Protected salmon stocks would be adversely affected by the construction and operation of a liquefied natural gas terminal in the Columbia River estuary, but a proposed mitigation package would largely balance the biological ledger, according to a final environmental impact statement produced by Federal Energy Regulatory Commission staff.

The final EIS and an updated biological analysis will be provided to the NOAA Fisheries Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of the required federal consultation under the Magnuson-Stevenson Act and Endangered Species Act.

NOAA and the USFWS will prepare biological opinions to evaluate whether the project would jeopardize listed species.

NorthernStar Natural Gas is seeking authorization to build the ship terminal on a former industrial site at Bradwood, OR, 38-miles from the river mouth. A "sendout" pipeline would stretch nearly 19 miles upriver, cross the Columbia and run 17 more miles to Kelso, Wash.

The purpose of the Bradwood Landing Project is to import natural gas to the Pacific Northwest. LNG is natural gas that has been turned into a liquid state by cooling it to about minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit to reduce its volume for transport in specially designed carriers some distance across oceans from its point of origin to the proposed LNG import terminal.

NorthernStar says construction could begin on the Bradwood Landing terminal in 2009. If so, it would be operational by 2013. The company says it would create more than 450 jobs over three years of construction and 65 permanent jobs while contributing more than $7.8 million annually in taxes to Clatsop County.

Columbia Riverkeeper is strident in its opposition to the proposal, saying it would involve dredging 700,000 cubic feet of sediment from the Columbia River, creating a large hole in a critical salmon rearing, migration and fishing area.

They say it would also remove over a billion gallons of Columbia River water (along with thousands of juvenile salmon) a year as dead weight in the ballast tanks of outgoing LNG tankers. Riverkeeper's mission is to "restore and protect the water quality of the Columbia River and all life connected to it, from the headwaters to the Pacific Ocean."

The company says Bradwood's mitigation plan far exceeds state and federal requirements.

"Bradwood Landing is committed to sustainable development and a lasting legacy of environmental, excellence," said NorthernStar Natural Gas CEO William "Si" Garrett. "Our project includes comprehensive mitigation measures and a long term environmental commitment that ensures a significant and sustained net benefit to salmon productivity and the Lower Columbia ecosystem."

NorthernStar would store the LNG at its terminal, vaporize the LNG back into as much as 1.3 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas.

The EIS was prepared to satisfy requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act. In addition to FERC approval, the company would need numerous state permits, and must comply with the Endangered Species Act and other federal statutes.

The topics addressed in the EIS include geology; soils and sediments; water use and quality; wetlands; vegetation; wildlife and aquatic resources; threatened, endangered, and special-status species; land use, recreation, and visual resources; cultural resources; socioeconomics and traffic; air quality and noise; reliability and safety; and cumulative effects.

The company has promised to spend $59 million through its Salmon Enhancement Initiative to improve watershed health on the Lower Columbia River. NorthernStar says the mitigation measures would improve salmon survival by 1.77 million juvenile fish per year.

The mitigation aims to restore formerly diked wetlands, rehabilitate wildlife habitat, reshape former agricultural lands into high value shallow water salmon habitat, and rebuild lower Columbia River wetland and estuary areas.

"Based on the analysis included in the EIS, the FERC staff concludes that the proposed action would have limited adverse environmental impacts. However, if the Bradwood Landing Project is constructed and operated in accordance with applicable laws and regulations, and with implementation of NorthernStar's proposed mitigation measures, and the additional mitigation measures recommended by staff, environmental impacts would be substantially reduced," according to the EIS.

"The project may affect 13 salmonid ESU/DPS, and the Columbian white-tailed deer," the EIS says. "NorthernStar has committed to implement its Compensatory Mitigation Plan, which has been designed to exceed existing mitigation standards and would result in substantially larger areas being restored and/or protected than would be lost to permanent impacts and would be restored to a higher level of ecosystem function.

"Although the Compensatory Mitigation Plan would benefit a variety of aquatic and terrestrial species, it was designed with additional emphasis on protection and restoration of habitat for federally listed salmonids and the Columbian white-tailed deer," the EIS says.

The dredging, pile driving and other construction work would alter habitat, increase suspended sediment and turbidity levels, remove of benthic organisms, re-suspend contaminated sediments, entrainment of eggs and juvenile salmonids, increase noise and altered sediment transport and deposition rates for salmon. The lower Columbia is home to two of the listed species; the other 11 swim past on their migrations up and down the river.

The EIS says Essential Fish Habitat may be affected by the project for more than 90 species of groundfish, five coastal pelagic species, two species of salmon, and 13 highly migratory aquatic species

"We identified federally listed endangered or threatened species that potentially occur in the vicinity of the Bradwood Landing Project, including: 13 anadromous salmonids and the North American green sturgeon; four reptiles (sea turtles); nine mammals (including seven whales, Steller sea lion, and Columbian white-tailed deer); six birds; one invertebrate; and three plants," the EIS said.

A biological assessment completed by FERC last year says that salmon that rear in the nearshore areas of the lower Columbia would be adversely affected by the filling of a log pond, pile driving activities, and dredging. Construction of the proposed LNG terminal would affect 63 acres of designated critical habitat for the for the two Lower Columbia "evolutionarily significant units."

Snake River Basin steelhead would migrate past the project site outside of the in-water work window,

Five of those acres would be permanently impacted by filling the log pond at the LNG terminal site. The remaining 58 acres within the ship berthing and maneuvering area would be permanently modified by the addition of piles and other over-water structures as well as maintenance dredging," the BA says.

The pipeline would cross two sloughs, three rivers and a creek that are also critical habitat.

The final EIS said that the 2007 analysis will be revised and provided to the NOAA Fisheries Service and USFWS for their preparations of BiOps.

The FERC EIS said that that federal consultation must be completed before any construction of facilities is allowed to proceed.