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Gas - Environment - Environmental Impact Statements (EISs)
Final EIS recommends approval of proposed Capacity Replacement
Pipeline Project in Washington
Issued: July 29, 2005
Capacity Replacement Pipeline
Staff's final environmental impact statement recommended approval
to replace the majority of the delivery capacity of Northwest
Pipeline's existing 268-mile-long, 26-inch-diameter pipeline.
The project would also construct and operate 79.5 miles of new
36-inch-diameter pipeline in 4 separate loops in Whatcom, Skagit,
Snohomish, King, Pierce, and Thurston Counties, Washington.
Northwest's proposed mitigation, and the FERC staff's additional
mitigation recommendations, it would be an environmentally acceptable
action. The principal reasons are:
- 99 percent of the proposed loops would be within or adjacent
to Northwest's existing right-of-way and 93 percent of the
proposed loops would be within Northwest's existing permanent
easement;
- Northwest would abandon the existing 26-inch-diameter pipeline
in place in the locations along the non-looped portions of
its system, which would eliminate disturbance to 188.5 miles
of the right-of-way with the exception of the activities that
would occur to isolate the 26-inch-diameter pipeline from
other system components;
- Northwest would submit documentation of concurrence from
the WDOE that the project is consistent with the Washington
Coastal Zone Management Program before construction;
- Use of a Horizontal Directional Drill method would avoid
disturbances to the beds and banks of the North Fork Nooksack,
North Fork Stillaguamish, and South Fork Stillaguamish Rivers
and associated wetlands/riparian areas; and
- Northwest would implement approved waterbody crossing and
compensatory wetland mitigation plans to minimize and compensate
for unavoidable stream and wetland impacts.
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