Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the Proposed Upland Pipeline in Williams, Mountrail, and Burke Counties, North Dakota and Conduct a Public Scoping Meeting, 22359-22360 [2016-08638]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF STATE

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 73 (Friday, April 15, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 22359-22360]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-08638]


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DEPARTMENT OF STATE

[Public Notice: 9516]


Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for 
the Proposed Upland Pipeline in Williams, Mountrail, and Burke 
Counties, North Dakota and Conduct a Public Scoping Meeting

AGENCY: Department of State.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of State (Department) is issuing this 
Notice of Intent (NOI) to inform the public that it will prepare an 
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), consistent with the National 
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 (as implemented by the Council 
on Environmental Quality regulations found at 40 CFR parts 1500-1508), 
to evaluate potential impacts from the construction, connection, 
operation, and maintenance of a proposed new 20-inch diameter pipeline 
and associated infrastructure in North Dakota that would export crude 
oil from the United States to Canada. The Upland Pipeline EIS will 
address potential direct, indirect, and cumulative environmental 
impacts from the proposed action and will evaluate a range of 
reasonable alternatives, including a no action alternative.
    The Department also plans to host a public scoping meeting on 
Tuesday, May 10, 2016 from 4:00-7:00 p.m. at the Farm Festival Building 
in Tioga, North Dakota to solicit public comments for consideration in 
establishing the scope of the EIS.

DATES: The Department invites the public, governmental agencies, tribal 
governments, and all other interested parties to comment on the scope 
of the EIS. All such comments should be provided within the 45-day 
public scoping period, which starts with the publication of this Notice 
in the Federal Register on April 15, 2016 and will continue until May 
31, 2016. Written, electronic, and oral comments will be given equal 
weight and the Department will consider all comments received or 
postmarked by May 30, 2016. Comments received or postmarked after that 
date may be considered to the extent practicable.

ADDRESSES: Written comments may be submitted at www.regulations.gov by 
entering the title of this Notice into the search field and following 
the prompts. Comments may also be submitted by mail, addressed to: 
Upland Project Manager, Office of Environmental Quality and 
Transboundary Issues, Room 2726, U.S. Department of State, 2201 C 
Street NW., Washington, DC 20520. All comments from agencies or 
organizations should indicate a contact person for the agency or 
organization.
    Comments may also be submitted at the public scoping meeting on 
Tuesday, May 10, 2016 from 4:00-7:00 p.m. at the following address: 
Farm Festival Building, 640 6th Street North, Tioga, North Dakota.

FURTHER INFORMATION: For information contact the Upland Project Manager 
at the address listed in ADDRESSES, by email at UplandReview@state.gov, 
or by fax at (202) 647-5947. Information on the proposed project 
details, Presidential Permit application, status of the environmental 
review, etc. may be found at: https://www.state.gov/e/enr/applicant/applicants/uplandpipeline/.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Project Description

    On April 22, 2015, Upland Pipeline, LLC (Upland), which is a 
subsidiary of TransCanada Pipeline Limited, submitted an application 
for a new Presidential Permit under E. O. 13337 of April 30, 2004 (69 
FR 25299) to

[[Page 22360]]

authorize the construction, connection, operation, and maintenance of 
pipeline facilities for the export of crude oil, which would be located 
at the border of the United States and Canada. Upland amended the 
application on July 8, 2015 to make it compliant with Section 508 of 
the Rehabilitation Act and added other required clarifications. The 
Upland project is designed to transport crude oil from the Williston 
Basin region in North Dakota into Canada.
    The proposed pipeline would have the capacity to transport 
approximately 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil. The requested 
Presidential Permit, if granted, would cover the border segment of 
pipeline between the northernmost mainline shutoff valve in the United 
States (Upland plans indicate this will be near milepost 108 of the 
proposed project route in Burke County, North Dakota) and the United 
States-Canada border.
    The proposed Upland project would consist of approximately 124 
miles of new 20-inch diameter pipeline located in Williams, Mountrail, 
and Burke counties, North Dakota. The proposed pipeline would have 15 
mainline valves (MLV), one at each of the five oil receipt facilities 
and ten located along the pipeline route. The proposed project would 
include five new aboveground receipt facilities, three of which would 
also include a pump station at each. Four of the new receipt facilities 
(near Aune, Epping, Beaver Lodge, and Tioga) would be located on 
approximately 25-acre sites and each would have one storage tank with a 
design capacity of 100,000 barrels (bbl). One of the new receipt 
facilities (Trenton) would be located on an approximately 52-acre site 
and include one 300,000 bbl oil storage tank. Each of the five receipt 
facilities would include associated pumps, valves, truck unloading 
facilities, and support equipment and facilities. Temporary 
construction facilities would include three pipe yards, four rail 
sidings, and one contractor yard. Fuel storage would be established at 
the contractor yard and pipe yards. Access roads would be constructed 
to provide adequate access to the construction sites and to the receipt 
facilities and MLVs. The proposed project would also include the 
establishment of one temporary workforce camp, in Williams County, 
North Dakota, if needed to meet the housing needs of the construction 
workforce during construction. In addition to the project facilities, 
electric power lines and associated facility upgrades would be 
constructed, as required, by local electric power providers to supply 
power to the receipt facilities and the MLVs. The facility upgrades 
would include the construction and installation of new substations and 
transformers to meet the power demands of the receipt facilities.
    The Canadian portion of the Upland Pipeline system would include a 
20-inch diameter pipeline that would extend from the United States-
Canada border near Northgate, Saskatchewan to Moosomin, Saskatchewan or 
Cromer, Manitoba. Review and approval of the proposed Canadian 
facilities will be subject to the jurisdiction of the Canadian National 
Energy Board as well as various local, municipal, and provincial 
authorities.

