[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 194 (Thursday, October 6, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 62055-62058]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-25839]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
[Docket No. PF11-6-000]
Wabash Gas Storage, LLC; Notice of Intent To Prepare an
Environmental Assessment for the Planned Wabash Gas Storage Project,
Request for Comments on Environmental Issues, and Notice of Public
Scoping Meeting
The staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or
Commission) will prepare an environmental assessment (EA) that will
discuss the environmental impacts of the Wabash Gas Storage Project
(Project) involving construction and operation of facilities proposed
by Wabash Gas Storage, LLC (Wabash) near Paris in Edgar County,
Illinois. This EA will be used by the Commission in its decision-making
process to determine whether the project is in the public convenience
and necessity.
This notice announces the opening of the scoping process the
Commission will use to gather input from the public and interested
agencies on the project. Your input will help the Commission staff
determine what issues need to be evaluated in the EA. Please note that
the
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scoping period will close on October 31, 2011.
Comments may be submitted in written form or verbally. Further
details on how to submit written comments are provided in the Public
Participation section of this notice. In lieu of or in addition to
sending written comments, the Commission invites you to attend the
public scoping meeting scheduled as follows:
FERC Public Scoping Meeting, Wabash Gas Storage Project, 6 p.m.--
Thursday, October 20, 2011,
Knights of Columbus Meeting Hall, 614 North Main Street, Paris, IL
61944, (217) 465-1085.
This notice is being sent to the Commission's current environmental
mailing list for this project. State and local government
representatives are asked to notify their constituents of this planned
project and encourage them to comment on their areas of concern.
If you are a landowner receiving this notice, you may be contacted
by a Wabash representative about the acquisition of an easement to
construct, operate, and maintain the planned pipeline and storage
facilities. The company would seek to negotiate a mutually acceptable
agreement. However, if the project is approved by the Commission, that
approval conveys with it the right of eminent domain. Therefore, if
easement negotiations for the pipeline right-of-way and storage lease
fail to produce an agreement, Wabash could initiate condemnation
proceedings where compensation would be determined in accordance with
state law.
A fact sheet prepared by the FERC entitled ``An Interstate Natural
Gas Facility On My Land? What Do I Need To Know?'' is available for
viewing on the FERC Web site (http://www.ferc.gov). This fact sheet
addresses a number of typically-asked questions, including the use of
eminent domain and how to participate in the Commission's proceedings.
Summary of the Planned Project
Wabash plans to develop a previously abandoned aquifer natural gas
storage facility in Edgar County, Illinois. The Project involves the
redevelopment of the Elbridge and Nevins subsurface gas storage fields
in Edgar County, Illinois.
The Elbridge surface facilities include the Central Facility which
would be comprised of:
five gas storage injection and withdrawal wells;
a 14,000 horsepower compressor station;
valving, dehydration and separation equipment;
one water disposal injection well; and
one 50,000 barrel (bbl) produced water pond.
The Nevins surface facilities include the Nevins Facility which
would be comprised of:
three gas storage injection and withdrawal wells;
metering, separation equipment, and flow control
equipment;
one water disposal injection well; and
one 10,000 bbl produced water pond.
In addition, the following facilities would be constructed to
support the Project:
three observation wells located around the perimeter of
each storage field;
two plugged and abandoned wells, located at the apex of
each field, that would be re-entered and converted to observation
wells;
a 1.4 mile, 16-inch-diameter bi-directional delivery
pipeline that would interconnect with the existing Midwestern Paris
Compressor Stations;
a 4.5 mile, 20-inch-diameter bi-directional pipeline, and
a 6-inch-diameter produced water pipeline that would connect the Nevins
Facility and the Central Facility; and
one meter station and a launcher/regulation station,
located immediately adjacent to the Paris Compressor Station property.
The storage facility would have a working gas capacity of 14
billion cubic feet with injection and withdrawal rates of 200,000
million British thermal units per day.
