80 FR 39093 - Columbia Gas Transmission, LLC; Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Assessment for the Proposed Line 138 Abandonment and Lateral Construction Project, and Request for Comments on Environmental Issues

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Federal Register Volume 80, Issue 130 (July 8, 2015)

Page Range		39093-39094
FR Document		2015-16682
Federal Register, Volume 80 Issue 130 (Wednesday, July 8, 2015)
[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 130 (Wednesday, July 8, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39093-39094]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2015-16682]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. CP15-495-000]


Columbia Gas Transmission, LLC; Notice of Intent To Prepare an 
Environmental Assessment for the Proposed Line 138 Abandonment and 
Lateral Construction Project, and Request for Comments on Environmental 
Issues

    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 Line 138 Abandonment and 
Lateral Construction Project involving abandonment, construction, and 
operation of facilities by Columbia Gas Transmission, LLC (Columbia) in 
Fayette and Somerset Counties, Pennsylvania; Preston County, West 
Virginia; and Garret County, Maryland. The Commission will use this EA 
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. 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. 
Your input will help the Commission staff determine what issues they 
need to evaluate in the EA. To ensure that your comments are timely and 
properly recorded, please send your comments so that the Commission 
receives them in Washington, DC on or before July 30, 2015.
    If you sent comments on this project to the Commission before the 
opening of this docket on May 20, 2015, you will need to file those 
comments in Docket No. CP15-495-000 to ensure they are considered as 
part of this proceeding.
    This notice is being sent to the Commission's current environmental 
mailing list for this project. State and local government 
representatives should notify their constituents of this proposed 
project and encourage them to comment on their areas of concern.
    If you are a landowner receiving this notice, a pipeline company 
representative may contact you about the acquisition of an easement to 
construct, operate, and maintain the proposed facilities. The company 
would seek to negotiate a mutually acceptable agreement. However, if 
the Commission approves the project, that approval conveys with it the 
right of eminent domain. Therefore, if easement negotiations fail to 
produce an agreement, the pipeline company could initiate condemnation 
proceedings where compensation would be determined in accordance with 
state law.
    Columbia has provided landowners with a fact sheet prepared by the 
FERC entitled ``An Interstate Natural Gas Facility On My Land? What Do 
I Need To Know?'' 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. It is also available for viewing on 
the FERC Web site (www.ferc.gov).

Public Participation

    For your convenience, there are three methods you can use to submit 
your comments to the Commission. The Commission encourages electronic 
filing of comments and has expert staff available to assist you at 
(202) 502-8258 or [email protected]. Please carefully follow these 
instructions so that your comments are properly recorded.
    (1) You can file your comments electronically using the eComment 
feature on the Commission's Web site (www.ferc.gov) under the link to 
Documents and Filings. This is an easy method for submitting brief, 
text-only comments on a project;
    (2) You can file your comments electronically by using the eFiling 
feature on the Commission's Web site (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.'' If you are filing a comment on a particular project, 
please select ``Comment on a Filing'' as the filing type; or
    (3) You can file a paper copy of your comments by mailing them to 
the following address. Be sure to reference the project docket number 
CP15-495-000 with your submission: Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary, Federal 
Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE., Room 1A Washington, 
DC 20426.

Summary of the Proposed Project

    Columbia Gas proposes to abandon in place approximately 33 miles of 
4-inch, 6-inch, 8-inch, 16-inch-diameter bare-steel pipeline and above 
ground appurtenances located on its existing Line 138 between in 
Fayette-Somerset Counties, Pennsylvania and Garrett County, Maryland. 
This section would be abandoned due to its age and condition. In 
addition, Columbia would construct approximately 150 feet of 2-inch-
diameter pipe from its Line 1804/10240 right-of-way to the right-of-way 
of Line 138. Columbia would use the right-of-way of Line 138 to 
construct 3,350 feet of new 2-inch pipeline to connect with the 
Columbia of Pennsylvania Measuring Station in Somerset County, 
Pennsylvania to maintain service to the firm transportation customer.
    Overall, the project would involve 115 separate areas of 
disturbance along Columbia's Line 138 in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and 
West Virginia. The general location of the project facilities is shown 
in appendix 1.\1\
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    \1\ The appendices referenced in this notice will not appear in 
the Federal Register. Copies of appendices were sent to all those 
receiving this notice in the mail and are available at 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

    The proposed abandonment would disturb about 6.23 acres and the 
proposed lateral construction would disturb 4.83 acres of land during 
construction, including the temporary construction right-of-way, access 
roads, and contractor yards/staging areas.

