The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found some missingelements in the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS)prepared by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on theAlliance Pipeline project which is in competition with Voyaguer tocarry western Canadian supplies to the Chicago area.

In particular the EPA said it would like to see furtherdiscussion of the purpose and need for including natural gasliquids in the gas stream. In some parts of the DEIS “it appearsthat the presence of NGLs is integral to the pipeline design and atother times it appears that the presence of NGLs is secondary orincidental.” It makes a difference because “many of thealternatives or subalternatives…were eliminated from furtherconsideration because of their inability to handle NGLs,” EPA said.

Another point EPA would like to see clarified in the finalenvironmental impact statement (FEIS) is FERC’s dismissal of theenvironmentally-preferable alternative using Northern BorderPipeline to transport gas from the Aux Sable processing plant toother interstate pipelnes and LDCs. This alternative would avoidthe impact associated with the last 14 miles of Alliance’spipeline.

The DEIS had pointed out that Northern Border had no plans tomake the connection and FERC could not force it to do so.

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