In cooperation with the Philadelphia Gas Works, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), has prepared a Tier 2 Environmental Assessment (EA), as required by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, for the proposed replacement of approximately 6.1 miles of cast iron pipe and 0.5 mile of vintage steel and plastic pipes with high density polyethylene pipe (PE). The work has been broken out into thirteen discrete projects which would all occur within the public right-of-way (ROW) and no new ROW or easements would be required. PHMSA published a Tier 1 Nationwide EA for the Natural Gas Distribution Infrastructure Safety and Modernization Grant Program (NGDISM) on November 9, 2022. The stated purpose of NGDISM is for municipality or community owned utilities to repair, rehabilitate, or replace its natural gas distribution pipeline system or portions thereof or to acquire equipment to (1) reduce incidents and fatalities and (2) avoid economic losses by providing grant opportunities to municipality or community owned utilities.
The Tier 1 EA is available at https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/2023-07/Tier-1-PHMSA-2022-0123-0001.pdf. The Tier 2 EA is available for review and comment on the web at https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/about-phmsa/working-phmsa/grants/pipeline/tier-2-site-specific-environmental-documents and a copy is available at Philadelphia Gas Works building (800 W. Montgomery Ave., Philadelphia PA 19122) and Parkway Central Library (1901 Vine St., Philadelphia PA 19103).
Please submit all comments to: PHMSABILGrantNEPAComments@dot.gov and reference NGDISM-FY22-EA-2023-18 in your response. Pursuant to the National Historic Preservation Act, PHMSA has issued a No Adverse Effect finding which is available for review in the Tier 2 EA. Comments on the Tier 2 EA are due by June 3, 2024.
