83 FR 55156 - Texas LNG Brownsville, LLC; Notice of Availability of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Proposed Texas LNG Project

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Federal Register Volume 83, Issue 213 (November 2, 2018)

[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 213 (Friday, November 2, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55156-55157]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2018-23998]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. CP16-116-000]


Texas LNG Brownsville, LLC; Notice of Availability of the Draft 
Environmental Impact Statement for the Proposed Texas LNG Project

    The staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or 
Commission) has prepared a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) 
for the Texas LNG Project, proposed by Texas LNG Brownsville, LLC 
(Texas LNG) in the above-referenced docket. Texas LNG requests 
authorization to site, construct, modify, and operate liquefied natural 
gas (LNG) export facilities on the Brownsville Ship Channel in Cameron 
County, Texas. The Texas LNG Project would include a new LNG export 
terminal capable of producing up to 4 million tonnes per annum of LNG 
for export. The terminal would receive natural gas to the export 
facilities from a third-party intrastate pipeline.
    The draft EIS assesses the potential environmental effects of the 
construction and operation of the Texas LNG Project in accordance with 
the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The 
FERC staff concludes that approval of the Texas LNG Project would 
result in adverse environmental impacts. However, with the mitigation 
measures recommended in the EIS, impacts in the project area would be 
avoided or minimized and would not be significant, with the exception 
of visual resources when viewed from the Laguna Atascosa National 
Wildlife Refuge. In addition, the Texas LNG Project, combined with 
other projects in the geographic scope, including the Rio Grande LNG 
and Annova LNG Projects, would result in significant cumulative impacts 
from sediment/turbidity and shoreline erosions within the Brownsville 
Ship Channel during operations from vessel transits; on the federally 
listed ocelot and jaguarundi from habitat loss and potential for 
increased vehicular strikes during construction; and on visual 
resources from the presence of aboveground structures. Construction and 
operation of the Texas LNG Project would result in mostly temporary or 
short-term environmental impacts; however, some long-term and permanent 
environmental impacts would occur.
    The U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Army Corps of 
Engineers, U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous 
Materials Safety Administration and Federal Aviation Administration, 
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 
National Park Service, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service participated as 
cooperating agencies in the preparation of the EIS. Cooperating 
agencies have jurisdiction by law or special expertise with respect to 
resources potentially affected by the proposal and participate in the 
NEPA analysis. Although the cooperating agencies provided input to the 
conclusions and recommendations presented in the draft EIS, the 
agencies will present their own conclusions and recommendations in 
their respective Records of Decision for the project.
    The draft EIS addresses the potential environmental effects of the 
construction and operation of the following project facilities:

 Gas gate station and interconnect facility;
 pretreatment facility for carbon dioxide removal and 
dehydration;
 turbo-expander for pentane plus heavy carbon removal;
 a Liquefaction Plant consisting of two liquefaction trains and 
ancillary support facilities;
 two approximately 210,000 m\3\ aboveground full containment 
LNG storage tanks with cryogenic pipeline connections to the 
Liquefaction Plant and berthing dock;
 an LNG carrier berthing dock capable of receiving LNG carriers 
between approximately 130,000 m\3\ and 180,000 m\3\ in capacity;
 a permanent material offloading facility to allow waterborne 
deliveries of equipment and materials during construction and mooring 
of tug boats while an LNG carrier is at the berth;
 thermal oxidizer, warm wet flare, cold dry flare, spare flare, 
acid gas flare, and marine flare; and
 administration, control, maintenance, and warehouse buildings 
and related parking lots; electrical transmission line and substation, 
water pipeline, septic system, natural gas pipeline, and stormwater 
facilities/outfalls.

