FERC staff rejects two Fisheries recommendations for Jordan Cove over delay concerns

Washington — Staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission are setting aside two recommendations from the National Marine Fisheries Service related to the Jordan Cove LNG project that they said would have substantially delayed the project without commensurate benefits.

The action marks FERC's effort to keep the West Coast LNG project on track as it coordinates a complex environmental review with a host of federal agencies.

NMFS recently provided FERC with its finding that the project would adversely affect essential fish habitat (EFH) of Pacific Coast salmon, Pacific groundfish and coastal pelagic species. NMFS made 10 conservation recommendations to avoid, minimize or offset such effects.

In response, James Martin, a FERC gas branch chief, wrote to NMFS Oregon Washington Coast Office Tuesday to say that staff would recommend to the full commission eight out of 10 of those NMFS recommendations.

Two exceptions

But, he said a recommendation that Jordan Cove construct eelgrass mitigation beds one growing season prior to disrupting existing beds in order to avoid temporal impacts would have "marginal" benefits when compared to delaying the project which could lengthen the overall duration of impacts and result in other unforeseen impacts.

As proposed, construction of the eel grass mitigation site would require at least four years to complete, the letter said.

FERC staff also had concern about a recommendation to require Jordan Cove to build the Kentuck Aquatic Restoration Site at least one growing season prior to channel dredging in Coos Bay to avoid temporal losses of benthic habitat. The mitigation site, on the eastern shoreline of Coos Bay about five miles from the project site, is meant to create salt water marsh to serve as coho salmon habitat. As proposed, constructing that restoration site would take four years, Martins said, and require 0.3 million cubic yards of fill material to be acquired from an alternative source, further impacting the environment.

"We share the NMFS' interest in reducing the impacts associated with the loss of EFH, but it is our opinion that implementing EFH conservation recommendations 9 and 10 may not result in the intended effects, and recommendation 10 would likely result in additional impacts on the environment which would outweigh any benefit gained from constructing the site as directed by NMFS," Martin wrote.

Species reviews

The Fish and Wildlife Service also recently completed a biological opinion for the project, finding it is not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of 11 species, and was unlikely to destroy or adversely harm critical habitat for five of those.

FERC's draft environmental impact statement previously found the project was likely to adversely affect 15 federally listed threatened and endangered species, including the marbled murrelet, northern spotted owl and coho salmon. Oregon's Department of Fish and Wildlife Service has argued in comments that proposed impacts to the nesting habitats for the marbled murrelet and northern spotted owls could not be mitigated.

The Jordan Cove project entails an LNG terminal in Coos County, Oregon, with design capacity of about 7.5 million mt/year in its first phase. Proposed alongside it is the 229-mile, 1.2 Bcf/d Pacific Connector natural gas pipeline (CP17-494, 495). The project would provide an outlet for western Rockies and Canadian production struggling to find downstream demand, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics.