On November 9, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) published the high-level (or Tier 1) Environmental Assessment of the Natural Gas Distribution Infrastructure Safety & Modernization Grant Program. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 requires federal agencies to “assess the impacts on the human environmental of any Proposed Federal Action; identify adverse environmental effects that cannot be avoided should the Proposed Action Alternative be implemented and evaluate a No Action Alternative, and their environmental effects.”
In the Tier 1 assessment, PHMSA walks through the anticipated program-wide impacts on 12 resources and summarizes with the “cumulative impacts”. The 12 resources are: air quality and greenhouse gas emissions, water resources (surface water, floodplains, wetlands), ground water, hazardous materials, hazardous waste, soils, biological resources (wildlife, vegetation, and threatened and endangered species), cultural resources, land use, transportation, noise, vibration, socioeconomics, environmental justice, safety (health, environmental, and emergency services), Section 4(f) or publicly owned property and lands.
PHMSA has not yet announced the projects selected for 2022 grants. They are working to finalize the list of selected projects and hope to announce very soon. Provisionally-selected projects will have to undergo a Tier 2 Environmental Assessment. In this notice, PHMSA provides guidance on what will be included in those Tier 2 assessments. PHMSA also has dedicated staff and resources to assist systems with the Tier 2 Environmental Assessment process.
APGA will work with the Operations & Safety Committee and the PHMSA Grant distribution list to develop comments for PHMSA by the December 9, 2022 deadline. APGA is hosting a roundtable with members on December 1 at 2:00 PM ET to discuss the Tier 1 Assessment, the proposed questions for Tier 2 Assessments, and APGA’s comments to PHMSA. Please view related documents
here.
For questions on this article, please contact Erin Kurilla of APGA staff by phone at 202-464-2742 or by email at
ekurilla@apga.org.