EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

INTRODUCTION 

The staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or Commission) has prepared 

this Final environmental impact statement (EIS) to fulfill requirements of the National Environmental 

Policy Act (NEPA). The purpose of this document is to make public our analysis of the environmental 

impacts that would likely result from the construction and operation of the proposed Southeast Expansion 

Project (Project). 

This EIS has been prepared in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 

PROJECT BACKGROUND 

On June 28, 2006, we1 approved the Gulf South Pipeline Company, LP's (Gulf South) request to 

use the Commission's Pre-filing Review Process for the proposed Southeast Expansion Project. The 

purpose of our pre-filing review is to work in partnership with the project sponsor, other federal and state 

agencies, as well as concerned citizens and non-governmental organizations, to identify and address 

project-related issues prior to the filing of an application with the Commission for a Certificate of Public 

Convenience and Necessity (Certificate). 

On December 11, 2006, Gulf South filed an application with the Commission pursuant to Section 

7(c) of the Natural Gas Act and Part 157 of the Commission's regulation for a Certificate of Public 

Convenience and Necessity (Certificate) to construct, operate, and maintain an interstate natural gas 

pipeline and associated ancillary and aboveground facilities, collectively known as the Project. We have 

prepared our analysis based on this application and subsequent filings by Gulf South. 

On April 13, 2007, we issued the Draft EIS for the proposed Project. 

PROPOSED ACTION 

In order to transport natural gas from producers in eastern Texas and northern Louisiana, Gulf 

South proposes to construct and operate approximately 110.8 miles of natural gas pipeline and associated 

ancillary facilities capable of transporting up to approximately 1.272 billion cubic feet per day of natural 

gas. Specifically, Gulf South proposes to construct and operate: 

• Approximately 110.8 miles of 42-inch-diameter natural gas pipeline in Simpson, Smith, Jasper, 

and Clarke Counties, Mississippi; and Choctaw County, Alabama; 

• Three new compressor stations: the Delhi Compressor Station located in Richland Parish, 

Louisiana, and the Harrisville and Destin Compressor Stations located in Simpson and Clarke 

Counties, Mississippi, respectively; 

• Other ancillary facilities, including five meter and regulation (M/R) facilities, eight mainline 

valves, one side valve, and two pig launcher and/or receiver facilities. 

 

1 "We," "us," and "our" refer to the environmental staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's Office of Energy 

Projects.

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Dependent upon Commission approval, Gulf South proposes to complete construction and begin 

operating the proposed Project in January 2008. 

PUBLIC OUTREACH AND COMMENTS 

As part of our pre-filing review, we issued a Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact 

Statement, Request for Comments on Environmental Issues, and Notice of Public Scoping Meetings for 

the Southeast Expansion Project on September 5, 2006. This notice was published in the Federal Register 

(FR) and sent to: affected landowners; federal, state, and local government agencies; elected officials; 

environmental and public interest groups; Native American tribes; local libraries; newspapers; and other 

interested parties. In response to our notices, and at several public meetings held along the proposed 

pipeline route, we received numerous comments from landowners, concerned citizens, public officials, 

and government agencies regarding the proposed Project. These comments expressed concerns with the 

location of the proposed pipeline and the effects of the proposed Project on numerous resources and land 

uses, including soils, waterbodies, wetlands, wildlife, vegetation, threatened and endangered species, 

safety and reliability, timber production, and state- and federally-managed lands. 

We prepared a Draft EIS and issued a Notice of Availability (NOA) that was published in the 

Federal Register (FR) on April 20, 2007, establishing a 45-day comment period ending on May 29, 2007. 

During this period, we conducted public comment meetings in Mendenhall and Heidelberg, Mississippi, 

and Butler, Alabama, on May 8, 9, and 10, 2007, respectively. During this period and at the public 

comment meetings, we received comments regarding the location of the proposed pipeline and effects on 

land use, safety, and reliability. We received written comments on the Draft EIS from two federal 

agencies, the DOI and EPA, and four potentially affected property owners. Comments received during 

this period were considered and addressed in this Final EIS. Submitted comments and our responses to 

those comments are provided in Appendix L of this document. 

This Final EIS has been mailed to the agencies, individuals, and organizations on the mailing list 

found in Appendix A and has been filed with the EPA for formal notice of availability. 

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS AND MITIGATION 

Construction and operation of the proposed Project would result in impacts to soils, groundwater, 

surface water, wetlands, vegetation, wildlife, fisheries, threatened and endangered species, cultural 

resources, land use, and air and noise quality. 

Construction of the proposed pipeline would cross 309 surface waterbodies. Conventional opencut construction techniques would be used to cross all but 29 of these waterbodies, which would instead 

be crossed using horizontal directional drills (HDD). Proposed HDDs would include four major and/or 

navigable streams, two Nationwide Rivers Inventory (NRI)-listed streams (the Strong and the 

Chickasawhay Rivers), the rivers most likely to contain habitat for federally listed fish species (Dabbs 

Creek, West Tallahalla Creek, the Bucatunna River, and the Leaf River), and the three impaired 

waterbodies that occur along the proposed Project route. 

Construction of the proposed Project would affect 145 wetlands, disturbing approximately 

75.76 acres. The most significant impacts to wetlands resulting from construction and operation of the 

proposed Project would be the long-term impacts to forested wetlands. Specifically, 42.67 acres would be 

cleared during construction, converted to emergent and scrub-shrub wetlands, and maintained in those 

states within the permanent right-of-way during operation. 

