Opinion ID: 3005368
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Flanagan South Planning

Text: Enbridge began the planning and permitting process for the Flanagan South project in 2011. The 593-mile-long pipeline was designed to ship roughly 600,000 barrels of oil per day across Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma. The new pipeline would expand Enbridge’s capacity to ship crude oil from Flanagan, Illinois, to a major terminal in Cushing, 6 Oklahoma. From Cushing, the oil was to flow to refineries on the Gulf Coast and elsewhere. Enbridge designed the pipeline to run parallel to an existing pipeline, the Spearhead pipeline, which had been in operation since 2006. Roughly four-fifths of Flanagan South would track within 50 feet of the existing Spearhead pipeline. Most of the 36”- diameter Flanagan South pipeline was to be buried at least four feet underground in trenches dug approximately ten feet wide and deep. As planned, the pipeline would pass underneath roads and streambeds and cross approximately 400 miles of farmland, 85 miles of forests, 68 miles of grasslands, 28 miles of developed land, and 10 miles of wetlands. Flanagan South’s construction would require grading, excavation, or other forms of earth-disturbing activities in order to erect, inspect, and maintain the pipeline itself and its supporting infrastructure, such as pumping stations, mainline valves, pipe yards and access roads. The construction activities would affect swaths of land as wide as 135 feet, and ongoing maintenance would use a permanent 50-foot-wide right of way, kept clear by cutting back vegetation every three to five years and possible application of herbicides. Of the sixty eight miles of access roads anticipated for the pipeline, roughly seven miles would be newly constructed, with most of the new roads crossing nonforested, agricultural areas not requiring tree removal. Enbridge budgeted more than $2.5 billion to build Flanagan South and sought to complete construction by June 2014, only ten months after breaking ground. Before starting construction, Enbridge negotiated rights of way across approximately 2,400 tracts of land owned by approximately 1,700 private landowners. The company conducted public outreach campaigns and solicited input from local officials, Indian nations, community groups, and landowners expected 7 to be affected by the project. Enbridge also sought regulatory authorizations from local and state governmental entities, as well as federal agencies. The parties do not dispute that, to complete construction of the pipeline, Enbridge required easements from the Corps and the Bureau to cross spans of federal and Indian lands, and Clean Water Act approvals from the Corps to conduct dredge and fill activities at water crossings. The parties also recognize that, in granting those permissions, the Corps and Bureau were required to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (the Service) pursuant to Section 7 of the ESA regarding the harm to endangered or threatened species anticipated to result from those permissions. They further recognize that Enbridge could not lawfully harm listed species unless it obtained either a safe harbor from the Section 7 consultation process, see 16 U.S.C. § 1536, or a permit under Section 10 of the ESA, see id. § 1539, discussed below. Enbridge urged the agencies to act quickly so that it could meet its construction deadlines, and the agencies did so. Enbridge obtained Clean Water Act verifications from the Corps for the pipeline to make water crossings, as well as easements from the Corps and the Bureau to cross federal and Indian lands. The Corps and Bureau also consulted with the Service pursuant to ESA Section 7 regarding their approvals’ potential impact on listed species, and the Service issued a Biological Opinion regarding the Flanagan South project’s anticipated impact. The Biological Opinion concluded that building and operating Flanagan South would likely result in some “take”—i.e., harming or killing—of two listed, endangered species, the Indiana Bat and the American Burying Beetle, but that the take would not be so extensive as to jeopardize the 8 continued existence of either species.2 The Biological Opinion contained an Incidental Take Statement (ITS) that identified reasonable and prudent measures, chiefly habitat restoration and monitoring measures, by which Enbridge could minimize the anticipated take of the two species that would occur incidental to the project, and set forth mandatory terms and conditions to that end. The ITS provided Enbridge a conditional safe harbor from liability under the ESA for any taking of listed species, but that permission was limited: By its own terms, it was valid only insofar as the Corps or Bureau imposed the ITS on Enbridge by incorporating it as a binding, enforceable term of permits or contracts they issued to Enbridge to which Enbridge in fact adhered. The easements that the Corps and Bureau granted to Enbridge did not purport to incorporate and enforce the ITS, and the Corps’s verifications did so only within the geographic segments of the Corps’s Clean Water Act jurisdiction over the verified water crossing areas. Enbridge considered but decided against applying to the Service for a Section 10 permit to take species, instead of or in addition to obtaining the safe harbor resulting from the verifications’ incorporation of the Section 7 ITS. The Corps conducted a NEPA analysis when it reissued Nationwide Permit 12, see 77 Fed. Reg. 10,184, 10,197 (Feb. 2 The Indiana bat is a medium-sized migratory bat found in the eastern United States that faces threats to its habitat for hibernation, roosting, forage, migration and swarming. It has been listed as an endangered species since 1967, when it was originally listed under the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966, a predecessor to the ESA. 32 Fed. Reg. 4,001 (Mar. 11, 1967). The American Burying Beetle is a uniquely large, colorful beetle, found chiefly in a few central states, whose numbers have been depleted due largely to the fragmentation of its habitat. It has been listed as endangered since 1989. 54 Fed. Reg. 29,652 (July 13, 1989). 9 21, 2012), and the Corps and the Bureau each completed geographically limited NEPA analyses in conjunction with the easements they granted. No agency performed a NEPA analysis of the full Flanagan South project.