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The project proponent has not provided the required documentation to NMFS. Please change the target completion date of the Complete Application Received to 6/30/2018. Thank you.
The reason for the date changes was because of the unknown FERC DEIS and FEIS projected release dates. Once those dates were known, the Portland District worked with the applicant on new 408 decision dates. The applicant concurred with the new dates. The date changes coincide with the FERC EIS schedule dates. CERPR has been made aware of the date changes and an email was sent to all interested parties and no objection was received.
On February 27, 2018, Commission staff paused this action because it required additional information to fully assess safety impacts in the Environmental Impact Statement. As of May 18, 2018, Commission staff had received sufficient additional information and issued a Notice of Revised Schedule for completing the NEPA review, and was able to unpause this action. FERC staff consulted with the other agencies and the project sponsor for the revised target dates to complete NEPA.
NOAA will adopt the lead agency EIS for purposes of the MMPA authorization. As noted in the text box for each of the final three milestones for this authorization (i.e., the milestones where the date was changed), these milestones are tied to, and dependent upon, the EIS schedule. The final three MMPA authorization dates were updated to reflect FERC's EIS schedule. NOAA did coordinate with all other agencies and the project sponsor regarding this date charge via FERC's quarterly update email.
The date is being pushed as the cooperating agencies would like to see another route through the federal lands analyzed in the draft EIS. An email about this delay was sent to the Council on 10/4/2018. The cooperating agencies and the applicant are all aware of this change and have approved it. This delay will change multiple other dates, that are all dependencies on when the EIS and ROD are completed. All are being updated currently to match the new time line. Everyone is working hard to find locations to make up time, but at this time no areas have been identified.
The project sponsor (Hilcorp) is delaying commencement of project construction by at least one year, with a new start date of December 1, 2020. The delay in construction commencement is NOT due to the MMPA authorization. To accommodate this delay and ensure Hilcorp has the appropriate MMPA authorization in place prior to construction, NOAA is updating the MMPA authorization schedule. NOAA consulted with both Hilcorp and the lead agency regarding these schedule changes.
The 2nd milestone date for MMPA needs to be changed to align with and reflect the lead agency EIS, and the anticipated publish date of the draft EIS. The project sponsor does not have any concerns with the date change, nor will it affect other aspects of the permitting timetable. The update will bring the milestone into alignment with the permitting timetable. The DOI CERPO has been included on communications regarding the change and should be aware of the delay although it will not have an effect on the project.
Action is being placed back in Executive Director Review for re-evaluation. Previous comment provided by Rachel London is posted below for reference: The 2nd milestone date for MMPA needs to be changed to align with and reflect the lead agency EIS, and the anticipated publish date of the draft EIS. The project sponsor does not have any concerns with the date change, nor will it affect other aspects of the permitting timetable. The update will bring the milestone into alignment with the permitting timetable.
Delay due to lapse in appropriations
As noted in the notes for the updates, FERC provided a revised EIS schedule on 2/28/19. Therefore, the revised milestone dates have been revised to accommodate that revised schedule. Therefore, the project sponsor should be aware of the date changes. There has been ongoing coordination regarding the need for schedule changes for this project due to the government shutdown so our CERPO and lead agency CERPO are aware of the issues and need for updated schedules.