The meeting takes place at Malibu High School to allow people to ask questions and address their concerns about a proposed liquid natural gas facility off coast.
By Ashley King/Special to The Malibu Times
The California State Lands Commission and the United States Coast Guard will hold public meetings next week regarding a proposed liquid natural gas deepwater port off the coast of Ventura County near Malibu. One meeting takes place on March 16 at the Malibu High School Auditorium.
The project, called Cabrillo Port Deepwater Port, includes a floating LNG storage and regasification unit, and related offshore and onshore pipelines and facilities. The Coast Guard and the SLC will prepare a joint environmental impact statement and impact report regarding the project.
The proposed project has concerned some because of possible dangers of an LNG port so close to shore. The city of Oxnard rejected a similar proposal in 1977, having conducted a study that determined that up to 70,000 deaths could occur if an explosion took place releasing the LNG. An explosion on Jan. 19 at a natural gas facility in Algeria killed 27 people and injured more than 80. According to a Feb. 23 story in the Los Angeles Times, it is believed to have started with a leak of liquefied natural gas.
However, an increase in demand of natural gas and rising prices are causing a nationwide scramble for more LNG plants. Some 30 proposals are vying for approval nationally.
Steve Meheen, who manages one of the natural gas projects, told the Los Angeles Times it is a cleaner burning alternative to other fuels and a great deal safer than its critics say. “We all use it,” Meheen said. “Los Angeles County schools use it in some of their buses. If it’s so horrendously dangerous, would a school district put a big tank of it beneath kids on a bus?”
The California Environmental Quality Act and the National Environmental Policy Act require the consideration of environmental impacts that may result from a proposed action. The joint Environmental Impact Statement/ Environmental Impact Report for Cabrillo Port will describe in detail the nature and extent of the environmental impacts of the proposed action and what the alternatives are. It will also state the appropriated mitigation measures for any adverse impacts.
Two companies are proposing LNG projects off the coast of Ventura, BHP Billiton and Crystal Energy. Both companies, whose projects could be operational in four years, say they want to fill a significant energy gap. They point to rocketing gas prices, to California’s energy crisis and to competition from other states for dwindling natural-gas supplies in this country.
Crystal Energy would take an all-but-abandoned oil platform and give new life to it as a spot for supertankers from Alaska to unload its liquid cargo of natural gas at a cost of $300 million. BHP Billiton would spend about $500 million on construction before shipping natural gas from its reserves in Australia.
In both projects, ships carrying massive tanks of the chilled liquid would dock at the offshore terminals. The liquid would then be transferred from the ships, turned back into gas, and sent ashore into a web of pipelines that serve the entire region.
The March 16 meeting includes an open house beginning at 4 p.m., followed by a question-and-answer session at 6:30 p.m. Comments may also be sent electronically at http:/dms.dot.gov, or by fax at 202.493.2251.
The local community access cable channel 15 will air a program called “Warnings About the Liquefied Natural Gas Facility Offshore Malibu” in the coming weeks. The Channel 15 community calendar will list exact days and times of the scheduled programming.