SPOT DEIS (Hereinafter “Lubetkin Technical Review”), Table 19
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March 23, 2020 Submitted via electronic mail and www.regulations.gov/docket?D=MARAD-2019-0011 Ms. Yvette Fields Maritime Administration Office of Deepwater Ports and Offshore Activities 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, W21-310 (MAR-530) Washington, DC 20590 Telephone: 202-366-0926 E-Mail: [email protected] Mr. William Nabach Project Manager U.S. Coast Guard 2703 Martin Luther King Jr Ave SE, Washington, DC 20020 Telephone: 202-372-1437 Email: [email protected] Re: Comments on SPOT Terminal, LLC, National Environmental Policy Act Draft Environmental Impact Statement, Docket No. MARAD-2019-0011 Dear Ms. Fields and Mr. Nabach: The undersigned groups submit the following comments to the Maritime Administration (“MARAD”) and the U.S. Coast Guard (“USCG”) on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (“Draft EIS” or “DEIS”) for SPOT Terminal Services LLC’s (“SPOT Terminal” or “SPOT”) deepwater port (“DWP”) license application for its Sea Port Oil Terminal DWP Project (“SPOT Project” or “Project”), Docket Id: MARAD-2019-0011.1 SPOT Terminal seeks authorization to construct and operate a massive deepwater port terminal that includes modification or construction of two onshore terminals, construction of over 140 miles of onshore and offshore pipelines, and the installation of two buoys about 30 nautical miles off the coast of Brazoria County, Texas, capable of loading two Very Large Crude Carriers (“VLCCs”) at a time. SPOT intends to transport and export up to 2 million barrels of crude oil per day—an unprecedented, massive quantity that is more than that produced in the entire Gulf of Mexico in a year. 1 Many of the undersigned groups also submitted comments to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the SPOT Project’s Clean Water Act Section 404 and Rivers and Harbors Act Section 10 permit applications, No. SWG-2018-0075. Those comments are attached here as Exhibit A, and shall be considered incorporated herein. Transporting, refining, and burning this oil will exacerbate the climate crisis and further damage sensitive Texas ecosystems that are already overburdened by industrial activities. Under the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”), MARAD and the USCG have not met their burden of evaluating alternatives to the Project, as well as the full scope of the direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts of the proposed Project. The potential impacts of the SPOT Project include, but are not limited to, hundreds of onshore and offshore oil spills from pipelines and VLCCs, harm to species and habitat associated with construction and operation of the Project, and the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions and attendant climate change impacts associated with the oil transported through the Project. As described below, the undersigned have serious concerns about these significant impacts. Further, the DEIS’s failure to include critical information and analysis of the Project’s impacts on the environment violates NEPA; without this information and analyses, the Project cannot proceed. Moreover, MARAD and the USCG fail to make a proper determination that the SPOT Project is in the “national interest.” The Project—with its sole purpose of allowing oil and gas industry interests to export and profit from what appears to be a temporary glut in oil production—will disproportionately burden local communities, sensitive Texas ecosystems and coastline, Gulf of Mexico waters, and the global climate. Indeed, the serious potential impacts of this massive infrastructure project are not in the national interest, and MARAD’s and the USCG’s failure to ensure these basic public protections and mitigate against such harms in making a national interest determination violates their Deepwater Ports Act (“DWPA”) duties. I. PROJECT BACKGROUND The SPOT Project includes several major construction components. According to the DEIS, SPOT proposes to make modifications to the existing Enterprise Crude Houston (“ECHO”) Terminal facility located just east of Pearland, Texas and construct a 50-mile oil supply pipeline that would connect the ECHO Terminal to the proposed Oyster Creek Terminal. The proposed Oyster Creek Terminal site would be located approximately 2.5 miles northeast of Lake Jackson, Texas and 4 miles southeast of Angleton, Texas in Brazoria County. The proposed pipeline would cross at least 129 different waterbodies (including creeks, canals, bayous, lakes, and ponds) and numerous wetlands throughout Harris and Brazoria Counties within the pipeline route between ECHO Terminal to the shore crossing north of Surfside, Brazoria County, Texas where the onshore pipelines would tie into the subsea pipelines to deliver crude oil to the SPOT DWP. Additionally, SPOT will construct two collocated, approximately 12.2 mile, 36-inch diameter crude oil pipelines from Oyster Creek Terminal to the shore crossing north of Surfside, Texas; one pipeline interconnection from the existing Rancho II 36-inch diameter pipeline to the ECHO to Oyster Creek