Proposed Tampa Bay fracked gas pipeline expansion faces scrutiny from federal agency and environmentalists

As energy companies seek to expand a pipeline that would double the amount of fracked gas flowing through Pinellas County to Hillsborough County, a government agency is asking for more information about the project’s impact before approval.

Last year, Florida Gas Transmission Company—which is actually based in Texas— and Tampa Electric Company presented a pipeline expansion proposal to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

The proposal, named “Tampa West Project” claims that the expansion will include, “the construction of approximately 1.26 miles of 8-inch lateral loop pipeline” and attachments to go along with the piping. The addition would run along Gandy Bridge, and link to a current pipeline to increase the flow of fracked gas from Pinellas to Hillsborough by double the current amount.

Documents highlighting the communication between FERC and the energy companies show that the regulatory agency wants more information before allowing next steps in the process.
FERC asked the companies to further explain some key aspects of the project, including more details on how it would affect the surrounding habitat and air quality. The original proposal lacked specifics about how exactly the project would affect those aspects of the environment.

The organization also asked the power companies to explain how the project would ensure not to negatively affect marginalized and low-income communities that are in the area of the project.

“For any identified environmental justice communities that would be affected by the project, describe outreach efforts to identify and communicate with these groups and individuals and the measures used to avoid and minimize project impacts,” FERC wrote.

It was just one of several requests for the power companies to respond to.

FERC also wanted specifics on increased air pollution from the project.

“Provide a table of speciated greenhouse gas emissions (methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide) from operation and construction of the Tampa West Lateral Project in tons per year,” another request from FERC read.

Florida Gas and Transmission, (FGT) has responded that the project will "not result in any significant impact to environmental resources" with minimal impacts to the groundwater quality in the area.  The company claimed that most of the construction will take place in existing right of ways where pipeline construction has already occurred.

"Impacts to environmental and socio-economic resources have been minimized and avoided by limiting the area of installation and operation," FGT added. "FGT has eliminated and minimized potential environmental impacts to the lowest practicable extent while also avoiding direct impacts to any private landowners or residents."

FERC is still waiting on answers from FGT about how the fracked gas will be emitted once the larger amounts are transferred to Hillsborough.

For decades, the process of fracking, which produces about 67% of America’s natural gas, has proven harmful to the environment due to creating large amounts of wastewater and the release of greenhouse gasses, such as methane, as well as other toxic air pollutants.

Documents from the energy companies say the new piping could allow the peak hourly flow of fracked gas to the TECO Energy Plant at Big Bend Road to double, from 360 million thermal units of gas per hour to 667 million.

Adam Carlesco, chief attorney for the environmentalist group Food & Water Watch, told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that the biggest thing to look out for is the negative impact on the environment that such an increase in fracked gas flow will have overall.

“FERC and the transmission developer are kind of missing the forest for the trees,” Carlesco said. “They are not really looking at the kind of broad, downstream and upstream impacts of expanding gas transmission capacity.”

He pointed out that doubling the amount of gas transmission will have an impact on climate change overall and on local air quality. He added that FGT tried to pass the project by FERC with little information, behaving as if the project were simply routine maintenance, rather than a big expansion of fossil fuels.

Recently, in an effort to protect the local environment from fossil fuel emissions, both St. Pete and Tampa joined the Ready for 100 Campaign. The project aims to make several cities around the country free of fossil fuel use by 2035.

“Those are significant concerns that FERC and the power companies are not really spending any time on,” he said. “They're just looking at the environmental impacts of digging up a trench and putting in a new pipeline.”

Section 7 of the Natural Gas Act says that public health, safety, convenience and necessity must be considered when approving pipeline projects.

But Carlesco said that the act, which was passed in 1938 during a fossil fuel production free-for-all, is outdated. It doesn’t account for the “point of no return” climate chaos tipping point that humanity is inching towards. The National Environmental Policy Act was passed 1969 to put limitations on the Natural Gas Act’s broad allowance of polluting fuels.

Carlesco wants to make sure that act is being acknowledged in the current proposed project, by both the energy companies and FERC.

“The biggest thing to take away is that federal law requires environmental reviews for significant projects such as this, and they require indirect environmental effects analysis,” Carlesco said. “This review is giving neither of those.”

As FERC considers the energy company’s responses to their questions in the coming days, the local environmentalist group plans to remain engaged with developments in the project, for the sake of public health.

In a statement, Food & Water Watch Senior Florida Organizer Brooke Ward told CL that the correct course of action is to reduce, not increase, the use of polluting fuel.

“Tampa needs less fracked gas, not more,” Ward said. “Every embrace of this dirty fuel today will mean decades of pollution, all on the public’s dime. Instead of adhering to the City of Tampa’s clear directive to move off fossil fuels, TECO is doubling down.”

She added that the proposal to double the flow of fracked gas has prompted public outrage, and is in support of more federal scrutiny.

“It is imperative that FERC conduct a full environmental review of this pipeline and stop the polluting project in its tracks,” Ward said.