Notice2021-23807
Deepwater Port License Application: Bluewater Texas Terminal LLC
Primary source
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Published
November 1, 2021
Issuing agencies
Transportation DepartmentMaritime Administration
Abstract
The Maritime Administration (MARAD) and the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) announce the availability of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Bluewater Texas Terminal SPM (Bluewater) Deepwater Port License Application for the export of crude oil from the United States to nations abroad. Additionally, MARAD and USCG announce a virtual public meeting and informational open house website for the Bluewater DEIS. Publication of this notice announces availability of the DEIS, initiates a 45-day comment period, requests public participation in the environmental impact review process, provides information on how to participate in the environmental impact review process, and announces the virtual informational open house and public meeting that will take place online to best comply with Coronavirus Disease 2019 safety guidelines. Previously, a notice of application summarizing the original Bluewater Deepwater Port License Application was published June 26, 2019, and notices of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement and public meeting were published on July 3, 2019.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 86 Issue 208 (Monday, November 1, 2021)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 208 (Monday, November 1, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60332-60334]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2021-23807]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Maritime Administration
[Docket No. MARAD-2019-0094]
Deepwater Port License Application: Bluewater Texas Terminal LLC
AGENCY: Maritime Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation;
U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security.
ACTION: Notice of availability; notice of virtual public meeting;
request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The Maritime Administration (MARAD) and the U.S. Coast Guard
(USCG) announce the availability of the Draft Environmental Impact
Statement (DEIS) for the Bluewater Texas Terminal SPM (Bluewater)
Deepwater Port License Application for the export of crude oil from the
United States to nations abroad. Additionally, MARAD and USCG announce
a virtual public meeting and informational open house website for the
Bluewater DEIS. Publication of this notice announces availability of
the DEIS, initiates a 45-day comment period, requests public
participation in the environmental impact review process, provides
information on how to participate in the environmental impact review
process, and announces the virtual informational open house and public
meeting that will take place online to best comply with Coronavirus
Disease 2019 safety guidelines. Previously, a notice of application
summarizing the original
[[Page 60333]]
Bluewater Deepwater Port License Application was published June 26,
2019, and notices of intent to prepare an environmental impact
statement and public meeting were published on July 3, 2019.
DATES: The virtual public meeting will be held on Thursday November 18,
2021 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Additionally, materials submitted in response to this request for
comments on the Bluewater DEIS must be submitted to the
<a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a> website or the Federal Docket Management Facility
as detailed in the ADDRESSES section below no later than 45 days after
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) publishes its notice of
availability of the DEIS for the Bluewater Deepwater Port Application
in the Federal Register.
ADDRESSES: The public docket for the Bluewater Deepwater Port License
Application is maintained by the U.S. Department of Transportation,
Docket Management Facility, West Building, Ground Floor, Room W12-140,
1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590. Comments on the DEIS
may be submitted to this address and must include the docket number for
this project, which is MARAD-2019-0094. The Federal Docket Management
Facility's telephone number is 202-366-9317 or 202-366-9826; the fax
number is 202-493-2251.
We encourage you to submit comments electronically through the
Federal eRulemaking Portal at <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a>. If you submit
your comments electronically, it is not necessary to also submit a hard
copy by mail. If you cannot submit material using <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a>, please contact either Mr. Ken Smith, USCG or Mr.
Carlos Perez-Perez, MARAD, as listed in the following FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION CONTACT section of this document below.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Ken Smith, Project Manager, USCG,
telephone: 202-372-1413, email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#c883ada6e689e69ba5a1bca088bdbbabafe6a5a1a4"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="b2f9d7dc9cf39ce1dfdbc6daf2c7c1d1d59cdfdbde">[email protected]</span></a> or Mr. Carlos I.
Perez-Perez, Environmental Protection Specialist, Office of Deepwater
Port Licensing and Port Conveyance, MARAD, telephone: 202-366-3790,
email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#bdfe93edd8cfd8c7edd8cfd8c7fdd9d2c993dad2cb"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="befd90eedbccdbc4eedbccdbc4fedad1ca90d9d1c8">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: A Notice of Application that summarized the
original Bluewater Deepwater Port License Application was published in
the Federal Register on Wednesday, June 26, 2019 (80 FR 30301).
A Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement and
Notice of Public Meeting was published in the Federal Register on
Wednesday, July 3, 2019 (80 FR 32005). This Notice of Availability
incorporates the aforementioned Federal Register Notices by reference.
The Bluewater Deepwater Port License Application proposes the
construction and operation of a deepwater port terminal in the Gulf of
Mexico (GOM) off Corpus Christi, Texas and close by Aransas and San
Patricio Counties to export domestically produced crude oil.
Virtual Public Meeting
MARAD and USCG will hold one virtual public meeting in connection
with the Bluewater DEIS. As stated, the virtual public meeting will be
held remotely due to the nationwide impacts of the existing public
health emergency under Section 319 of the Public Health Service Act in
response to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Further, the
President's declaration of a national emergency due to the COVID-19
outbreak, and state and local actions in response to COVID-19, have
impacted the public's ability to assemble and provide feedback on the
Bluewater Deepwater Port License Application through in-person public
meetings.
The public meeting may end later than the stated time, depending on
the number of persons who wish to make a comment on the record. Anyone
that is interested in attending the virtual public meeting or speaking
during the virtual public meeting must register. Information on how to
register for the virtual public meeting is provided in the Virtual
Public Meeting and Informational Open House website section.
Request for Comments
We request public comments or other relevant information related to
the DEIS for the proposed Bluewater Deepwater Port License Application.
These comments will inform our preparation of the Final Environmental
Impact Statement (FEIS). We encourage attendance at the virtual public
meeting; however, you may submit comments electronically and it is
preferred that comments be submitted electronically. Regardless of the
method you use to submit comments or materials, all submissions will be
posted, without change, to the Federal Docket Management Facility
website (<a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a>) and will include any personal
information you provide. Therefore, submitting this information makes
it public. You may wish to read the Privacy and Use Notice that is
available on the <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a> website, and the Department of
Transportation (DOT) Privacy Act Notice that appeared in the Federal
Register on March 24, 2005 (70 FR 15086), see PRIVACY ACT. You may view
docket submissions at the DOT Docket Management Facility or
electronically at the <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a> website.
Virtual Public Meeting and Informational Open House Website
You are invited to learn about the proposed Bluewater Deepwater
Port License Application at the virtual informational open house
website (<a href="http://www.BluewaterEIS.com">www.BluewaterEIS.com</a>) and to comment on the proposed action
and the environmental impact analysis contained in the DEIS during the
virtual public meeting.
The public meeting will be hosted on the Zoom platform. The public
meeting will be recorded and transcribed for placement in the public
docket for the Bluewater Deepwater Port License Application. Comments
will be accepted during the public meeting. The Zoom program can be
accessed online by visiting the Zoom website at www.zoom.us. Speaker
and attendee registration are available online at <a href="http://www.BluewaterEIS.com">www.BluewaterEIS.com</a>.
Meeting Procedure and Special Assistance
Registered speakers will be recognized in the following order:
Elected officials, public agency representatives, then individuals or
groups in the order in which they registered. In order to accommodate
all speakers, speaker time may be limited, meeting hours may be
extended, or both. Speakers' transcribed remarks will be included in
the public docket. You may also submit written material for inclusion
in the public docket. Written material must include the author's name.
We ask attendees to respect the meeting procedures in order to ensure a
constructive information-gathering session. The presiding officer will
use their discretion to conduct the meeting in an orderly manner.
Public meetings are intended to be accessible to all participants.
Individuals who require special assistance such as sign language
interpretation, non-English language translation services, or other
reasonable accommodations, please notify the USCG or MARAD (see FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT) at least 7 business days in advance of the
virtual public meeting. Include your contact information as well as
information about your specific needs.
[[Page 60334]]
Summary of the License Application
For the purposes of this application, the proposed Bluewater
Deepwater Port Project is described in three distinguishable segments
by locality to include the onshore components, the inshore components,
and the offshore components.
