[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 73 (Friday, April 15, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 22359-22360]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-08638]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
[Public Notice: 9516]
Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for
the Proposed Upland Pipeline in Williams, Mountrail, and Burke
Counties, North Dakota and Conduct a Public Scoping Meeting
AGENCY: Department of State.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of State (Department) is issuing this
Notice of Intent (NOI) to inform the public that it will prepare an
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), consistent with the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 (as implemented by the Council
on Environmental Quality regulations found at 40 CFR parts 1500-1508),
to evaluate potential impacts from the construction, connection,
operation, and maintenance of a proposed new 20-inch diameter pipeline
and associated infrastructure in North Dakota that would export crude
oil from the United States to Canada. The Upland Pipeline EIS will
address potential direct, indirect, and cumulative environmental
impacts from the proposed action and will evaluate a range of
reasonable alternatives, including a no action alternative.
The Department also plans to host a public scoping meeting on
Tuesday, May 10, 2016 from 4:00-7:00 p.m. at the Farm Festival Building
in Tioga, North Dakota to solicit public comments for consideration in
establishing the scope of the EIS.
DATES: The Department invites the public, governmental agencies, tribal
governments, and all other interested parties to comment on the scope
of the EIS. All such comments should be provided within the 45-day
public scoping period, which starts with the publication of this Notice
in the Federal Register on April 15, 2016 and will continue until May
31, 2016. Written, electronic, and oral comments will be given equal
weight and the Department will consider all comments received or
postmarked by May 30, 2016. Comments received or postmarked after that
date may be considered to the extent practicable.
ADDRESSES: Written comments may be submitted at www.regulations.gov by
entering the title of this Notice into the search field and following
the prompts. Comments may also be submitted by mail, addressed to:
Upland Project Manager, Office of Environmental Quality and
Transboundary Issues, Room 2726, U.S. Department of State, 2201 C
Street NW., Washington, DC 20520. All comments from agencies or
organizations should indicate a contact person for the agency or
organization.
Comments may also be submitted at the public scoping meeting on
Tuesday, May 10, 2016 from 4:00-7:00 p.m. at the following address:
Farm Festival Building, 640 6th Street North, Tioga, North Dakota.
FURTHER INFORMATION: For information contact the Upland Project Manager
at the address listed in ADDRESSES, by email at [email protected],
or by fax at (202) 647-5947. Information on the proposed project
details, Presidential Permit application, status of the environmental
review, etc. may be found at: http://www.state.gov/e/enr/applicant/applicants/uplandpipeline/.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Project Description
On April 22, 2015, Upland Pipeline, LLC (Upland), which is a
subsidiary of TransCanada Pipeline Limited, submitted an application
for a new Presidential Permit under E. O. 13337 of April 30, 2004 (69
FR 25299) to
[[Page 22360]]
authorize the construction, connection, operation, and maintenance of
pipeline facilities for the export of crude oil, which would be located
at the border of the United States and Canada. Upland amended the
application on July 8, 2015 to make it compliant with Section 508 of
the Rehabilitation Act and added other required clarifications. The
Upland project is designed to transport crude oil from the Williston
Basin region in North Dakota into Canada.
The proposed pipeline would have the capacity to transport
approximately 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil. The requested
Presidential Permit, if granted, would cover the border segment of
pipeline between the northernmost mainline shutoff valve in the United
States (Upland plans indicate this will be near milepost 108 of the
proposed project route in Burke County, North Dakota) and the United
States-Canada border.
