Unresolved questions about the environmental impacts of a natural gas pipeline winding from Coos Bay to Malin have further delayed the application for a liquefied natural gas import terminal in Coos County.

Last Wednesday, Williams, the company proposing the Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline, submitted revised resource reports to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The documents address concerns raised by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service about the pipeline's environmental impacts.

Because the FERC requires a 60-day window between receiving a company's resource reports and the filing of a project's application, Williams plans to submit its application Sept. 4.

Initially, Williams and Jordan Cove Energy Project, the LNG terminal developer, had both scheduled to file their separate applications on Jan. 31. That timeline was scrapped because of information bottlenecks that prevented Jordan Cove from completing second drafts of its own resource reports. The revised deadline, April 2, was less than two weeks away when the U.S. Coast Guard changed its protocols for inspecting an LNG terminal. So the FERC requested a third round of resource reports, which left Jordan Cove and Williams aiming for a late June submission.

Then, at a May meeting of the various state and federal agencies involved in the application process, environmental questions were raised about the pipeline. Williams had previously addressed those concerns, one of which involved the potential impact of spotted owl habitat, but BLM and forest service representatives asked for fuller explanations.

“When you work with these agencies, it just takes longer. It's part of the process,” said Michele Swaner, a spokeswoman for Williams.

Meanwhile, Jordan Cove has completed the third draft of its resource reports and plans to file its application with the FERC on Sept. 4 as well. The two companies are filing together because the next stage involves an environmental impact statement that considers both projects as one, said Jordan Cove Project Manager Bob Braddock.

“From (the filing) date, we are coupled at the hip,” he said. “We move as one unit through the whole process.”

From now until September, both Williams and Jordan Cove will receive comments and questions from government agencies regarding their final reports. Braddock said Jordan Cove has already received some of these filings, which have come from the BLM and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Unlike the questions brought up about the pipeline, the FERC has not requested another round of reports as long as answers are provided in the application.

One comment filed by the BLM raised concerns about the analysis of public health and safety risks posed by the terminal while the ODFW asked about the potential disruption of commercial fishing in the shipping channel.

Braddock said the information these agencies requested is, for the most part, in the reports. He said the agencies' concerns show a need for better organization of material and more cross referencing from one report to the next.

“After (submitting) the first resource reports we had lots of questions. After the second, we had fewer questions and after the third, fewer still,” Braddock said. “We are where we wanted to be.”

Once the application is submitted, the FERC generally takes about 12 months to determine if a project deserves approval.

Despite the repeated delays, Braddock said it is better to refine an application before submission than have omissions and make changes later.

“We don't want to have delays, but the process makes our application better,” he said. “What happens is when you get the application submitted, the agencies have read it inside and out so there are no surprises.”

Citizens Against LNG, still

As the two energy companies continue to refine their applications, project opponents are continuing their efforts.

Camby Collier, a member of Citizens Against LNG, said group members have stopped attending public meetings because local officials did not seem interested.

“We gave them as much information as possible and they didn't care,” she said.

Now, the main push is to encourage residents to file their concerns about the projects, especially from property owners along the route of the proposed pipeline, while urging the government to force Williams and Jordan Cove to perform a regional study of the energy needs in the area.

“No one has done a needs analysis,” Camby said. “If one were done, they could figure out where (a terminal) really belongs.”

Jody McCaffree said the group also is working to bring in legal experts to speak at the county land use hearings scheduled later this summer.

“We need to have land use experts who can help key into those areas (of the LNG terminal proposal) that might be problematic,” she said. “I'm not a legal expert and while it seems like common sense to me (not to put the terminal here), it's not just common sense. It has to be legally the issue, too.”

Camby said booths will be set up at the Charleston Seafood Festival and Blackberry Arts Festival in August and a special guest speaker might be at one of them.

McCaffree said she was able to get more than 2,600 people to sign a petition against the terminal and pipeline, and groups in the cities along the pipeline continue to attract people opposed to both projects.

“There are definitely rumblings,” Camby said. “Still daily, people are becoming aware.”