Onshore components associated with the proposed Bluewater project
are defined as those components on the landward side of the western
Redfish Bay Mean High Tide (MHT) line, located in San Patricio and
Aransas Counties, Texas. The onshore project components include:
<bullet> Approximately 22.13 miles of two new parallel 30-inch-
diameter crude oil pipelines extending from a planned multi-use
terminal located south of the City of Taft in San Patricio County,
Texas.
<bullet> The planned Multi-Use Terminal will connect to multiple
inbound and outbound crude oil pipelines. Two of those outbound
pipelines are the proposed pipeline infrastructure that will extend to
the inshore pipeline(s), which connect to the proposed operation
facility located on Harbor Island described below. One water tank will
be constructed at the Multi-Use Terminal to flush the offshore
pipelines running to the Single Point Mooring (SPM) buoys described
below.
Inshore components associated with the proposed Bluewater Deepwater
Port Project are defined as those components located between the
western Redfish Bay MHT line and the MHT line located at the interface
of San Jose Island and the Gulf of Mexico. Inshore project components
include:
<bullet> Approximately 7.29 miles of two new 30-inch-diameter crude
oil pipelines connecting to the onshore facility, an approximately 12-
acre operations station and a connection to the offshore pipeline. The
onshore pipeline would be located within San Patricio County, Texas and
Nueces County, Texas and a proposed operations facility would be
located on Harbor Island in Nueces County, Texas.
<bullet> The operations facility located on Harbor Island will
include approximately 12 acres of land and house the necessary
infrastructure to support the transport of crude oil through the
proposed pipeline infrastructure to the deepwater port for the loading
of moored vessels. The facility would consist of pig launchers/
receivers, meters and valves, operations building, and a communications
facility, but no crude oil storage.
Offshore components associated with the proposed Bluewater
Deepwater Port Project are defined as those components located seaward
of the MHT line located at the interface of San Jose Island and the
Gulf of Mexico. The offshore project components include:
<bullet> Approximately 26.76 miles of two new 30-inch-diameter
crude oil pipelines extending from the shoreline crossing at the
interface of San Jose Island to the offshore Bluewater Deepwater Port
Project for crude oil delivery to Single Point Mooring (SPM) buoys.
<bullet> Two SPMs in Outer Continental Shelf Matagorda Island Area
TX4 lease blocks 698 and 699, approximately 15 nautical miles (17.26
statute miles) off the coast of San Patricio County, Texas in a water
depth of approximately 89 feet.
<bullet> A catenary anchor leg mooring (CALM) system for each SPM
buoy connected to a pipeline end manifold (PLEM) system, mooring
hawsers, floating hoses, and submarine hoses to allow for the loading
of crude oil to vessels moored at the proposed deepwater port. The SPM
buoy system will be permanently moored with a symmetrically arranged
six-leg anchor dual chain configuration extending to twelve 72-inch-
diameter pile anchors installed on the seafloor.
<bullet> Each of the proposed SPM buoy systems will consist of
inner and outer cylindrical shells subdivided into twelve equal-sized
watertight radial compartments. A rotating table will be affixed to the
SPM buoy and allow for the connection of moored vessels to the SPM buoy
system via mooring hawsers. Two floating hoses equipped with marine
break-away couplings will be utilized for the transfer of crude oil
from the SPM buoy systems to the moored vessel. Floating hoses will be
equipped with strobe lights at 15-foot intervals for detection at night
and low-light conditions.
Privacy Act
You may wish to read the Privacy and Security Notice and the User
Notice that are available at <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2005/03/24/05-5823/establishment-of-a-">https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2005/03/24/05-5823/establishment-of-a-</a> new-system-of-records-notice-
for-the-federal-docket-management-system. The Privacy Act notice
regarding the Federal Docket Management System is available in the
March 24, 2005 issue of the Federal Register (70 FR 15086).
(Authority: 33 U.S.C. 1501, et seq.; 49 CFR 1.93(h)).
By Order of the Acting Maritime Administrator.
T. Mitchell Hudson, Jr.,
Secretary, Maritime Administration.
[FR Doc. 2021-23807 Filed 10-29-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-81-P
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