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In consultation with the FWS, we identified 10 federally listed threatened and endangered species 

that could be affected by the proposed Project. Based on our review of these species, we have determined 

that construction and operation of the proposed Project may affect, but is not likely to adversely affect 

nine federally listed threatened and endangered species. The FWS concurred that the proposed Project is 

not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of the gopher tortoise and is not likely to adversely 

modify its designated critical habitat. 

With the exception of recently proposed route modifications, aboveground facilities, and 

additional temporary work spaces, which are still under review by the respective state historical 

preservation offices, construction and operation of the proposed Project would not affect cultural 

resources. 

Construction and operation of the proposed Project would temporarily and permanently affect 

several land uses, resulting in short- and long-term impacts to forests, timber production, and special 

interest areas. The proposed Project would cross the NRI-listed Strong and Chickasawhay Rivers, 

potentially affecting boating activities for short periods during hydrostatic test water withdrawal. 

To minimize and mitigate the environmental impacts of constructing and operating the proposed 

Project, Gulf South has developed and would implement several proposed measures and plans, including 

but not limited to the following: 

• Upland Erosion Control, Revegetation, and Maintenance Plan (Plan); 

• Wetland and Waterbody Construction and Mitigation Procedures (Procedures); 

• Plan for the Unanticipated Discovery of Contaminated Media; 

• Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasures Plan; 

• Plan for the Containment of Inadvertent Release of Drilling Mud During Horizontal Directional 

Drilled Wetland and Waterbody Crossings; and 

• Plan for the Unanticipated Discovery of Historic Properties, Human Remains, or Potential 

Paleontological Evidence During Construction. 

Based on our review of the measures described in Gulf South's proposed plans and Procedures, 

we have determined that they are acceptable and consistent with our guidance documents regarding 

erosion control and mitigation of impacts to wetlands and waterbodies. In addition to the implementation 

of these measures and plans, Gulf South would be required to obtain other federal, state, and local 

permits, and authorizations that would contain measures to further minimize and mitigate environmental 

impacts resulting from construction and operation of the proposed Project. 

To ensure that Gulf South's proposed minimization and mitigation measures would result in the 

proposed Project having limited adverse environmental impacts, we recommended Gulf South address the 

following outstanding resource issues: NRI-listed streams; siltation of adjacent and downstream ponds; 

waterbodies potentially affected by aboveground facilities; provisional open-cut crossing plans for 

streams Gulf South plans to drill; wetland areas containing mature cypress/tupelo trees; coordination with 

resource agencies for revegetation, exotic weed control, and mitigation of impacted CRP lands; reducing 

permanent right-of-way width and overlap of adjacent paralleled right-of-ways; reducing visual impacts 

of aboveground facilities; and potential impacts to airport operations; and conducting noise surveys for 

compressor stations. We further recommended that Gulf South not begin construction until it has 

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completed consultation under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act concerning the Project's impacts 

with the FWS regarding threatened and endangered species and with the respective State Historic 

Preservation Officers regarding cultural resource sites under Section 106 of the National Historic 

Preservation Act. 

Detailed descriptions of environmental impacts, including a description of cumulative impacts, 

Gulf South's proposed impact avoidance and mitigation measures, and our recommendations to further 

minimize and mitigate impacts, are included in Sections 3.0 and 4.0 of this document. 

ALTERNATIVES CONSIDERED 

We have evaluated the No Action Alternative, the Postponed Action Alternative, alternative 

energy sources, the potential effects of energy conservation, system alternatives, route variations, and 

aboveground facility site alternatives to determine whether they would be technically and economically 

feasible and environmentally preferable to the proposed action. In this analysis, we considered the 

potential impacts to environmental resources and land uses. We evaluated route variations that would 

avoid or minimize impacts to environmental resources such as wetlands and waterbodies, and land uses 

such as orchards, timber production, cultural resource sites, and residences. None of the alternatives 

evaluated offered significant environmental benefits when compared to the proposed Project with our 

recommended mitigation measures. As such, we did not recommend the adoption of any of the 

alternatives evaluated. 

CONCLUSION 

As part of our review, we developed measures that we believe would appropriately and 

reasonably avoid, minimize, or mitigate environmental impacts associated with construction and 

operation of the proposed Project. We recommend that these measures be attached as conditions to any 

authorization issued by the Commission. We conclude that if the proposed Project is found to be in the 

public interest and is constructed and operated in accordance with Gulf South's proposed minimization 

and mitigation measures and our recommended mitigation measures, the proposed facilities would result 

in limited adverse environmental impacts. In support of this conclusion, we offer the following: 

• The proposed pipeline route would be collocated with or parallel to existing rights-of-way for 

approximately 73 miles, or about 66 percent of the proposed Project; 

• Gulf South would implement its Plan and Procedures, which would minimize and mitigate 

impacts to natural resources during construction and operation of the proposed Project; 

• We are recommending that Gulf South limit the width of its permanent right-of-way to 50 feet; 

use portions of existing natural gas pipeline permanent rights-of-way during construction, if 

feasible; and limit the width of its construction right-of-way in areas requiring two-tone 

construction techniques to further reduce impacts; 

• Gulf South has developed site-specific crossing plans for significant wetland areas containing 

mature tupelo trees and would compensate for all unavoidable wetland impacts; and 

• Gulf South would implement an environmental inspection and monitoring program that would 

ensure compliance with all proposed and recommended mitigation measures. 

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