DECISION ON AN ALASKA NATURAL GAS TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM PREFACE STATUTORY REQUIREMENTS FOR A DECISION ON AN ALASKA NATURAL GAS TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM Section 7(a)(4) of the Alaska Natural Gas Transportation Act of 1976 (ANGTA) states: If the President determines to designate for approval a transportation system for delivery of Alaska natural gas to the contiguous States, he shall in such decision (A) describe the nature and route of the system designated for approval; (B) designate a person to construct and operate such a system, which person shall be the applicant, if any, which filed for a certificate of public convenience and necessity to construct and operate such system; (C) identify those facilities, the construction of which, and those operations, the conduct of which, shall be encompassed within the term "construction and initial operation" for purposes of defining the scope of the directions contained in Section 9 of this Act, taking into consideration any recommendation of the Commission with respect thereto; and (D) identify those provisions of law, relating to any determination of a Federal officer or agency as to whether a certificate, permit, right-of-way, lease, or other authorization shall be issued or be granted, which provisions the President finds (i) involve determinations which are subsumed in his decision and (ii) require waiver pursuant to section 8(g) in order to permit the expeditious construction and initial operation of the transportation system. As part of these determinations, an Agreement on Principles concluded with the Government of Canada prescribes various terms and conditions applicable to the construction and operation of the pipeline. The Agreement on Principles is attached hereto as Section 7 of this Decision and made an integral part of the Decision by this reference. With the incorporation of the aforesaid Agreement, and the finding that it is in the national interest to expeditiously undertake to construct an Alaska Natural Gas Transportation System, the system designation and related statutory determinations are as follows: 67-359 0-93-8 SECTION 1-DESIGNATION OF PERSON TO CONSTRUCT AND OPERATE THE SYSTEM The Alcan Pipeline Company, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Northwest Pipeline Corporation,1 or its successor, is hereby designated to construct and operate the portion of the system within the State of Alaska. The Northern Border Pipeline Company, a partnership consisting of subsidiaries or affiliates of Columbia Gas Transmission Corporation, Michigan-Wisconsin Pipeline Company, Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America, Northern Natural Gas Company, Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Company, and Texas Eastern Transmission Corporation, or its successor, is hereby designated to construct and operate the portion of the system from the United States-Canada border near Monchy, Saskatchewan, to a point near Dwight, Illinois. *The Alcan Pipeline Company, or its successor, and the Northern Border Pipeline, or its successor, shall be publicly held corporations or general or limited partnerships, open to ownership participation by all persons without discrimination, except producers of Alaskan natural gas. The Pacific Gas Transmission Company is hereby designated to construct and operate the portion of the system from the United States/Canada border near Kingsgate, British Columbia, to the border between the States of California and Oregon. The Pacific Gas and Electric Company is hereby designated to construct and operate the portion of the system from the border between the States of California and Oregon through the State of California. SECTION 2-DESCRIPTION OF THE NATURE AND ROUTE OF THE APPROVED SYSTEM The Alcan system is an overland pipeline system to transport natural gas from the Prudhoe Bay area of Northern Alaska through Alaska and Canada into the Midwest and Western sections of the contiguous United States. See Exhibit 1. 1 Northwest Pipeline owns and operates a 4,300-mile pipeline system for transporting gas in the states of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Northwest Pipeline is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northwest Energy Company, a holding company whose principal asset is all the outstanding common stock of Northwest Pipeline. *This provision has been modified by Public Law 97-93 (Dec. 15, 1981; 95 Stat. 1204). The modification is set forth in the President's findings and proposed waivers of law, and is shown on page 334 of this volume of the compilation. The expected volume of gas to be available initially from the Prudhoe Bay field is 2.0 to 2.5 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd). The system described herein is designed to handle this throughput volume. The capacity of the system could be increased in the future to accommodate additional volume throughput by construction of additional facilities. ALCAN PIPELINE ROUTE IN ALASKA *The proposed Alcan pipeline will commence at the discharge side of the gas plant facilities in the Prudhoe Bay field. The pipeline will parallel the Alyeska oil pipeline southward from the North Slope of Alaska, cross the Brooks Range through the Antigun Pass, and continue on to Delta Junction. At Delta Junction, the Alcan Pipeline will diverge from the Alyeska oil pipeline and follow the Alaska Highway and the Haines oil products pipeline right-of-way, passing near the towns of Tanacross, Tok, and Northway Junction in Alaska. The right-ofway of the Haines oil products pipeline is at present approximately fifty feet wide and is closely parallel to the Alaska Highway. The Alcan pipeline will then connect with the proposed new facilities of Foothills Pipe Lines (South Yukon) Ltd. at the Alaska/Yukon Territory border. From Prudhoe Bay in Delta Junction, Alcan expects to construct its line approximately eighty feet from the Alyeska oil pipeline. As proposed by Alcan, construction will be carried out by extending the existing Alyeska work pads. However, Alyeska advised Alcan that its "Preliminary general guidelines" indicated that the Alyeska and Alcan lines must be separated by 100 to 200 feet where blasting to build the pipeline trench would occur (approximately 350 miles of pipeline length). Additional studies will determine the minimum distance between the Alyeska oil pipeline and the Alcan line that is necessary to permit safe construction and operation. ALCAN PIPELINE ROUTE THROUGH CANADA The Canadian portion of the Alcan Project will commence at the Alaska/Yukon border in the vicinity of the towns of Border City, Alaska and Boundary, Yukon. From the Alaska/Yukon border, the Foothills Pipe Lines (South Yukon) Ltd. pipeline will proceed south until it reaches the White River (Milepost 44), where it will take a more eastward course across the Yukon Territory. The piepline will cross the Territory generally parallel to the Alaska Highway. Along most of the pipeline route through the Yukon, the separation between the pipeline route and highway route will be approximately one mile. There will be several points, however, where the pipeline route will divert substantially from the route of the Alaska Highway. These departures from the Alaska Highway route will permit the pipeline to continue on a more direct course than if it were to follow the Alaska Highway *This provision has been modified by Public Law 97-93 (Dec. 15, 1981; 95 Stat. 1204). The modification is set forth in the President's findings and proposed waivers of law, and is shown on page 334 of this volume of the compilation. At approximately milepost 246, the pipeline will be routed After it crosses the Yukon River north of Whitehorse, the pipe- After it passes the British Columbia border, the pipeline will From James River Station, the western leg of the pipeline will For the eastern leg from James River Station, the pipeline will ALCAN PIPELINE ROUTE IN THE CONTIGUOUS UNITED STATES On the western leg, the Alaska gas will be transferred at the |