The US Army Corps of Engineers Alaska District released the final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Alaska Stand Alone Pipeline (ASAP) project. The June 22 action signaled that the proposed 733-mile natural gas pipeline from the Alaska North Slope (ANS) to south-central Alaska completed its National Environmental Policy Act review, and a record of decision (ROD) will be issued 30 days later.
ASAP will connect with Enstar Natural Gas Co.’s distribution system in south-central Alaska, and a 30-mile, 12-in. lateral will connect the main line to Fairbanks, ACE Alaska said in a special public notice. The ROD will state ACE Alaska’s decision whether to authorize the proposed project, and if so, the conditions under which it would be allowed to occur, and the factors considered in the decision, it said.
Publication of the final SEIS for ASAP is the culmination of extensive engineering and design work that began in 2010 when Alaska’s legislature voted to address potential gas shortages in the state’s major cities, said Keith Meyer, president of Alaska Gasline Development Corp. (AGDC), an independent public corporation in Anchorage that is part of the state government.
After regulatory work for ASAP began, the ANS’s major producers proposed a larger diameter pipeline and an LNG export facility known as the Alaska LNG Project. AGDC joined that project in 2014 and assumed control of it 3 years later but decided to complete ASAP’s regulatory process to have an assured pipeline alternative that would supply gas to Alaska customers, Meyer said.
The two projects share many similar characteristics, Meyer said. Both include buried pipelines, share a common mainline alignment for more than 80% of the route, and provide gas to Alaskans. The Alaska LNG Project, however, includes a liquefaction and export component to ship ANS gas to buyers across the Asia-Pacific region, Meyer said.
“AGDC is advancing two [ANS] gas pipeline projects on parallel paths but only one will be built,” said AGDC Senior Vice-Pres. Frank Richards. “We have avoided duplication of work efforts and both projects have benefited from data sharing. The final SEIS for the ASAP Project sets the stage for AGDC to build a pipeline from the [ANS] and better positions the Alaska LNG Project for success.
Richards said AGDC will leverage this federal approval in its work with the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to advance the Alaska LNG Project expeditiously since the federal agencies now are intimately familiar with the environmental conditions along the common alignment.
AGDC said ASAP’s final SEIS and its forthcoming ROD will lead to three more federal authorizations later this summer that will benefit both projects:
• An ACE-approved wetlands mitigation plan, which will satisfy requirements under the federal Clean Water Act.
• A signed Programmatic Agreement for cultural resources by Alaska Native tribes, state and federal agencies, and AGDC, which will satisfy National Historic Preservation Act requirements.
• A federal right-of-way grant from the US Bureau of Land Management to AGDC that will allow a gas pipeline to be constructed and operated on BLM-managed lands that it traverses.
Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].