State Department releases draft SEIS for latest Keystone XL route

The proposed Keystone XL crude oil pipeline’s Mainline Alternative Route (MAR) in Nebraska “would have no significant direct, indirect, or cumulative effects on the quality of the natural or human environments,” the US Department of State said in a draft supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS). Impacts would occur if there was a crude oil leak but likely would not be substantial because the system would halt pumping immediately and a response plan would be implemented promptly, it said.

The draft SEIS said Keystone’s XL’s sponsor, TransCanada Corp., would implement prevention and mitigation measures in the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of the pipeline and facilities to comply with local, state, and federal regulations. These would include:

• Incorporating project-specific special conditions that the US Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration recommended that were detailed in Appendix Z of the 2014 Keystone XL Final SEIS.

• Using a supervisory control and data acquisition center (SCADA) system to monitor the pipeline facility continuously for leaks.

• Monitoring and controlling the cathodic protection system 24 hr/day, 365 days/year, from a central control facility in Edmonton, Alta.

• Maintaining required manuals, and filing required integrity management plans, as PHMSA requires.

• Implementing management plans, including a Project-Specific Horizontal Directional Drilling Contingency Plan; a Construction Mitigation and Reclamation Plan; a Reasonable and Prudent Practices for Stabilization guidance document; an Emergency Response Plan for crude oil pipelines; and Keystone’s Environmental, Health, and Safety Policy.

The proposed action covers 162 miles of construction, connection, operation, and maintenance along the MAR of the proposed 36-in. pipeline, and related ancillary facilities within Nebraska that were not analyzed within the 2014 Keystone XL Final SEIS, the latest draft SEIS said.

An American Petroleum Institute official said on Sept. 24 that this Keystone XL review reinforces past assessments that the project would have no major environmental impacts.

“This pipeline has been reviewed and debated for over a decade, and it’s time to build it,” API Midstream and Industry Operations Group Director Robin Rorick said. “Building this project is an important step to grow the benefits that come from US energy infrastructure.”

Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].