The general location of the project facilities is shown in Appendix
1.\1\
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\1\ The appendices referenced in this notice are not being
printed in the Federal Register. Copies of appendices were sent to
all those receiving this notice in the mail and are available at
http://www.ferc.gov using the link called ``eLibrary'' or from the
Commission's Public Reference Room, 888 First Street, NE.,
Washington, DC 20426, or call (202) 502-8371. For instructions on
connecting to eLibrary, refer to the last page of this notice.
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Land Requirements for Construction
For the aboveground facilities, approximately 31 acres would be
disturbed. Following construction activities, approximately 13 acres
would be permanently maintained for the Project operations.
Approximately 18 would be acres necessary for construction would be
restored and allowed to revert to former uses.
Construction of the pipelines would disturb approximately 68 acres
during construction. Of that, approximately 34 acres would be allowed
to revert to previous land use following construction activities and
the remaining 34 acres would be permanently maintained.
The EA Process
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires the
Commission to take into account the environmental impacts that could
result from an action whenever it considers the issuance of a
Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity. NEPA also requires us
\2\ to discover and address concerns the public may have about
proposals. This process is referred to as scoping. The main goal of the
scoping process is to focus the analysis in the EA on the important
environmental issues. By this notice, the Commission requests public
comments on the scope of the issues to address in the EA. All comments
received will be considered during the preparation of the EA.
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\2\ ``We,'' ``us,'' and ``our'' refer to the environmental staff
of the Commission's Office of Energy Projects.
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In the EA we will discuss impacts that could occur as a result of
the construction and operation of the planned project under these
general headings:
geology and soils;
water resources, and fisheries;
vegetation and wildlife;
cultural resources;
socioeconomics;
land use;
air quality and noise; and
reliability and public safety.
We will also evaluate possible alternatives to the planned project
or portions of the project, and make recommendations on how to lessen
or avoid impacts on the various resource areas.
Although no formal application has been filed, we have already
initiated our NEPA review under the Commission's pre-filing process.
The purpose of the pre-filing process is to encourage early involvement
of interested stakeholders and to identify and resolve issues before an
application is filed with the FERC. As part of our pre-filing review,
we have begun to contact some federal and state agencies to discuss
their involvement in the scoping process and the preparation of the EA.
Our independent analysis of the issues will be presented in the EA.
The EA will be placed in the public record and, depending on the
comments received during the scoping process, may be published and
distributed to the public. A comment period will be allotted if the EA
is published for review. We will consider all comments
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on the EA before we make our recommendations to the Commission. To
ensure your comments are considered, please carefully follow the
instructions in the Public Participation section beginning on page 5.
With this notice, we are asking agencies with jurisdiction and/or
special expertise with respect to environmental issues to formally
cooperate with us in the preparation of the EA. These agencies may
choose to participate once they have evaluated the proposal relative to
their responsibilities. Agencies that would like to request cooperating
agency status should follow the instructions for filing comments
provided under the Public Participation section of this notice.
Consultations Under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation
Act
In accordance with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation's
implementing regulations for section 106 of the National Historic
Preservation Act, we are using this notice to initiate consultation
with the Illinois State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), and to
solicit their views and those of other government agencies, interested
Indian tribes, and the public on the project's potential effects on
historic properties.\3\ We will define the project-specific Area of
Potential Effects (APE) in consultation with the SHPO as the project is
further developed. On natural gas facility projects, the APE at a
minimum encompasses all areas subject to ground disturbance. Our EA for
this project will document our findings on the impacts on historic
properties and summarize the status of consultations under section 106.
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\3\ The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation's regulations
are at Title 36, Code of Federal Regulations, part 800. Historic
properties are defined in those regulations as any prehistoric or
historic district, site, building, structure, or object included in
or eligible for inclusion in the National Register for Historic
Places.
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Currently Identified Environmental Issues
We have already identified several issues that we think deserve
attention based on a preliminary review of the planned facilities and
the environmental information provided by Wabash. This preliminary list
of issues may be changed based on your comments and our analysis.