The proposed Upland project would consist of approximately 124
miles of new 20-inch diameter pipeline located in Williams, Mountrail,
and Burke counties, North Dakota. The proposed pipeline would have 15
mainline valves (MLV), one at each of the five oil receipt facilities
and ten located along the pipeline route. The proposed project would
include five new aboveground receipt facilities, three of which would
also include a pump station at each. Four of the new receipt facilities
(near Aune, Epping, Beaver Lodge, and Tioga) would be located on
approximately 25-acre sites and each would have one storage tank with a
design capacity of 100,000 barrels (bbl). One of the new receipt
facilities (Trenton) would be located on an approximately 52-acre site
and include one 300,000 bbl oil storage tank. Each of the five receipt
facilities would include associated pumps, valves, truck unloading
facilities, and support equipment and facilities. Temporary
construction facilities would include three pipe yards, four rail
sidings, and one contractor yard. Fuel storage would be established at
the contractor yard and pipe yards. Access roads would be constructed
to provide adequate access to the construction sites and to the receipt
facilities and MLVs. The proposed project would also include the
establishment of one temporary workforce camp, in Williams County,
North Dakota, if needed to meet the housing needs of the construction
workforce during construction. In addition to the project facilities,
electric power lines and associated facility upgrades would be
constructed, as required, by local electric power providers to supply
power to the receipt facilities and the MLVs. The facility upgrades
would include the construction and installation of new substations and
transformers to meet the power demands of the receipt facilities.
The Canadian portion of the Upland Pipeline system would include a
20-inch diameter pipeline that would extend from the United States-
Canada border near Northgate, Saskatchewan to Moosomin, Saskatchewan or
Cromer, Manitoba. Review and approval of the proposed Canadian
facilities will be subject to the jurisdiction of the Canadian National
Energy Board as well as various local, municipal, and provincial
authorities.
The EIS Process
After due consideration of the nature and extent of the proposed
project, including evaluation of the ``Environmental Review'' section
of the Presidential Permit application, and comments received from the
public in a previous FR notice published July 31, 2015 (80 FR 45697),
the Department, consistent with NEPA, determined that the appropriate
level of NEPA review for this project is an EIS. The Department will
use the EIS to assess the environmental impacts that could result if
Upland is granted a Presidential Permit. The Department will prepare
the EIS with the assistance of a third-party contractor and invite
cooperating agencies to participate in the development of the EIS.
The EIS will evaluate potential environmental, social, cultural,
and economic impacts in the United States from the construction,
connection, operation, and maintenance of the proposed pipeline
facilities. This Notice is intended to inform agencies and the public
of the proposed project, and to solicit comments and suggestions for
the Department's consideration in its preparation of the EIS.
The Department intends to analyze impacts across a number of
resource areas, including:
Air quality (including climate change and greenhouse gas
emissions);
Water resources, including wetlands, floodplains,
waterways, water supplies and drainage;
Geography, geology, and soils;
Land use;
Threatened and endangered species, special status species,
and related sensitive resources;
Public health and safety;
Noise;
Hazardous materials;
Accidental spills and intentional destructive acts;
Cultural and historical resources;
Socioeconomic impacts, community services and
infrastructure;
Environmental justice considerations (disproportionately
high and adverse impacts to minority and low income populations); and
Cumulative impacts (past, present, and reasonably
foreseeable future actions).
This list is not intended to be all inclusive or to imply any
predetermination of impacts. The Department invites interested parties
to suggest specific issues within these general categories, or other
issues not included above, to be considered in the EIS. While the
President has delegated authority to the Department to issue permits
for pipeline facilities at the borders of the United States, the
environmental review will analyze impacts along the length of the
proposed project in the United States that are dependent upon Permit
issuance.
The scoping meeting will be held on May 10, 2016 as detailed in the
ADDRESSES section. The meeting will provide interested parties the
opportunity to view proposed project exhibits and make comments.
Department employees will be available to answer questions and provide
additional information to attendees to the extent that additional
information is available at this early stage of the environmental
review. Persons who do not wish to submit comments or suggestions at
this time but who would like to receive status updates on the EIS
process, including a notification when the Draft EIS is available for
review and comment, should notify the Upland Project Manager, as
provided in ADDRESSES or go to http://www.state.gov/e/enr/applicant/applicants/uplandpipeline/ to register to be on the mailing list.
All comments received during the scoping period may be made public,
no matter how initially submitted. Comments are not private and will
not be edited to remove identifying or contact information. Commenters
are cautioned against including any information that they would not
want publicly disclosed. Any party soliciting or aggregating comments
from other persons is further requested to direct those persons not to
include any identifying or contact information, or information they
would not want publicly disclosed, in their comments.
Deborah Klepp,
Director, Office of Environmental Quality and Transboundary Issues,
Department of State.
[FR Doc. 2016-08638 Filed 4-14-16; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4710-09-P