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

[[Page 39094]]

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. We will 
consider all filed comments 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 proposed project under these 
general headings:
     Geology and soils;
     land use;
     water resources, fisheries, and wetlands;
     cultural resources;
     vegetation and wildlife; including migratory birds;
     air quality and noise;
     endangered and threatened species;
     public safety; and
     cumulative impacts.
    We will also evaluate reasonable alternatives to the proposed 
project or portions of the project, and make recommendations on how to 
lessen or avoid impacts on the various resource areas.
    The EA will present our independent analysis of the issues. The EA 
will be available in the public record through eLibrary. We may publish 
and distribute the EA to the public for an allotted comment period. We 
will consider all comments on the EA before making our recommendations 
to the Commission. To ensure we have the opportunity to consider and 
address your comments, please carefully follow the instructions in the 
Public Participation section, beginning on page 2.
    With this notice, we are asking agencies with jurisdiction by law 
and/or special expertise with respect to the environmental issues of 
this project to formally cooperate with us in the preparation of the 
EA.\3\ 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.
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    \3\ The Council on Environmental Quality regulations addressing 
cooperating agency responsibilities are at Title 40, Code of Federal 
Regulations, Part 1501.6.
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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 applicable State Historic Preservation Offices (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.\4\ We will define the project-specific Area of 
Potential Effects (APE) in consultation with the SHPOs as the project 
develops. On natural gas facility projects, the APE at a minimum 
encompasses all areas subject to ground disturbance (examples include 
construction right-of-way, contractor/pipe storage yards, compressor 
stations, and access roads). 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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    \4\ The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation's regulations 
are at Title 36, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 800. Those 
regulations define historic properties as any prehistoric or 
historic district, site, building, structure, or object included in 
or eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic 
Places.
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Environmental Mailing List

    The environmental mailing list includes federal, state, and local 
government representatives and agencies; elected officials; 
environmental and public interest groups; Native American 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 
proposed project.
    If we publish and distribute the EA, 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

    In addition to involvement in the EA scoping process, 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 in 
the User's Guide under the ``e-filing'' link on the Commission's Web 
site.

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 at 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., C15-
495). 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 by automatically providing you with 
notification of these filings, document summaries, and direct links to 
the documents. Go to www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/esubscription.asp.
    Finally, public meetings or site visits will be posted on the 
Commission's calendar located at www.ferc.gov/EventCalendar/EventsList.aspx along with other related information.

    Dated: June 30, 2015.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2015-16682 Filed 7-7-15; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6717-01-P
Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 130 / Wednesday, July 8, 2015 / Notices 39093

