In a last-ditch effort to block construction of a controversial natural gas pipeline in northeastern Pennsylvania, campaigners urged an interstate regulator on Friday to review the project?s environmental impact.
The 44-mile section of pipeline, the Northeast Upgrade, would become part of a longer pipeline moving natural gas extracted from the Marcellus Shale in northern Pennsylvania to a terminal in Mahwah, N.J. In a letter, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, an environmental group, urged the Delaware River Basin Commission to study the potential impacts, arguing that the project will result in the loss of forest and the degradation of wetlands if construction is allowed to begin.
Opponents argue that in approving the project, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission did not conduct a thorough environmental review. Last week they suffered a setback when the federal Court of Appeals in Washington denied an emergency motion by Delaware Riverkeeper and others for an injunction to rescind FERC?s approval of the plan.
While a court challenge to the legality of FERC?s approval for the Northeast Upgrade is still pending, the outcome may only apply to future pipelines once construction of the new segment gets going, said Maya K. van Rossum, who heads the environmental group.
Ms. Van Rossum said the Delaware River Basin Commission, controlled by the governors of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Delaware and the federal Army Corps of Engineers, was therefore the group?s last hope. The commission is charged with maintaining water quality and managing water resources in the 330-mile long basin.
?Exercise of this jurisdiction? could ?avoid and minimize the incredible level of harm the traditional method of pipeline construction used in our watershed to date has inflicted,? Ms. Van Rossum wrote in the letter. The commission, which had refused to exercise its authority, recently reversed itself, saying that it would review the TGP300 pipeline, of which the Northeast Upgrade is a part, but not the Upgrade itself.
Unless the commission steps in, tree-cutting for the section of the upgrade that falls into the Delaware watershed on the Pennsylvania and New Jersey sides of the river could begin as soon as next week, Ms. Van Rossum said.
On Thursday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved tree-cutting for a section of the Upgrade that falls within the Delaware River basin.
A spokesman for the Delaware River Basin Commission did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Saturday, 1:30 p.m. | Updated
Clarke Rupert, a spokesman for the commission, said later by e-mail that it would not be reconsidering its approval of the pipeline company?s application for water withdrawals associated with the pipeline upgrade.
?A public hearing was held on the same date prior to the vote to approve, which was unanimous,? Mr. Rupert wrote. ?The time for appeal of the commission?s docket approval has elapsed.?
?This matter concluded when the docket was approved and no timely appeal of the commission?s action was filed,? he added.
Critics of the project also accuse the operator of the company Tennessee Gas Pipeline of avoiding a thorough review of the project under the National Environmental Policy Act by seeking permits for separate sections of the pipeline rather than for the line as a whole. In court documents, they argue that the company ?evaded? a comprehensive environmental review and that FERC ?unlawfully? segmented the analysis required under the National Environmental Polcy Act.
FERC maintains that it was legally entitled to conduct a segmented analysis of the project.
Richard Wheatley, a spokesman for Kinder Morgan, the parent company of Tennessee Gas Pipeline, said the upgrade project was proceeding despite legal challenges because FERC has rejected them, mostly recently on Jan. 11, as have federal courts in Pennsylvania and Washington.
?The January 11 order is reflective of a diligent review of claims dealing with environmental issues, right-of-way routing, late filings by numerous individuals and entities? and other issues, Mr. Wheatley wrote in an e-mail.
In Milford in northeastern Pennsylvania, opposition is focused on plans to clear a seven-mile swath of forest where the pipeline would be built rather than using an existing right of way that would not require cutting trees.
Senator Bob Casey, Democrat of Pennsylvania, has meanwhile urged the Army Corps of Engineers, which must approve any projects that cross wetlands or waterways, to consider alternative routes.
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