Port Dolphin asks for one-year extension

Port Dolphin Energy LLC has again extended its proposed pipeline project by a year, bringing its anticipated commencement date to July 1, 2014, according to a Feb. 28 letter to the Florida Department of Environment and Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission from Port Dolphin Vice President German Castro. Last year, the Oslo-based company also requested a one-year extension.

The extension also pushes back the town’s deadline for sand removal to June 2014. The town agreed in September 2009 that it would not object to the pipeline placement if Port Dolphin would help remove sand for the island’s next beach renourishment project and help pay for its removal and permitting costs. Initially, the town opposed the placement of the proposed 42-mile pipeline, which will run to the north of Anna Maria Island, because it would run through the same white sand that Longboat Key has used as a high-quality white sand source.

“In a way, it helps us because it gives us the flexibility of not having to rush to get the sand,” Longboat Key Public Works Director Juan Florensa said.

The town has received state permits for excavation but is still waiting on federal permits, which are needed because the sand site is in federal waters, according to Florensa.

Port Dolphin is also waiting on permits before it can pursue the project.

Castro’s letter lists seven authorizations the company has received for sand removal but states that permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Florida Department of Environmental Protection, along with a federal submerged lands lease.

“Despite the fact that Port Dolphin is diligently pursuing these permits and authorizations, we cannot at this time accurately predict when the final permits and authorizations may be issued,” the letter states. “Due to this uncertainty related to the outstanding permits and authorizations, we are forced to postpone the schedule for construction for another year.”

The town received $500,000 from Port Dolphin last December as reimbursement for its costs associated with developing and permitting sand-borrow areas in the Gulf of Mexico in advance of the placement of the $1 billion liquid natural-gas pipeline. If Port Dolphin moves forward with the pipeline, the town will be eligible for up to an additional $5 million pending FDEP approval of the project.