U.S. Corps of Engineers approves Diamond Pipeline in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee

Editor’s note: This is the second of two stories about the planned $900 million Diamond Pipeline that will transport crude oil across Arkansas. Link here for the first story.
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The U.S. Corps of Engineers Office in Little Rock has approved plans for Diamond Pipeline to cross rivers and watersheds in the state, which essentially green lighted the project even ahead of a hearing by the Arkansas Public Service Commission.

In early March, Diamond Pipeline submitted a Department of the Army permit, through their consultant, SWCA Environmental Consultants, for the placement of dredged and fill material in so-called “waters of the United States (WOUS)” associated with the construction of a 20-inch-diameter sweet crude oil pipeline.

Once it was determined that the project would be regulated under Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbor Act of 1899 and Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, the Corps of Engineers began the early process of evaluating impacts to WOUS in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Tennessee and determining the appropriate level of review and permitting. 

On May 26, the Little Rock Corps of Engineers office, serving as the lead for the project, approved the Diamond Pipeline nationwide permit to cross the state of Arkansas.

In the following week, the Corps of Engineers’ Tulsa and Memphis districts also approved nationwide permits for jurisdictional boundaries in Oklahoma and Tennessee.

According to Army Corps officials in Little Rock, the nationwide permits for such projects include general, regional and as appropriate, case-specific conditions that address water supply intakes, extraordinary resource waters, threatened and endangered species, migratory birds and bald and golden eagles, historic properties, and water quality.

According to Arkansas Public Service Commission Executive Director John Bethel, the Commission’s authority concerning the project is limited to approval of how Diamond Pipeline will construct and operate “navigable water crossings” over five critical state water sources along the route of the pipeline.

In the PSC docket 16-038-U, pipeline owners seek approval to construct the pipeline across the Arkansas River in Franklin County; the Illinois Bayou in Pope County; the White River in Prairie County; the Saint Francis River in Arkansas County; and the Mississippi River in Crittenden County.

“(The PSC) staff’s analysis concludes that the proposed river crossings comply with the statutory requirements for approval,” Bethel said. “Based upon meeting the specific statutory requirements, staff recommends that the Commission conclude that the project complies with the specified requirements and grant the request.”

Robert Henry, the PSC Staff’s chief of pipeline safety, filed testimony on Aug. 3 in support of approving the Diamond Pipeline application to construct and operate the crude oil pipeline across several navigable waterways crossings. The PSC’s engineer said although the project will cross numerous other bodies of water in Arkansas, the Texas joint venture is only seeking approval for the five mentioned in the docket filed on June 7, 2016.

Henry noted that under Arkansas law, it appears the U.S. Corp of Engineers has final jurisdiction to approve the request to build the pipeline over Arkansas watersheds. According to testimony by the PSC safety engineer, the Commission “shall grant the prayer of the proprietor’s petition” unless the state regulators finds that the project will jeopardize public safety or “result in some in an unlawful paramount public or private use of the navigable waterway or its underlying bed at the point of the proposed crossing.”

In a query from the Commission on whether there has been any evidence submitted that the pipeline will jeopardize public safety, Henry responded “No.”

U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Hot Springs, and U.S. Sens. John Boozman and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., all were in attendance at the Aug. 10 dedication of Magellan Midstream Partners $200 million, Fort Smith-to-Little Rock pipeline project that allow 125,000 barrels a day of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel to enter the state’s largest metropolitan area. At that event, Westerman expressed his support for the Diamond Pipeline crude oil project as along as the joint venture is able to gain all permitting and right-of-way approvals from state and federal regulators and communities along the meandering route that cross 15 Arkansas counties. Boozman and Cotton have been mostly quiet about the project.

The Magellan pipeline also encountered some opposition from property owners and Conway city officials over eminent domain rights and watershed concerns, but the U.S. Corp of Engineers eventually approved a nationwide permit for that 220-mile pipeline that brings refined fuel products from Gulf Coast and Midwest refineries into the state’s largest transportation hub.