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Gas pipeline permitting issues complex Semi-annual update by Office of the Federal Coordinator highlights work under way, critical path items for TransCanada AGIA project Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The Alaska Pipeline Project has some critical permitting items to tick off to stay on schedule to submit an application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in October 2012.
Federal Coordinator Larry Persily, in an overview of the Office of Federal Coordinator for Alaska Natural Gas Transportation Projects’ August “attention items update,” said the status of a majority of issues for the Alaska Pipeline Project — the TransCanada-ExxonMobil proposal to build a natural gas pipeline to take North Slope natural gas to market — has not changed since the OFC’s February update.
He highlighted key items APP is working on to stay on schedule: ensuring its plan for data submission meets FERC’s needs for preparation of the environmental impact statement and the needs of federal agencies that will issue project permits; and finding the best route and approval process for the final few miles to the connection point at the Canadian border.
Persily said design, engineering and environmental data collection continues on schedule and APP’s teams have been in the field this summer documenting soils, vegetation, streams, lakes, wetlands, water quality, fish and wildlife along the route.
Challenging items There are “a few more challenging items” that the applicant is working through as it moves toward filing its FERC application, OFC said in the attention items update, adding that APP has assured the coordinator’s office it intends to resolve the issues in time for a complete FERC project application, and has requested assistance from the office in working through the issues with federal agencies.
“APP has devoted significant staff to the project and — with resolution of the remaining issues and assistance from the OFC — has the full potential to meet the October 2012 FERC application date specified in TransCanada’s cost-reimbursement agreement with the state of Alaska under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act,” the update said.
The Office of Federal Coordinator was created by Congress in 2004 to help coordinate the federal government’s role in a pipeline project to move North Slope natural gas to Lower 48 markets.
The agency’s attention items update, available on its website at www.arcticgas.gov, illustrates the complexity of permitting required for the Alaska portion of the project.
Data gaps OFC said that one of the challenges the applicant is working to resolve is limited sharing with federal agencies on details of data collected and data still to be collected for the October 2012 FERC filing. OFC said APP is preparing to share data with agencies in the fall, including the schedule to complete studies identified in APP’s 2010 data gap analysis. “Agencies need to know when the work will be done or why APP believes certain studies are no longer needed,” OFC said in its update.
APP is expected to deliver a full set of draft resource reports in December and revised resource reports in August 2012 before the complete FERC application in October 2012 which will include a final version of the resource reports.
OFC said that if APP has to collect additional data for the National Environmental Policy Act analysis next summer, “it will be challenging to complete the field work, analyze the data and present it to agencies by the end of the summer for their review, culminating in the complete application to FERC by October.”
The update also said that such a tight schedule for summer 2012 would put pressure on agencies to review and comment on new data fast enough to allow APP to address comments before the October 2012 filing.
APP is working with FERC, OFC and federal agencies to ensure data needed for the NEPA analysis is available for a complete application to FERC. “Supplemental information needed for permits and agency approvals after the NEPA analysis could come later, so long as APP and the agencies agree on the delivery sequence of the data,” OFC said.
Permit plan APP has told FERC and federal agencies that it intends to divide data collection and submission between information needed by October 2012 for a complete FERC application and data that would be provided later for other federal permits needed to begin construction. “The applicant is aware that FERC, the OFC and permitting agencies are concerned that such a phased data-submission plan could affect the completeness of the FERC application and has committed to present and fully explain details of its permit plan early this fall,” OFC said.
The attention items update cites a required Army Corps of Engineers approval for ocean dumping of dredged material as an example of this phased data-submittal approach. OFC identified this as a critical path item in its February attention items update.
APP proposed to collect limited data this summer and additional data as needed in 2012 or later. “The data collected in 2012 may not be available for the October 2012 FERC filing, and anything collected later might be too late to submit for analysis in the environmental impact statement,” OFC said. The Corps of Engineers has said the final EIS “must consider all of the required information before the agency could make a final decision on dredged material disposal. Until FERC and the Corps know more about which data the applicant will submit and when, there is a risk that APP might believe a piece of information is not required for the environmental impact statement while the agency and FERC believe it is.”
OFC said that in many cases it is possible that a phased approach to data submission will meet agency needs, and said FERC and permitting agencies will know more after a series of meetings this fall when APP will share details of its permitting plan.
Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge
APP said in its preliminary draft resource report 1 that it planned to build the pipeline through the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge near the U.S.-Canada border. The refuge was created by Congress in 1980 in the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.
ANILCA requires an applicant for a transportation or utility system across refuge land to file a consolidated application with all “appropriate federal agencies” at the same time. The consolidated-application requirement under ANILCA “will not allow for a phased-permitting approach; all of the information needed for the NEPA analysis and authorizations is required before any applications can be accepted as complete,” OFC said.
ANILCA also requires that each agency making a permit or license determination must base that decision on nine criteria listed in ANILCA and the agency’s own applicable laws. “If any single agency fails to approve the project, the application in its entirety is deemed disapproved.” The applicant can appeal to the president.
OFC said APP has determined the ANILCA multi-agency process is too complex and conflicts with its permitting plan for the project, “and is therefore pursuing other options for either staying with the originally proposed pipeline route or possible alternatives to bring the pipeline up to the connection point at the border.”
But until APP settles on a routing alternative at the border, FERC, OFC and federal agencies “must consider the plan provided in APP’s report of April 2011, which would trigger the ANILCA-mandated process.”
OFC said APP has asked the Federal Coordinator’s Office for assistance in evaluating alternatives that would not trigger the ANILCA provisions.
Subsistence OFC said APP has been discussing community subsistence surveys needed for the EIS with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game since last fall, while FERC has been pushing APP to solidify its plans for the community subsistence surveys.
FERC defined the subsistence data needed for the FERC application in a Feb. 17, 2011, letter to APP. Following that letter, APP moved to contract with Fish and Game to develop a subsistence data collection plan and conduct and analyze the community surveys. “Fish and Game is the lead state agency in such work and has established relationships with rural communities to collect this culturally sensitive information,” OFC said. But Fish and Game can only survey a limited number of communities in a year.
The plan APP provided to FERC identified 10 communities to be surveyed in 2011 and an additional seven communities in 2012. “Only the 2011 survey results and analysis will likely be available for inclusion in APP’s 2012 application to FERC; the 2012 survey results will come in during 2013 preparation of the environmental impact statement. Due to the significant amount of time required to collect and analyze subsistence data, the number of communities to be surveyed, and the short timeframe left before APP’s filing to FERC, this item remains a critical-path issue. APP says it is working with FERC to “ensure its application includes sufficient data to determine the project’s affect on subsistence users and resources,” OFC said.
Critical path items Critical path items, identified as those with “high potential to affect the project negatively if action is not taken,” include contaminated site identification, particularly on military bases, which could add years to the project if identified on the pipeline route; data collection and field season plans, where information needs to be shared in detail with agencies for verification; landowner and land access issues where the current route shows the line crossing the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge to reach the Canadian border; APP’s plan to use phased permitting, submitting data sufficient for application to FERC and the FERC-led NEPA analysis in October 2012, then submitting additional data for other federal reviews and approvals later, with explanations in detail to ensure a complete project application is provided to FERC with sufficient data for environmental impact statement and NEPA analysis to be provided to agencies this summer and fall; and subsistence data contracted from Alaska Department of Fish and Game, but not all communities will be surveyed in time for October 2012 FERC filing.
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