FERC completes environmental review for two Southeast gas pipeline expansions

FERC staff have completed the final environmental impact statement for two natural gas pipeline expansions in the Southeast: Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company's 208-mile Mississippi Crossing Project and a 291-mile pipeline loop expansion proposed jointly by Southern Natural Gas Company and Elba Express Company, called the South System Expansion 4 Project.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is the lead federal agency for authorizing interstate natural gas pipeline transmission facilities under the Natural Gas Act, and it led preparation of the EIS under the National Environmental Policy Act.

What each project would build

Tennessee Gas Pipeline's Mississippi Crossing Project would add about 208 miles of new pipeline and lateral facilities across ten Mississippi counties and Choctaw County, Alabama. That includes roughly 177 miles of new 42-inch-diameter pipe and 22 miles of 36-inch-diameter pipe, plus five new laterals ranging from 0.1 to 7 miles long. The project also calls for three new compressor stations: Station 602 at 95,700 ISO horsepower in Humphreys County, Station 606A at 23,470 ISO horsepower in Attala County, and Station 610 at 63,800 ISO horsepower in Lauderdale County. It would also modify an existing compressor station in Washington County and add four new meter stations and three new overpressure protection facilities.

Southern Natural Gas and Elba Express's South System Expansion 4 Project would build 22 new pipeline loops, organized into 14 segments and totaling about 291 miles, across counties in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. The project would add compression at 14 existing compressor stations on the South Main Line and the Elba Express Pipeline, plus three new meter stations and modifications to seven existing ones.

Environmental findings

The final EIS found that approving the projects would bring some limited adverse environmental effects, but that those effects would be less than significant once the companies carry out their proposed mitigation measures along with FERC staff's recommended conditions. Three districts of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, NOAA, and conservation agencies in Alabama and Mississippi took part as cooperating agencies. The Army Corps will use the EIS in its own review of a Clean Water Act Section 404 permit for the work.

FERC published the notice of the final EIS's availability.