81 FR 3402 - Magnum Gas Storage, LLC; Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Assessment for the Proposed Magnum Gas Storage Amendment Project and Request for Comments on Environmental Issues

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Federal Register Volume 81, Issue 13 (January 21, 2016)

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 13 (Thursday, January 21, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3402-3404]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2016-01115]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. CP16-18-000]


Magnum Gas Storage, LLC; Notice of Intent To Prepare 
anEnvironmental Assessment for the Proposed Magnum Gas Storage 
Amendment 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 Magnum Gas Storage Amendment 
Project (Project) involving construction and operation of facilities by 
Magnum Gas Storage, LLC (Magnum) in Millard, Juab, and Utah Counties, 
Utah. The Commission will use this EA in its decision-making process to 
determine whether the project is in the public convenience and 
necessity. The proposed Project is an Amendment to the Certificate of 
Public Convenience and Necessity (Certificate) issued on March 17, 2011 
in Docket No. CP10-22-000 to Magnum. The Certificate authorized Magnum 
to construct, own, and operate a natural gas storage facility in 
Millard, Juab, and Utah Counties Utah, with related facilities 
including a 61.6 mile long, 36-inch diameter natural gas header 
pipeline (Header).
    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 February 16, 2016.
    If you sent comments on this project to the Commission before the 
opening of this docket on November 16, 2015, you will need to file 
those comments in Docket No. CP16-18-000 to ensure they

[[Page 3403]]

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 Magnum 
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.
    Magnum 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/resources/guides/gas/gas.pdf).

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 
(CP16-18-000) 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

    For this Amendment, Magnum is proposing the following changes to 
its facilities, all within the previously analyzed and approved project 
area:

Facilities Eliminated From Previous Authorization

     Brine evaporation pond 1;
     monitoring wells DA-1 and DA-2; and
     monitoring wells, GA-1, GA-2, GA-9, GA-10, and GA-11.

Pipeline Header

     A 6,252-foot-long segment of the header pipeline would be 
relocated 63 feet north, west of Jones road in Millard County, Utah.

Aboveground Facilities Relocated on Previous Authorized Site

     Four natural gas caverns;
     water wells 1 through 5;
     compression, dehydration, and pumping facilities;
     4-inch gas supply line;
     maintenance and laydown area;
     office/warehouse building and substation; and
     site-wide utilities.
    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

    For the Magnum Project approved in the March 17, 2011 Order, 
construction and operation would require the use of approximately 1,800 
acres of land. The gas storage facilities would be located on a 2,050 
acre site. Approximately 28 miles of the 61.6-mile-long Header would be 
collocated with the existing Utah-Nevada and Kern River Gas Pipelines. 
Also, a portion of the Header would also be located within the West 
Wide Energy Corridor. For the proposed Amendment, a 6,252-foot-long 
segment of the header pipeline would be relocated 63 feet north, west 
of Jones road. Magnum is not proposing any changes to the temporary or 
permanent right-of-way width for this portion of the Header alignment. 
Therefore, the previously approved temporary and permanent disturbance 
acreage would not increase.

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. 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. Depending on 
the comments received during the scoping process, we may also 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

[[Page 3404]]

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 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.\4\ We will define the project-specific Area of 
Potential Effects (APE) in consultation with the SHPO 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.
    Copies of the EA 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 ``Document-less Intervention Guide'' under the ``e-filing'' link on 
the Commission's Web site. Motions to intervene are more fully 
described at http://www.ferc.gov/resources/guides/how-to/intervene.asp.

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., CP16-
18). 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: January 14, 2016.
Nathaniel J. Davis, Sr.,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2016-01115 Filed 1-20-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6717-01-P