    The Commission mailed a copy of the Notice of Availability to 
federal, state, and local government representatives and agencies; 
elected officials; environmental and public interest groups; Native 
American tribes; potentially affected landowners and other interested 
individuals and groups; and newspapers and libraries in the project 
area. The draft EIS is only available in electronic format. It may be 
viewed and downloaded from the FERC's website (www.ferc.gov), on the 
Environmental Documents page (https://www.ferc.gov/industries/gas/enviro/eis.asp). In addition, the draft EIS may be accessed by using 
the eLibrary link on the FERC's website. Click on the eLibrary link 
(https://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/elibrary.asp), click on General 
Search, and enter the docket number in the Docket Number field, 
excluding the last three digits (i.e., CP16-116). 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.
    Any person wishing to comment on the draft EIS may do so. Your 
comments should focus on draft EIS's disclosure and discussion of 
potential environmental effects, reasonable alternatives, and measures 
to avoid or lessen environmental impacts. To

[[Page 55157]]

ensure consideration of your comments on the proposal in the final EIS, 
it is important that the Commission receive your comments on or before 
5:00pm Eastern Time on December 17, 2018.
    For your convenience, there are four methods you can use to submit 
your comments to the Commission. The Commission will provide equal 
consideration to all comments received, whether filed in written form 
or provided verbally. The Commission encourages electronic filing of 
comments and has staff available to assist you at (866) 208-3676 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 website (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 website (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 
(CP16-116-000) with your submission: Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary, 
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE, Room 1A, 
Washington, DC 20426
    (4) In lieu of sending written or electronic comments, the 
Commission invites you to attend the public comment session its staff 
will conduct in the project area to receive comments on the draft EIS, 
scheduled as follows:

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               Date and time                          Location
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Thursday, November 15, 2018; 5:00--9:00     Port Isabel Convention
 p.m. local time.                            Center, 309 E. Railroad
                                             Ave, Port Isabel, TX 78578,
                                             956-433-7195.
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    The primary goal of this comment session is to have you identify 
the specific environmental issues and concerns with the draft EIS. 
Individual verbal comments will be taken on a one-on-one basis with a 
court reporter. This format is designed to receive the maximum amount 
of verbal comments, in a convenient way during the timeframe allotted.
    The scoping session is scheduled from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. local 
time. You may arrive at any time after 5:00 p.m. There will not be a 
formal presentation by Commission staff when the session opens. If you 
wish to speak, the Commission staff will hand out numbers in the order 
of your arrival. Comments will be taken until the closing hour for the 
comment session. However, if no additional numbers have been handed out 
and all individuals who wish to provide comments have had an 
opportunity to do so, staff may conclude the session 30 minutes before 
the closing hour.\1\ Your verbal comments will be recorded by the court 
reporter (with FERC staff or representative present) and become part of 
the public record for this proceeding. Transcripts will be publicly 
available on FERC's eLibrary system (see below for instructions on 
using eLibrary). If a significant number of people are interested in 
providing verbal comments in the one-on-one settings, a time limit of 5 
minutes may be implemented for each commenter.
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    \1\ The appendices referenced in this notice will not appear in 
the Federal Register. Copies of the 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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    It is important to note that verbal comments hold the same weight 
as written or electronically submitted comments. Although there will 
not be a formal presentation, Commission staff will be available 
throughout the comment session to answer your questions about the 
environmental review process.
    Any person seeking to become a party to the proceeding must file a 
motion to intervene pursuant to Rule 214 of the Commission's Rules of 
Practice and Procedures (18 CFR part 385.214). Motions to intervene are 
more fully described at http://www.ferc.gov/resources/guides/how-to/intervene.asp. Only intervenors have the right to seek rehearing or 
judicial review of the Commission's decision. The Commission grants 
affected landowners and others with environmental concerns intervenor 
status upon showing good cause by stating that they have a clear and 
direct interest in this proceeding which no other party can adequately 
represent. Simply filing environmental comments will not give you 
intervenor status, but you do not need intervenor status to have your 
comments considered.

Questions?

    Additional information about the project is available from the 
Commission's Office of External Affairs, at (866) 208-FERC, or on the 
FERC website (www.ferc.gov) using the eLibrary link. The eLibrary link 
also provides access to the texts of all formal documents issued by the 
Commission, such as orders, notices, and rulemakings.
    In addition, the Commission offers a free service called 
eSubscription that 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.

    Dated: October 26, 2018.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2018-23998 Filed 11-1-18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P