FERC closed out the last week in July before its August hiatus with the release late Friday of a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) that would allow construction of the controversial 4.4 Bcf capacity Weaver’s Cove LNG receiving terminal near Fall River, MA, conditioned on certain environmental mitigation and safety requirements (CP04-36).

The Weaver’s Cove DEIS is the first statement coming from the Commission has made in recent times on an application for an LNG import terminal in the eastern megalopolis. FERC already is in the trenches over a proposed LNG import terminal in Long Beach, CA (see Daily GPI, July 12). Less controversial proposals for new terminals along the Gulf of Mexico coast have aroused less opposition.

The Weaver’s Cove draft statement, produced by the FERC staff, found that the construction and operation of the terminal located on an existing industrialized site previously used as a petroleum products storage and distribution terminal would have only “limited adverse environmental impact.” It would take up 68 acres of the 73-acre site on the Taunton River feeding into Mount Hope Bay and Narragansett Bay, about 50 miles south of Boston. The project was first announced a year ago (see Daily GPI, July 23, 2003).

The $250 terminal facility would have 4.4 Bcf of storage capacity, a vaporization capacity of 400 MMcf/d on average and up to 800 MMcf/d on a peak day, and the ability to deliver up to 100 MMcf/d by truck to local and regional markets. The project includes construction of two 24-inch diameter pipelines, totaling 6.1 miles. Its sponsor is Poten & Partners’ subsidiary Weaver’s Cove Energy. Recently Amerada Hess announced it had entered into a joint venture with Weaver’s Cove (see Daily GPI, June 7).

FERC’s DEIS noted there was local opposition to the project, and said sponsors also would need a federal Coastal Zone Consistency Review in both Massachusetts and Rhode Island. “However, based on our review, we have found that the project would be consistent with the existing plans, policies, designations, and guidelines that have been established for land use development in the project area by state, regional and local entities. The state agencies responsible for administering the Massachusetts and Rhode Island Coastal Zone Management Plans participated in the development of this EIS and we have addressed the issues that have been identified.”

The DEIS recommended a number of mitigation measures surrounding the dredging of the river channel. It also evaluated the safety of the terminal and the ships in transit through Narragansett Bay, including the thermal radiation and flammable vapor dispersion exclusion zones resulting from equipment damage, making specific recommendations for improvement.

“However, the evaluation of safety is more than an exercise in calculating the consequences of worst case scenarios. Rather, it is determination of the acceptability of risk, which considers the probability of events, the effect of mitigation, and the consequences of events. Based on the extensive operational experience of LNG shipping, the structural design of an LNG vessel, the operation controls imposed by the U.S. Coast Guard and the local pilots, the likelihood of a cargo containment failure and subsequent LNG spill from a vessel casualty…is highly unlikely. For similar reasons, an accident involving the onshore LNG import terminal or LNG trucking from the terminal is unlikely to affect the public. As a result, the risk to the public from accidental causes should be considered negligible.”

In considering alternatives, the DEIS stated “there are environmental, economic and technical factors that make an offshore LNG terminal impractical as an alternative… Similarly there are no alternative LNG terminal sites at onshore locations that are reasonable and/or would be environmentally preferable to the proposed project.”

The Commission earlier had ruled that Weaver’s Cove and other similar projects would not need preliminary determinations (see Daily GPI, April 15).Comments on the DEIS are due by Sept. 20.

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