing drill sites 2 and 3. The infield roads would have a bridged crossing of the Kachemach River.
Southern access alternative
A southern access alternative the Corps is considering would maximize use of infrastructure developed for Mustang, with the new gravel access road roughly paralleling the Alpine Pipeline corridor. The access road would depart the Mustang Access Road south of the Mustang Mine Site and would have two bridged crossings - one of the Miluveach River and one of the Kachemach River. The Corps said the road would turn north toward a standalone central processing facility and include a second bridged crossing of the Kachemach River.
As with Armstrong Energy’s proposal, pipelines would roughly parallel new and existing roads and the infield pipelines would cross the Kachemach River once; the export/import pipeline would cross the Kachemach River twice and the Miluveach River once before reaching the tie-in pad at Kuparuk Central Processing Facility 2.
Northern access alternative A northern access alternative would “maximize use of the existing Nuna infrastructure (existing and permitted but not currently constructed Nuna Road),” the Corps said.
In this alternative the Nanushuk CPF would be farther from the Village of Nuiqsut than Armstrong Energy has proposed. A 6.8-mile gravel access road would connect the project to the Nuna Road.
The Corps said drill site layout would be similar to the Armstrong proposal, with 17.6 miles of infield roads connecting the standalone CPF to the three drill sites.
This alignment would require one bridged crossing each of the Miluveach and Kachemach rivers by the infield roads.
As with the Armstrong proposal, infield pipelines would parallel proposed infield roads, with infield pipelines also crossing the Miluveach and Kachemach rivers.
Re-configured infield roads The fifth alternative involves re-configuring proposed infield roads “to reduce new infrastructure in the Colville River floodplain, and to make the infield roads less parallel to the East Channel of the Colville River to reduce potential impacts to migrating caribou,” the Corps said, and was developed based on comments from cooperating agencies on possible “fencing” effect of road and pad configurations on migrating caribou.
This alternative would have a 6.7-mile road beginning at the Mustang Road, going around the northern end of the Mustang Mine site, and then heading to the standalone CPF pad, with 17.6 miles of infield roads to the drill sites. It would require one bridged crossing of the Miluveach River for the access road and one bridged crossing of the Kachemach River for the infield road. The drill site locations are the same as the Armstrong proposal but the CPF would be relocated to a standalone pad.
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