2. DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSED PROJECT AND ALTERNATIVES
2.1 Proposed Project
SFPP, which is headquartered in the City of Orange, California, provides transportation and terminal services for refined petroleum products (gasoline, diesel and jet fuel) in six western states. SFPP is a public utility and a common carrier that operates approximately 3,400 miles of pipeline varying in size from 4 inches to 24 inches. As part of this system, SFPP currently transports approximately 350,000 barrels per day of petroleum products from the Los Angeles refineries to markets in southern California, Nevada, and Arizona.
SFPP proposes to build and operate a new 16-inch petroleum products pipeline extending from SFPP’s existing Watson Station in Carson to the existing SFPP station at Norwalk, California (approximately 13 miles). The proposed pipeline will supplement the capacity of SFPP’s existing two pipelines that currently connect these two stations. The new pipeline will transport unleaded gasoline, diesel fuel, and jet fuel. The throughput of the new line will average 190,000 barrels of petroleum products per day; the products shipped will consist of approximately 56% gasoline, 19% jet fuel and 25% diesel. The principal destination of these products is SFPP’s Colton Terminal in Rialto, where the products are then distributed to markets in Nevada, Arizona, and the California Inland Empire.
As shown on Figure ES-1, the 13-mile pipeline would traverse portions of the Cities of Carson, Long Beach, Bellflower, Cerritos and Norwalk, as well as some Los Angeles County land. SFPP also plans to modify existing facilities located in Carson, Norwalk, Industry, and Rialto as a part of the proposed expansion project. The pipeline would cross three waterways along the proposed route: the Los Angeles and the San Gabriel rivers, and Compton Creek. Table ES-1 summarizes the components of the proposed project.
Table ES-1 Summary of Project Components
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Components of the Proposed Pipeline |
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Station Modifications |
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SFPP estimates that the proposed project will cost $22 million to construct. This cost is broken into $8 million for labor and $14 million for supplies and equipment. Approximately 95 personnel would be employed for pipeline construction and 111 for station construction during the peak construction period. It is approximated that construction of the 13-mile pipeline would proceed between 200 and 500 feet per day, therefore taking between 137 days (at 500 feet per day) and 343 days (at 200 feet per day).
8.5x11 map of proposed project & alts
2.2 Alternatives
As a part of the alternatives evaluation process, 18 potential alternative routes or methods of shipping petroleum products were evaluated. Eleven alternatives were eliminated because they did not offer significant environmental advantages over the proposed project. Six alternative route segments are fully analyzed in this EIR, as well as the No Project Alternative. Those route segments are described in Table ES-2 below.
Table ES-2 Proposed and Alternative Pipeline Segments
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These alternatives are considered in this document for full analysis so that they can be compared to the proposed project. Figure ES-1 shows generally where these alternatives are located.
In addition to the route segments described above, the No Project Alternative is evaluated in each environmental issue area. If the proposed project is not constructed, the demand for petroleum products in Arizona, Nevada, and the Inland Empire would still grow and the product would be supplied by other means. Existing pipelines would be used to a greater extent, and trucking of products from Los Angeles refineries to Las Vegas and to the Inland Empire would greatly expand.