Pipeline, at the existing Rancho II Junction Facility; and ten main line valves, six of which would be along the ECHO to Oyster Creek Pipeline segment, and four along the Oyster Creek to Shore Pipelines segment, pig launchers for the ECHO to Oyster Creek Pipeline, and pig launchers and receivers for the Oyster Creek to Shore Pipelines. The two offshore pipelines (each totaling about 50 miles in length), buried under the sea floor, would be located within three marine protected areas, the Reef Fish Stressed Area, Reef 2 Fish Longline and Buoy Gear Restricted Area, and Texas Shrimp Closure Area, and about 40 miles from the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. Finally, the Project proposes to install two single point mooring buoys about 30 nautical miles offshore to transport the oil from the pipelines onto VLCCs. The SPOT Project will cause significant impacts to the local ecosystems. At a minimum, the Project would directly affect 101 acres of wetlands, including at least 14.8 acres that would be permanently filled or converted. It is likely that a larger acreage of wetlands will be permanently affected. The new terminal and offshore pipelines would be located in the Brazos River and Oyster Creek, two large waterbodies that supply important freshwater inputs into the Gulf of Mexico.2 Sensitive oyster reefs that are essential habitat and resources for many species occur in the Project area.3 It will also occur near three wildlife protection areas: the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge the San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge, and the Justin Hearst Wildlife Management Area.4 The refuges contain valuable salt and fresh water marshes as well as important wintering habitat for migratory birds, and are popular destinations for recreation, hunting and fishing.5 One of the construction workspaces will be only 0.1 miles away from the Brazoria Refuge.6 Depending on the time of year, a spill or leak in coastal waters could impact much of the refuge in a short amount of time. The onshore pipeline route also crosses many freshwater streams that empty into the Brazoria Refuge. Further, the Project will significantly affect other waterbodies, important migratory bird habitat, shoreline beaches that are necessary to support endangered sea turtle species, and will introduce sediment and other hazardous chemicals into the freshwater and marine environments. The SPOT Project will be located in Brazoria County, Texas. In 2018, Brazoria County had a population of some 370,000 people with a median age of 36.1 and a median household income of $73,623. The population of Brazoria County, Texas is 46.1% White, 31.1% Hispanic or Latino, and 14.5% Black or African American. The largest industries in Brazoria County, Texas include health care and social assistance (21,821 people), manufacturing (21,579 people), and construction (19,505 people). However, also of great importance to the local economy is tourism and eco-tourism, which are both likely to be affected by the SPOT Project. The county is home to the Brazos River and its confluence with the Gulf, and important state parks like Brazos Bend State Park, Stephen F. Austin are located near the proposed Project. Onshore pipelines would pass under important access points for miles of public beach and under one public beach in Surfside, an important recreational destination.7 Further, the proposed Project would be located in an area that supports a huge commercial and recreational fishing economy. As the DEIS states, Texas contributed 26 percent of revenue from all commercial fishing in the Gulf of Mexico.8 Ports within Galveston Bay 2 DEIS at ES-9. 3 Id. at 3-88. 4 Id. at 2-69; 3-355. 5 Id. 6 Id. at 3-248 7 Id. at 3-356. 8 Id. at 3-361. 3 (including the Freeport area) ranked third among Texas ports in commercial fishery landings and second in value. Fishing vessels comprise 70 percent of the marine traffic near where the offshore pipelines and buoy station would be located. The SPOT Project would send sediment into the marine environment and would result in a number of small to large spills that would release crude oil and other harmful chemicals into the water. All of these resulting effects would have the potential to significantly degrade marine fish species and habitat as well as the fishing community. The Project would be located in highly sensitive habitat that is already overburdened from other industrial activity. The Gulf Coast of Texas is home to one of the largest concentrations of petrochemical facilities in the world. From the “Golden Triangle” area of Orange County, to Jackson Counties and, going south, Chambers, Galveston, and Harris Counties, including the City of Houston, and into Brazoria County where the SPOT Project is proposed, there are hundreds of facilities, including oil refineries, plastic manufacturing plants, other chemical facilities and liquid natural gas (“LNG”) facilities. Indeed, in Brazoria County itself, there were 66 facilities which were required to report the Texas Council on Environmental Quality (“TCEQ”)’s annual Emissions Inventory, meaning they were of a sufficient size to be required to report.