This review makes it much more likely that the controversial project will be built.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission released a final environmental impact statement that found AES Corp.’s natural-gas pipeline would have little impact on coral reefs, endangered species or other natural resources. The review said the company’s plans to drill a route under the reefs would spare them any permanent damage, and it said the land route would mainly follow roads, railroad tracks and other existing rights of way.
The proposal next goes for a vote by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a five-member board appointed by President Bush to regulate the interstate transmission of oil, electricity and natural gas. The proposal also needs the approval of the government of the Bahamas, where opposition has been growing. But if all goes favorably, the company plans to begin construction next fall.
Don Bartlett, project manager for AES, said he was pleased with the environmental review.
“It’s a key marker in the process,” he said. “It’s a compliment to our team that we have addressed all of their issues.”
The 94-mile pipeline is one of three proposed to bring natural gas from the Bahamas to South Florida, where it would serve primarily as fuel for power plants. All three projects call for liquefied natural gas to come by ship to the Bahamas, where processing plants would convert it to gas and shoot it through the pipelines to South Florida.
While the latest environmental review appears highly favorable, a draft review with similar conclusions drew heavy criticism from the National Marine Fisheries Service for failing to take a hard enough look at the potential harm to reefs, mangrove shorelines and marine life. The fisheries service said the pipeline could cause “significant and adverse long-term impacts to nationally important living marine resources.”
Jocelyn Karazsia, an ecologist involved in the fisheries service’s review, said she needed time to read the new environmental impact statement to see whether it addressed the service’s concerns.
The Federal Aviation Administration had also expressed concern that the project could affect plans for a longer south runway at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Bartlett said he was confident the company has addressed the FAA’s concerns.
In the Bahamas, the company’s plan has received a setback from Keod Smith, chairman of the Bahamas Environment, Science and Technology Commission, the government’s main environmental regulatory agency. At a recent news conference, Smith called on the government to slow the review process, saying the government didn’t have sufficient legislation in place to protect the country from environmental damage from natural-gas systems and expressing concern about a terrorist attack on the pipeline.
Still, the results of the U.S. review gave a big boost to the project. In its review, the energy commission found that the pipeline may pass through the habitat of seven endangered or threatened species: the wood stork, American crocodile, loggerhead turtle, green sea turtle, leatherback turtle, hawksbill turtle and manatee. But it said that with monitoring measures in place, the construction was unlikely to harm them. The review also found that the pipeline would avoid the nesting and foraging areas of wading birds.
The construction work would harm about 2.9 acres of hardbottom habitat of sponges and soft corals. But it would cause no direct impact to reefs, according to the review.
The favorable environmental review allows AES to maintain its lead over the other two companies, Tractebel North America Inc. and El Paso Corp., that have proposed pipelines from the Bahamas to South Florida.
By David Fleshler, Sun-Sentinel.com
