WBI Energy hosts Feb. 25 Jamestown open house on Bakken East pipeline

Representatives from WBI Energy met with stakeholders and property owners in Jamestown on Wednesday, Feb. 25 to discuss the proposed Bakken East Pipeline Project and what it could mean for communities across central and eastern North Dakota. The Jamestown open house was described as an outreach opportunity attended by stakeholders and landowners along the planned route.

At the meeting WBI outlined planned informational materials it will develop for landowners and communities, including fact sheets, FAQ documents, maps, and a landowner survey brochure. WBI’s outreach plan says those materials will be distributed through direct mail, private landowner meetings, open houses, individual meetings, on the project website, and by request, and that "updates will be sent to landowners and stakeholders at appropriate project milestones."

WBI’s pre-filing outreach package lists a wide scope of contacts the company has gathered, naming elected officials and staff at the local, state and federal levels, community leaders, tribal leaders, farm bureaus and unions, landowners, and state and federal agencies tied to the project in Exhibits B and C. The company says it will conduct consultation calls and in-person meetings with elected officials and community leaders, host private meetings for landowners, host open houses for stakeholders and the interested public, and establish a database to document outreach and issues.

Federal regulatory filings give technical and property context for the project. A Federal Energy Regulatory Commission PDF dated Feb. 15, 2018, in Docket No. CP17-257-000 records that the project is designed to enhance system reliability for new and existing WBI customers and cites firm transportation amounts of 30,000 Dth per day for Montana-Dakota and 3,350 Dth per day for Tharaldson Ethanol Plant, LLC. The FERC excerpt also lists "233.2 acres of land during operation" as an explicit figure in the filing and includes examples of appurtenant facilities such as mainline block valves, gas measurement and regulation equipment, cathodic protection, and associated piping.

The FERC text further notes WBI voluntarily initiated a pre-filing process "to identify and examine landowner concerns" and concludes that "the project will avoid all residential land." The filing records that WBI will retain land associated with the existing Jamestown town border station while abandoning by sale certain equipment at that station and abandoning by sale the Apple Valley town border station, with those abandonments to be processed under WBI Energy’s Part 157 blanket certificate pursuant to 18 C.F.R. § 157.216(a) (2017).

WBI told attendees that public materials will include FERC information, the project docket number, the FERC landowner brochure and environmental documents, and that exhibits and maps will likely be available for viewing at public libraries. WBI’s outreach materials state the company will "support on-going outreach throughout the life of the project, including documentation of issues," signaling continued local contact as route planning and regulatory steps proceed.