Valley Crossing Pipeline
Operated by Enbridge, the purpose of the Valley Crossing Pipeline is to deliver fracked gas to Mexico to fuel natural gas-fired electric generation plants owned by the Comisión Federal de Electricidad, a company owned by the government of Mexico.
The Valley Crossing Pipeline is 165 miles long and varies at either 42" or 48". The Valley Crossing Pipeline is under the jurisdiction of the Texas Railroad Commission. The last 1,000 feet was filed as a separate project with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission called the Border Crossing Project.
Accompanying infrastructure includes two compressor stations (Kleberg and Cameron County), meter stations, and other ancillary facilities.
Texas LNG Lateral
The proposed Texas LNG Lateral consists of a 30-inch-diameter pipeline that is proposed to be interconnected to an expansion of Enbridge, Inc.’s Valley Crossing Pipeline. The Lateral will be 10.2 miles in length, 7 of which crosses through wetlands or waterbodies. It will connect just upstream of the Valley Crossing compressor station. If approved, the pipeline construction would begin in 2021.
Horizontal directional drilling will be used in only two locations, at San Martin Lake and the Bahia Grande. With this method, the pipeline is installed underneath the surface without disturbance to the surface.
Most of the pipeline will be constructed conventionally, which means major damage to much of the wetlands along the route. With conventional construction, a trench will be excavated deep enough to allow 3 feet of to be on top of the pipeline once in the ground.
The pipeline will require a construction right-of-way (ROW) of 100 feet wide, and nearly all of the ROW are wetlands.
The service from the Valley Crossing Pipeline to feed gas for
Texas LNG is contrary to what Valley Crossing stated in its communication to the public, intervenors, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. In response to arguments that the Valley Crossing Pipeline should be considered interstate and under the jurisdiction of FERC because of speculation that they would connect to LNG facilities, Valley Crossing stated:
However, after Valley Crossing received its permits and approval to build, Texas LNG announced their connection to the Valley Crossing pipeline system in December, 2017.