DOE/EA-2304: Draft Environmental Assessment (March 2026)

SWA Lithium LLC – South West Arkansas Project; Lafayette County, Arkansas 

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) prepared this draft environmental assessment (EA) for SWA Lithium LLC – South West Arkansas Project (DOE/EA-2304) to evaluate the potential environmental and social impacts of DOE’s Proposed Action to provide cost-shared funding to SWA Lithium LLC to support the development of a lithium processing plant in the Smackover region of southwest Arkansas.

SWA Lithium LLC proposes to extract brine from the Smackover Formation via brine production wells at a rate of up to 200,000 barrels per day, extract lithium from the brine, convert it to a saleable battery-quality lithium carbonate product, and reinject the effluent brine back into the Smackover Formation for pressure maintenance via new brine injection wells. The Proposed SWA Project would produce a nominal 22,500 metric tons per annum of battery-quality lithium carbonate over a 20-year operating life. The components of the Proposed SWA Project would include a Central Processing Facility (CPF), along with a wellfield encompassing five well pads, brine production and injection wells, brine gathering and distribution pipelines, a sour gas disposal pipeline, power distribution lines, and access roads.

For more information, see SWA Lithium LLC – South West Arkansas Project.