Army Corps to evaluate environmental impact of FG LA's proposed Louisiana petrochemical project

The indefinite delay of a $9.4 billion petrochemical complex in Louisiana faces more uncertainty of when construction could begin, after the US Army Corps of Engineers' decision to conduct a full environmental review of the project.

James Pinkham, acting assistant secretary of the Army, issued a memorandum on Aug. 18 directing the Army Corps to prepare an environmental impact statement on the project ahead of a final decision on whether to approve a permit for it. Such reviews can take a year or more to complete.

The Army Corp's decision means FG LA, a division of Taiwan's Formosa Plastics Group, faces another hurdle in moving forward on what the company calls the Sunshine Project. FG LA in November 2020 already put the complex on indefinite hold amid COVID-19 uncertainty after the Army Corps suspended a permit issued in 2019, without having conducted a full environmental review to evaluate whether to reinstate it.

Janile Parks, director of community and government relations for the Sunshine Project, said in a statement emailed Aug. 19 that Pinkham's memorandum provided little detail on the EIA procedure, and the company would keep working with the Corps "as we receive more guidance on the additional evaluation."

She also said FG LA's "unwavering" commitment to St. James Parish and to Louisiana "has remained constant."

The company had no further comment, including a potential revised timeline for the project.

Two-phase project

The first phase of the project, originally targeted for a 2024 startup, include a 1.2 million mt/year ethane-fed steam cracker, a 600,000 mt/year propane dehydrogenation unit, a 600,000 mt/year polypropylene plant, linear low-density and high-density polyethylene plants with capacities of 400,000 mt/year each, and a 900,000 mt/year ethylene glycol unit.

The second phase, originally targeted for startup by 2029, include a second 1.2 million mt/year steam cracker, LLDPE and HDPE plants with capacities of 400,000 mt/year each, and a second 900,000 mt/year ethylene glycol unit.

Permitting documents show the EG units would make monoethylene glycol, diethylene glycol and polyethylene glycol.

The permit suspension in November 2020 emerged in a federal lawsuit filed against the Corps in January by the Center for Biological Diversity and other groups. The lawsuit alleged that the Corps issued the permit allowing dredge and fill activity without fully examining environmental fallout from wetland destruction and discharge of pollutants from the complex.

The case had been headed for a summary judgment, where a judge issues a decision without a trial, when the Corps in November asked for a stay until the agency could notify FG LA of its intent to suspend the permit pending a reevaluation of alternatives analysis under Clean Water Act provisions.

The Corps then suspended the permit, and the lawsuit was dismissed in January.