More information about this project, this docket on May 20, 2015, you will please select ‘‘Comment on a Filing’’ as
including a copy of the application, can need to file those comments in Docket the filing type; or
be viewed or printed on the ‘‘eLibrary’’ No. CP15–495–000 to ensure they are (3) You can file a paper copy of your
link of Commission’s Web site at considered as part of this proceeding. comments by mailing them to the
http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/ This notice is being sent to the following address. Be sure to reference
elibrary.asp. Enter the docket number Commission’s current environmental the project docket number CP15–495–
(P–13809) in the docket number field to mailing list for this project. State and 000 with your submission: Kimberly D.
access the document. For assistance, local government representatives should Bose, Secretary, Federal Energy
contact FERC Online Support. notify their constituents of this Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street
Dated: June 30, 2015. proposed project and encourage them to NE., Room 1A Washington, DC 20426.
Kimberly D. Bose, comment on their areas of concern. Summary of the Proposed Project
Secretary.
If you are a landowner receiving this
notice, a pipeline company Columbia Gas proposes to abandon in
[FR Doc. 2015–16684 Filed 7–7–15; 8:45 am] place approximately 33 miles of 4-inch,
representative may contact you about
BILLING CODE 6717–01–P
the acquisition of an easement to 6-inch, 8-inch, 16-inch-diameter bare-
construct, operate, and maintain the steel pipeline and above ground
proposed facilities. The company would appurtenances located on its existing
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Line 138 between in Fayette-Somerset
seek to negotiate a mutually acceptable
agreement. However, if the Commission Counties, Pennsylvania and Garrett
Federal Energy Regulatory County, Maryland. This section would
Commission approves the project, that approval
conveys with it the right of eminent be abandoned due to its age and
[Docket No. CP15–495–000] domain. Therefore, if easement condition. In addition, Columbia would
negotiations fail to produce an construct approximately 150 feet of 2-
Columbia Gas Transmission, LLC; inch-diameter pipe from its Line 1804/
agreement, the pipeline company could
Notice of Intent To Prepare an 10240 right-of-way to the right-of-way of
initiate condemnation proceedings
Environmental Assessment for the Line 138. Columbia would use the right-
where compensation would be
Proposed Line 138 Abandonment and of-way of Line 138 to construct 3,350
determined in accordance with state
Lateral Construction Project, and feet of new 2-inch pipeline to connect
law.
Request for Comments on with the Columbia of Pennsylvania
Columbia has provided landowners
Environmental Issues Measuring Station in Somerset County,
with a fact sheet prepared by the FERC
entitled ‘‘An Interstate Natural Gas Pennsylvania to maintain service to the
The staff of the Federal Energy
Facility On My Land? What Do I Need firm transportation customer.
Regulatory Commission (FERC or
Overall, the project would involve
Commission) will prepare an To Know?’’ This fact sheet addresses a
115 separate areas of disturbance along
environmental assessment (EA) that will number of typically asked questions,
Columbia’s Line 138 in Pennsylvania,
discuss the environmental impacts of including the use of eminent domain
Maryland, and West Virginia. The
the Line 138 Abandonment and Lateral and how to participate in the
general location of the project facilities
Construction Project involving Commission’s proceedings. It is also
is shown in appendix 1.1
abandonment, construction, and available for viewing on the FERC Web
operation of facilities by Columbia Gas site (www.ferc.gov). Land Requirements for Construction
Transmission, LLC (Columbia) in Public Participation The proposed abandonment would
Fayette and Somerset Counties, disturb about 6.23 acres and the
Pennsylvania; Preston County, West For your convenience, there are three proposed lateral construction would
Virginia; and Garret County, Maryland. methods you can use to submit your disturb 4.83 acres of land during
The Commission will use this EA in its comments to the Commission. The construction, including the temporary
decision- making process to determine Commission encourages electronic filing construction right-of-way, access roads,
whether the project is in the public of comments and has expert staff and contractor yards/staging areas.
convenience and necessity. available to assist you at (202) 502–8258
This notice announces the opening of or efiling@ferc.gov. Please carefully The EA Process
the scoping process the Commission follow these instructions so that your The National Environmental Policy
will use to gather input from the public comments are properly recorded. Act (NEPA) requires the Commission to
and interested agencies on the project. (1) You can file your comments take into account the environmental
You can make a difference by providing electronically using the eComment impacts that could result from an action
us with your specific comments or feature on the Commission’s Web site whenever it considers the issuance of a
concerns about the project. Your (www.ferc.gov) under the link to Certificate of Public Convenience and
comments should focus on the potential Documents and Filings. This is an easy Necessity. NEPA also requires us 2 to
environmental effects, reasonable method for submitting brief, text-only discover and address concerns the
alternatives, and measures to avoid or comments on a project; public may have about proposals. This
lessen environmental impacts. Your (2) You can file your comments
input will help the Commission staff electronically by using the eFiling 1 The appendices referenced in this notice will

determine what issues they need to feature on the Commission’s Web site not appear in the Federal Register. Copies of
evaluate in the EA. To ensure that your (www.ferc.gov) under the link to appendices were sent to all those receiving this
srobinson on DSK5SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES

notice in the mail and are available at www.ferc.gov
comments are timely and properly Documents and Filings. With eFiling, using the link called ‘‘eLibrary’’ or from the
recorded, please send your comments so you can provide comments in a variety Commission’s Public Reference Room, 888 First
that the Commission receives them in of formats by attaching them as a file Street NE., Washington, DC 20426, or call (202)
Washington, DC on or before July 30, with your submission. New eFiling 502–8371. For instructions on connecting to
eLibrary, refer to the last page of this notice.
2015. users must first create an account by 2 ‘‘We,’’ ‘‘us,’’ and ‘‘our’’ refer to the
If you sent comments on this project clicking on ‘‘eRegister.’’ If you are filing environmental staff of the Commission’s Office of
to the Commission before the opening of a comment on a particular project, Energy Projects.

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Document Created: 2018-02-23 09:12:43
Document Modified: 2018-02-23 09:12:43
Category		Regulatory Information
Collection		Federal Register
sudoc Class		AE 2.7: GS 4.107: AE 2.106:
Publisher		Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration
Section		Notices
FR Citation		80 FR 39093
80 FR 39093 - Columbia Gas Transmission, LLC; Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Assessment for the Proposed Line 138 Abandonment and Lateral Construction Project, and Request for Comments on Environmental Issues

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGYFederal Energy Regulatory Commission

Federal Register Volume 80, Issue 130 (July 8, 2015)

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
