Joint Pipeline Office
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News Release |
Rhea DoBosh (907) 257-1338
Notice of Availability
Environmental Assessment
Anchorage . . . . Monday, October 30, 2006. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) analysis of the impacts of Alyeska Pipeline Service Company’s (APSC) proposal to modify the Ballast Water Treatment Facility at the Valdez Marine Terminal is available at http://www.jpo.doi.gov. The Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) will be signed at the end of November 2006. The proposed changes to the Ballast Water Treatment Facility are expected to reduce overall environmental impacts in the short and long term compared to current impacts of the facility in its existing configuration. The long-term impacts are beneficial and positive, especially for air and water quality.
The Ballast Water Treatment Facility treats all wastewater for the Valdez Marine Terminal. Most of the water treated at the facility is dirty ballast water off-loaded from the marine oil tankers when they reach port, before they load crude oil. Alyeska proposed these projects after recognizing the need to downsize the Ballast Water Treatment Facility to accommodate reduced ballast water flow due to the use of double hulled marine tankers by 2010 as required by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and less throughput of oil in the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS).
The JPO’s 2002 Final Environmental Impact Statement for TAPS Renewal contained a thorough review and analysis of TAPS for the next 30 years of operation, including discussions of modifications to the Ballast Water Treatment Facility, and concluded that future operations would not have a significant impact to the environment. In 2004 BLM conducted a more in-depth environmental analysis of a proposed reconfiguration of the Valdez Marine Terminal.
Air and water effects were considered the significant environmental factors that were potentially changing in preparation of the current EA. The analysis determined that the air effects were being significantly reduced or eliminated by the proposed changes and that the effects to water quality will also be reduced. It is estimated that as a result of the Ballast Water Treatment Facility modifications, release of harmful chemicals benzene, toluene, ethyl-benzene, xylene (BTEX) currently discharged into the Port of Valdez will be reduced to less than one ton annually from estimates ranging from Alyeska’s estimated of 138 tons to the Environmental Protection Agency’s estimate of 208 tons.
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