The staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Port of Long Beach, CA, filed notice Monday that they are starting the process of preparing a joint environmental impact report on the proposed Mitsubishi-backed Sound Energy Solutions (SES) liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal on part of the former U.S. naval base in the port. They will hold a joint “scoping meeting” in Long Beach Oct. 9.

At stake are federal LNG import and port terminal building permits, neither of which could happen before the environmental work is completed some time next year, according to the project proponents. The sponsors and port jointly held a stakeholders “open house” Sept. 4 for many of the local government and community leaders who will be weighing in on the permitting process.

All affected neighbors and stakeholders have been notified, the federal notice said, designating that FERC will be the lead federal agency in the preparation of a combined “environmental impact statement, environment impact report and application summary report (EIS, EIR, ASR),” and the port will be the lead California agency.

Separately, local law enforcement officials and a grass roots effort bankrolled by former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan are raising concerns about homeland security issue at the Long Beach-Los Angeles ports, which combined are the nation’s busiest. A Los Angeles County supervisor, whose district includes both ports, has scheduled a fact-finding meeting Thursday on the port security issues. The LNG proponents, at this point, are not part of that effort, a spokesperson told NGI on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for the Mitsubishi project developers said it was the intention of the government agencies to adopt the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) approach to the environmental review process by “getting as many as possible of the tough questions answers in the data-gathering process, so they are available at the time of the formal review.” The LNG terminal proponents have been informally providing FERC staff with data related to the site permitting since early this year, the spokesperson said.

The joint notice Monday summarized the proposed project as a 700 MMcf/d-capacity LNG receiving terminal on a 27-acre site (formerly a Navy shipyard), requiring a “limited amount of dredging” (75,000-125,000 cubic yards), and the dredged material would be disposed of in a “confined landfill” within the port. A 20- to 30-acre adjacent site would be required during the construction.

Along with a ship berth and unloading facilities capable of receiving LNG tankers with 95,000 to 145,000 cubic meters of cargo, there will be two 160,000-meter storage tanks, vaporization equipment, truck unloading for LNG supplies that will be used in the port to displace current diesel applications, and a 4.4-mile natural gas pipeline linked to Southern California Gas Co.’s transmission system serving the heavily industrialized area.

“FERC will use the EIS/EIR/ASR to consider the environmental impact that could result if it approves Sound Energy Solutions’ importing of LNG at the site,” the notice said. “(Long Beach) will use the document to determine the project’s consistency with the certified Port Master Plan and the California Coastal Act as well as to consider the environmental impact that could result if it issues SES a harbor development permit.”

Sound Energy Solutions, the Mitsubishi company proposing to build and operate the LNG terminal, submitted an application for a harbor development permit July 25. It still has not submitted a formal application to FERC, but the agency is initiating its preliminary review now to expedite the process, a SES spokesperson said. FERC’s staff work is part of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) pre-filing process, the formal notice on Monday stated.

In the notice both FERC and the port acknowledged that “early discussions with other jurisdictional agencies” have been held, including the California Coastal Commission, California Department of Fish and Game, National Marine Fisheries Service, Regional Water Quality Control Board’s Los Angeles Region, South Coast Air Quality Management District, U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (ACOE), U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

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