The EIS Process

    After due consideration of the nature and extent of the proposed 
project, including evaluation of the ``Environmental Review'' section 
of the Presidential Permit application, and comments received from the 
public in a previous FR notice published July 31, 2015 (80 FR 45697), 
the Department, consistent with NEPA, determined that the appropriate 
level of NEPA review for this project is an EIS. The Department will 
use the EIS to assess the environmental impacts that could result if 
Upland is granted a Presidential Permit. The Department will prepare 
the EIS with the assistance of a third-party contractor and invite 
cooperating agencies to participate in the development of the EIS.
    The EIS will evaluate potential environmental, social, cultural, 
and economic impacts in the United States from the construction, 
connection, operation, and maintenance of the proposed pipeline 
facilities. This Notice is intended to inform agencies and the public 
of the proposed project, and to solicit comments and suggestions for 
the Department's consideration in its preparation of the EIS.
    The Department intends to analyze impacts across a number of 
resource areas, including:
     Air quality (including climate change and greenhouse gas 
emissions);
     Water resources, including wetlands, floodplains, 
waterways, water supplies and drainage;
     Geography, geology, and soils;
     Land use;
     Threatened and endangered species, special status species, 
and related sensitive resources;
     Public health and safety;
     Noise;
     Hazardous materials;
     Accidental spills and intentional destructive acts;
     Cultural and historical resources;
     Socioeconomic impacts, community services and 
infrastructure;
     Environmental justice considerations (disproportionately 
high and adverse impacts to minority and low income populations); and
     Cumulative impacts (past, present, and reasonably 
foreseeable future actions).
    This list is not intended to be all inclusive or to imply any 
predetermination of impacts. The Department invites interested parties 
to suggest specific issues within these general categories, or other 
issues not included above, to be considered in the EIS. While the 
President has delegated authority to the Department to issue permits 
for pipeline facilities at the borders of the United States, the 
environmental review will analyze impacts along the length of the 
proposed project in the United States that are dependent upon Permit 
issuance.
    The scoping meeting will be held on May 10, 2016 as detailed in the 
ADDRESSES section. The meeting will provide interested parties the 
opportunity to view proposed project exhibits and make comments. 
Department employees will be available to answer questions and provide 
additional information to attendees to the extent that additional 
information is available at this early stage of the environmental 
review. Persons who do not wish to submit comments or suggestions at 
this time but who would like to receive status updates on the EIS 
process, including a notification when the Draft EIS is available for 
review and comment, should notify the Upland Project Manager, as 
provided in ADDRESSES or go to https://www.state.gov/e/enr/applicant/applicants/uplandpipeline/ to register to be on the mailing list.
    All comments received during the scoping period may be made public, 
no matter how initially submitted. Comments are not private and will 
not be edited to remove identifying or contact information. Commenters 
are cautioned against including any information that they would not 
want publicly disclosed. Any party soliciting or aggregating comments 
from other persons is further requested to direct those persons not to 
include any identifying or contact information, or information they 
would not want publicly disclosed, in their comments.

Deborah Klepp,
Director, Office of Environmental Quality and Transboundary Issues, 
Department of State.
[FR Doc. 2016-08638 Filed 4-14-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4710-09-P