Strategic Planning To Offset Pipeline Impacts

Appreciating the need for a better approach to managing over 40 federally listed threatened or endangered species that might be affected by normal pipeline operations and maintenance, NiSource and the US Fish and Wildlife Service turned to The Conservation Fund. The Fund is providing its strategic conservation assessment and planning expertise and its conservation leadership services for convening stakeholder groups throughout the 14 affected states.

Threatened or endangered species in the project area include: Louisiana black bear, Indiana bat, bog turtle, and the sheepnose mussel.
On map:
Gray     = NiSource Pipeline States
Yellow = NiSource Pipeline Counties

Summary

NiSource Inc. (NiSource), a Fortune 500 natural gas transmission and storage company, operates a 15,500 linear mile network of natural gas pipelines through 14 states. NiSource pipelines extend from the Gulf of Mexico to New York and from the Atlantic coast to the Great Lakes. The company annually delivers nearly a trillion cubic feet of gas to nearly four million customers.

Challenge

To protect this interstate network, NiSource currently conducts up to ninety biological consultations a year on over 40 federally listed threatened or endangered species that might be affected by normal pipeline operations and maintenance. This permit-by-permit, year-by-year approach is not only costly and time-consuming for the company but also ineffective in addressing the habitat protection needs of the affected species.

Solution

The Fish and Wildlife Service and NiSource have embarked upon a multiple species habitat conservation plan (MSHCP) that, when completed, will allow NiSource to operate under a single, consolidated permit for the next 50 years. This MSHCP includes a mitigation package that identifies measures NiSource will take to avoid, minimize, and mitigate the potential impact to covered species. Under the plan, NiSource will fund the mitigation projects needed to assure adequate habitat for all protected species for the next 50 years.

The MSHCP’s unprecedented scope—geographically, over 6.4 million acres; duration, 50 years; and number of species, 75 federally listed—took NiSource and the FWS to The Conservation Fund. They sought the Fund’s assistance in determining the best locations for mitigation using its strategic conservation assessment and planning expertise and its conservation leadership services for convening stakeholder groups throughout the 14 affected states. When the MSHCP is issued, NiSource mitigation dollars will leverage both state and federal conservation funds and provide significant conservation benefits.