81 FR 69810 - Texas Eastern Transmission, LP; Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Assessment for the Proposed Marshall County Mine Panel 17w Project Request for Comments on Environmental Issues

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Federal Register Volume 81, Issue 195 (October 7, 2016)

Page Range		69810-69811
FR Document		2016-24268

Federal Register, Volume 81 Issue 195 (Friday, October 7, 2016)

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 195 (Friday, October 7, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 69810-69811]
From the Federal Register Online [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2016-24268]

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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. CP16-501-000]

Texas Eastern Transmission, LP; Notice of Intent To Prepare an
Environmental Assessment for the Proposed Marshall County Mine Panel
17w Project 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 proposed Marshall County Mine
Panel 17W Project involving construction and operation of facilities by
Texas Eastern Transmission, LP (Texas Eastern) in Marshall County, West
Virginia. Texas Eastern indicates the project would excavate, elevate
and/or replace certain sections of four different pipelines and
appurtenant facilities located in Marshall County due to planned
longwall mining activities. 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 October 30, 2016.
If you sent comments on this project to the Commission before the
opening of this docket on September 29, 2016, you will need to file
those comments in Docket No. CP16-501-000 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.
Texas Eastern 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 efiling@ferc.gov. 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
(CP16-501-000) 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

Texas Eastern proposes to excavate and elevate 0.5-mile-sections of
each of its Lines 10 (30-inch diameter), 15 (30-inch-diameter), 25 (36-
inch-diameter) and 30 (36-inch-diameter) to minimize and monitor
potential strains on the pipelines due to anticipated longwall mining
activities of Marshall Coal. Concurrent with pipeline elevation,
portions of two of the lines, Lines 10 and 15, would be replaced with
new pipe to accommodate a minimum Class 2 design. All but two sections
of Lines 10 and 15 will be removed. Texas Eastern will also perform
maintenance activities on sections of Lines 25 and 30. The four
mainline sections will be returned to natural gas service while
remaining elevated using sandbags and skids during the longwall mining
activities and potential ground subsidence. Once the mining-induced
subsidence and the 2017-2018 heating season have both ended, the two
sections of Lines 10 and 15 located within wetlands will be removed and
the four elevated pipeline sections will be re-installed belowground,
hydrostatically tested, and placed back into service.
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

Construction workspace would disturb about 54.7 acres of land for
the pipeline excavation, elevation, and/or replacement. Following
construction, Texas Eastern would maintain about 8.6 acres of existing
right-of-way for permanent operation of the project's facilities; the
remaining acreage would be restored and revert to former uses.

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 69811]]

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;
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 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.
If we publish and distribute the EA, 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-
501). Be sure you have selected an appropriate date range. For
assistance, please contact FERC Online Support at
FercOnlineSupport@ferc.gov 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: September 30, 2016.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2016-24268 Filed 10-6-16; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P

69810 Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 195 / Friday, October 7, 2016 / Notices

