Concerns delay Richton oil site

WASHINGTON – Environmentalists persuaded Mississippi lawmakers to press the Department of Energy to re-examine plans to store millions of gallons of oil in salt caverns near Richton, foreshadowing other hurdles the ambitious project could face.

Prodded by the lawmakers, including Rep. Gene Taylor, D-4th, and Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the Department of Energy agreed last month to amend a 2006 environmental impact study on the proposal to expand the Strategic Petroleum Reserve by creating a new storage site in salt caverns known as the Richton Dome.

In the study, the DOE predicted there could be as many as 16 oil spills during the site’s initial fill and 91 to 98 brine spills in the five years it will take to wash out the caverns. It also said 1,557 acres of wetlands could be potentially affected and there may be a loss of habitat for certain threatened species, including the gopher tortoise, black pine snake, yellow blotched map turtle, gulf sturgeon and pearl darter.

Conducted by ICF International, a DOE contractor, the new study will add at least a year to the time it takes to build the Richton reserve. And it isn’t likely to settle local concerns about the environmental impact of the massive project, which will cost at least $1 billion, require about 350 acres of land and create about 500 construction jobs.

Landowners who are likely to sell land for the oil storage facility are anxious about the delay.

Hattiesburg American (Mississippi)