Air Quality
Noise and vibration impacts
Socioeconomic impacts
Geology and hydrogeology
Wetlands and waterbodies
Threatened and endangered species
Public safety
Public Participation
You can make a difference by providing us with your specific
comments or concerns about the project. Your comments should focus on
the potential environmental effects, reasonable alternatives, and
measures to avoid or lessen environmental impacts. The more specific
your comments, the more useful they will be. To ensure that your
comments are timely and properly recorded, please send your comments so
that they will be received in Washington, DC on or before October 31,
2011.
For your convenience, there are three methods you can use to submit
your comments to the Commission. In all instances, please reference the
project docket number PF11-6-000 with your submission. The Commission
encourages electronic filing of comments and has expert eFiling staff
available to assist you at (202) 502-8258 or [email protected].
(1) You may file your comments electronically by using the eComment
feature, which is located on the Commission's Web site at www.ferc.gov
under the link to Documents and Filings. An eComment is an easy method
for interested persons to submit brief, text-only comments on a
project;
(2) You may file your comments electronically by using the eFiling
feature, which is located on the Commission's Web site at www.ferc.gov
under the link to Documents and Filings. With eFiling, you can provide
comments in a variety of formats by attaching them as a file with your
submission. New eFiling users must first create an account by clicking
on ``eRegister.'' You will be asked to select the type of filing you
are making. A comment on a particular project is considered a ``Comment
on a Filing''; or
(3) You may mail a paper copy of your comments to the Commission at
the following address:
Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,
888 First Street, NE., Room 1A, Washington, DC 20426.
Environmental Mailing List
The environmental mailing list includes federal, state, and local
government representatives and agencies; elected officials;
environmental and public interest groups; Indian tribes; other
interested parties; and local libraries and newspapers. This list also
includes all affected landowners (as defined in the Commission's
regulations) who are potential right-of-way grantors, whose property
may be used temporarily for project purposes, or who own homes within
certain distances of aboveground facilities, and anyone who submits
comments on the project. We will update the environmental mailing list
as the analysis proceeds to ensure that we send the information related
to this environmental review to all individuals, organizations, and
government entities interested in and/or potentially affected by the
planned project.
If the EA is published for distribution, copies will be sent to the
environmental mailing list for public review and comment. If you would
prefer to receive a paper copy of the document instead of the CD
version or would like to remove your name from the mailing list, please
return the attached Information Request (Appendix 2).
Becoming an Intervenor
Once Wabash files its application with the Commission, you may want
to become an ``intervenor'' which is an official party to the
Commission's proceeding. Intervenors play a more formal role in the
process and are able to file briefs, appear at hearings, and be heard
by the courts if they choose to appeal the Commission's final ruling.
An intervenor formally participates in the proceeding by filing a
request to intervene. Instructions for becoming an intervenor are
included in the User's Guide under the ``e-filing'' link on the
Commission's Web site. Please note that the Commission will not accept
requests for intervenor status at this time. You must wait until a
formal application for the project is filed with the Commission.
Additional Information
Additional information about the project is available from the
Commission's Office of External Affairs, at (866) 208-FERC, or on the
FERC Web site (http://www.ferc.gov) using the eLibrary link. Click on
the eLibrary link, click on ``General Search'' and enter the docket
number, excluding the last three digits in the Docket Number field
(i.e., PF11-6). Be sure you have selected an appropriate date range.
For assistance, please contact FERC Online Support at
[email protected] or toll free at (866) 208-3676, or for TTY,
contact (202) 502-8659. The eLibrary link also provides access to the
texts of formal documents issued by the Commission, such as orders,
notices, and rulemakings.
In addition, the Commission offers a free service called
eSubscription which allows you to keep track of all formal issuances
and submittals in specific dockets. This can reduce the amount of time
you spend researching proceedings
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by automatically providing you with notification of these filings,
document summaries, and direct links to the documents. Go to http://www.ferc.gov/esubscribenow.htm.
Finally, public meetings or site visits will be posted on the
Commission's calendar located at http://www.ferc.gov/EventCalendar/EventsList.aspx along with other related information.
Dated: September 29, 2011.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2011-25839 Filed 10-5-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P