Dated: September 30, 2016. local government representatives should Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street
Kimberly D. Bose, notify their constituents of this NE., Room 1A, Washington, DC 20426.
Secretary. proposed project and encourage them to
Summary of the Proposed Project
[FR Doc. 2016–24274 Filed 10–6–16; 8:45 am] comment on their areas of concern.
BILLING CODE 6717–01–P
If you are a landowner receiving this Texas Eastern proposes to excavate
notice, a pipeline company and elevate 0.5-mile-sections of each of
representative may contact you about its Lines 10 (30-inch diameter), 15 (30-
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY the acquisition of an easement to inch-diameter), 25 (36-inch-diameter)
construct, operate, and maintain the and 30 (36-inch-diameter) to minimize
Federal Energy Regulatory proposed facilities. The company would and monitor potential strains on the
Commission seek to negotiate a mutually acceptable pipelines due to anticipated longwall
agreement. However, if the Commission mining activities of Marshall Coal.
[Docket No. CP16–501–000]
approves the project, that approval Concurrent with pipeline elevation,
Texas Eastern Transmission, LP; conveys with it the right of eminent portions of two of the lines, Lines 10
Notice of Intent To Prepare an domain. Therefore, if easement and 15, would be replaced with new
Environmental Assessment for the negotiations fail to produce an pipe to accommodate a minimum Class
Proposed Marshall County Mine Panel agreement, the pipeline company could 2 design. All but two sections of Lines
17w Project Request for Comments on initiate condemnation proceedings 10 and 15 will be removed. Texas
Environmental Issues where compensation would be Eastern will also perform maintenance
determined in accordance with state activities on sections of Lines 25 and 30.
The staff of the Federal Energy law. The four mainline sections will be
Regulatory Commission (FERC or Texas Eastern provided landowners returned to natural gas service while
Commission) will prepare an with a fact sheet prepared by the FERC remaining elevated using sandbags and
environmental assessment (EA) that will entitled ‘‘An Interstate Natural Gas skids during the longwall mining
discuss the environmental impacts of Facility On My Land? What Do I Need activities and potential ground
the proposed Marshall County Mine To Know?’’ This fact sheet addresses a subsidence. Once the mining-induced
Panel 17W Project involving number of typically asked questions, subsidence and the 2017–2018 heating
construction and operation of facilities including the use of eminent domain season have both ended, the two
by Texas Eastern Transmission, LP and how to participate in the sections of Lines 10 and 15 located
(Texas Eastern) in Marshall County, Commission’s proceedings. It is also within wetlands will be removed and
West Virginia. Texas Eastern indicates available for viewing on the FERC Web the four elevated pipeline sections will
the project would excavate, elevate and/ site (www.ferc.gov). be re-installed belowground,
or replace certain sections of four hydrostatically tested, and placed back
different pipelines and appurtenant Public Participation
into service.
facilities located in Marshall County For your convenience, there are three The general location of the project
due to planned longwall mining methods you can use to submit your facilities is shown in appendix 1.1
activities. The Commission will use this comments to the Commission. The
EA in its decision-making process to Commission encourages electronic filing Land Requirements for Construction
determine whether the project is in the of comments and has expert staff Construction workspace would
public convenience and necessity. available to assist you at (202) 502–8258 disturb about 54.7 acres of land for the
This notice announces the opening of or efiling@ferc.gov. Please carefully pipeline excavation, elevation, and/or
the scoping process the Commission follow these instructions so that your replacement. Following construction,
will use to gather input from the public comments are properly recorded. Texas Eastern would maintain about 8.6
and interested agencies on the project. (1) You can file your comments acres of existing right-of-way for
You can make a difference by providing electronically using the eComment permanent operation of the project’s
us with your specific comments or feature on the Commission’s Web site facilities; the remaining acreage would
concerns about the project. Your (www.ferc.gov) under the link to be restored and revert to former uses.
comments should focus on the potential Documents and Filings. This is an easy
environmental effects, reasonable method for submitting brief, text-only The EA Process
alternatives, and measures to avoid or comments on a project; The National Environmental Policy
lessen environmental impacts. Your (2) You can file your comments Act (NEPA) requires the Commission to
input will help the Commission staff electronically by using the eFiling take into account the environmental
determine what issues they need to feature on the Commission’s Web site impacts that could result from an action
evaluate in the EA. To ensure that your (www.ferc.gov) under the link to whenever it considers the issuance of a
comments are timely and properly Documents and Filings. With eFiling, Certificate of Public Convenience and
recorded, please send your comments so you can provide comments in a variety Necessity. NEPA also requires us 2 to
that the Commission receives them in of formats by attaching them as a file discover and address concerns the
Washington, DC on or before October with your submission. New eFiling public may have about proposals. This
30, 2016. users must first create an account by
If you sent comments on this project clicking on ‘‘eRegister.’’ If you are filing 1 The appendices referenced in this notice will

to the Commission before the opening of a comment on a particular project, not appear in the Federal Register. Copies of
appendices were sent to all those receiving this
this docket on September 29, 2016, you please select ‘‘Comment on a Filing’’ as
mstockstill on DSK3G9T082PROD with NOTICES

notice in the mail and are available at www.ferc.gov
will need to file those comments in the filing type; or using the link called ‘‘eLibrary’’ or from the
Docket No. CP16–501–000 to ensure (3) You can file a paper copy of your Commission’s Public Reference Room, 888 First
they are considered as part of this comments by mailing them to the Street NE., Washington, DC 20426, or call (202)
following address. Be sure to reference 502–8371. For instructions on connecting to
proceeding. eLibrary, refer to the last page of this notice.
This notice is being sent to the the project docket number (CP16–501– 2 ‘‘We,’’ ‘‘us,’’ and ‘‘our’’ refer to the
Commission’s current environmental 000) with your submission: Kimberly D. environmental staff of the Commission’s Office of
mailing list for this project. State and Bose, Secretary, Federal Energy Energy Projects.

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Document Created: 2018-02-13 16:32:18
Document Modified: 2018-02-13 16:32:18

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		81 FR 69810

81 FR 69810 - Texas Eastern Transmission, LP; Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Assessment for the Proposed Marshall County Mine Panel 17w Project Request for Comments on Environmental Issues

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGYFederal Energy Regulatory Commission

Federal Register Volume 81, Issue 195 (October 7, 2016)

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission