Anti-Pipeline Groups Urge FERC to Drop ‘Fatally Flawed’ Document
Three grassroots groups are calling on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to withdraw what they feel is a “fatally flawed” Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for a planned natural gas pipeline that would extend from New York to Massachusetts.
Stop the Algonquin Pipeline Expansion (SAPE), Concerned Peekskill Residents (CPR) and Keep Yorktown Safe (KYS) all had representatives at FERC’s only New York State public hearing on the project Monday night in Cortlandt and asked elected officials in attendance to publicly join their effort.
“We believe that the DEIS is inadequate as a National Environmental Policy Act document, and urge the Commission to withdraw the deficient DEIS, address all outstanding issues, issue a supplemental DEIS, and then submit it for public comment,” said Susan Van Dolsen of SAPE.
The groups maintained one of the many “glaring holes” in the DEIS is its failure to adequately address the “potentially catastrophic impacts” of placing a 42-inch diameter, high pressure gas pipeline near residential neighborhoods, an elementary school and the Indian Point nuclear power plants.
“We’re not asking for life to be risk free. We just want the risks to be reasonable,” said Nancy Vann, co-founder of CPR. “I don’t know how anyone could characterize the addition of a 42-inch high pressure gas pipeline next to Indian Point and the intersection of two earthquake fault lines as being reasonable.”
Lisa Mackay, a member of Keep Yorktown Safe, said a second expansion project known as the Spectra Atlantic Bridge project will begin only 22 feet across Stoney Street in Yorktown from Spectra’s Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) project.
“Yorktown will be hit twice,” Mackay said. “Spectra has broken up this full pipeline expansion into two projects, which many believe is a clear example of illegal segmentation.”
In addition, the groups stressed the DEIS fails to consider the cumulative effects of both expansions in the local municipalities being targeted.
“We only get to see a small portion of the company’s plans at one time, but residents in four states will be living with the consequences for a long time,” said Peekskill resident Erik Lindberg.
FERC is the approving authority for the gas pipelines and can overrule any objections from municipal and state officials.
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/
