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Ore. agency raises concern over tsunami risk for Jordan Cove LNG project

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Ore. agency raises concern over tsunami risk for Jordan Cove LNG project

An Oregon agency tasked with reviewing how infrastructure would respond to earthquakes and tsunamis is raising concerns over Jordan Cove's application to build and operate the first West Coast LNG export terminal in the U.S.

In a Nov. 6 letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recently made public on the agency's website, the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries, or DOGAMI, said it found correspondence with Jordan Cove to be incomplete and said the developer did not fully address geologic hazards relating to a possible tsunami.

The state agency outlined 51 concerns and recommendations, urging the Pembina Pipeline Corp.-led venture to look to new data and technologies as it develops the $10 billion project.

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"DOGAMI encourages designing and building for disaster resilience and future climate using science, data and community wisdom to protect against and adapt to risks," the agency said in the letter. "This will allow people, communities and systems to be better prepared to withstand catastrophic events and future climate — both natural and human-caused — and be able to bounce back more quickly and emerge stronger from shocks and stresses."

Jordan Cove spokesman Michael Hinrichs said the developer is working with the agency "to make sure they have all the information they need."

Oregon regulators and residents have raised concerns before over what would happen to the LNG export terminal in the event of a catastrophic tsunami. Geologists and seismic experts on the West Coast have warned that an earthquake and tsunami comparable to the one that devastated Japan in 2011 will hit the U.S. West Coast sometime in the next several decades, potentially affecting 700 miles of coastline up to 100 miles inland. Jordan Cove would be on the North Spit of Coos Bay, Ore., roughly seven miles from the mouth of a channel leading to the Pacific Ocean.

Jordan Cove has said the facility would be built to withstand the largest wave forecast to be triggered by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake. The site would be elevated 30 feet or more using material dredged from the shipping berth, putting the terminal above the tsunami inundation zone, Hinrichs has said.

In Jordan Cove's original proposal, which FERC denied in March 2016 citing a lack of market need for the associated pipeline, DOGAMI identified 11 geologic faults as "seismic sources" close enough to the project to affect it.

Although it is DOGAMI's role to assess potential hazards in events such as earthquakes or tsunamis, federal regulations pre-empt state and local rules for natural gas facilities.

Jordan Cove filed a new application Sept. 21 for the 0.9-Bcf/d LNG export facility and roughly 230-mile gas pipeline. The project now awaits a draft environmental impact statement. (FERC dockets CP17-494, CP17-495)