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Title: Strategic Petroleum Reserve Texoma Complex distribution enhancements: Orange and Jefferson Counties, Texas; Calcasieu and Cameron Parishes, Louisiana: Environmental assessment

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6621692

The Department of Energy is proposing to construct and operate two buried crude oil pipelines to provide for unconstrained drawdown of three Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) crude oil storage facilities of the Texoma Complex located in portions of Louisiana and Texas. The project is required to provide a crude oil distribution system capable of meeting a planned increase in the Texoma Complex drawdown rate to 2,340,000 barrels-per-day (bpd). The EA addresses a no-action alternative and alternative pipeline routes. Potential impacts from pipeline construction concern disturbances to prime farmlands, floodplains and wetlands. A very small acreage of prime farmlands is involved; the total is not considered significant. The Floodplain/Wetlands Assessment states that the effects of pipeline construction and operation on floodplains and associated wetlands will be temporary and localized. DOE determined in a Floodplain Statement of Findings that for the project as a whole there is no practicable alternative to locating in a floodplain, and that the proposal conforms to appropriate state and local floodplain protection standards. Potential impacts from pipeline operation are primarily concerned with accidental releases of crude oil to the environment. Because the pipelines will be buried, the probability of a major pipeline break releasing large quantities of crude oil is small and pipeline testing and the development of an oil spill contingency plan will reduce the seriousness of any oil spill. The proposed pipelines are expected to involve no other environmental concerns. It is the determination of DOE that the proposed Texoma Complex Distribution Enhancements do not constitute a major federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment; therefore an environmental impact statement will not be prepared. 27 refs., 3 tabs.

Research Organization:
USDOE, Washington, DC
OSTI ID:
6621692
Report Number(s):
DOE/EA-0272; ON: DE87009311
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English