Pipeline Kabuki: New York State’s dance around reality.
Here we sit: the ‘day after’ the New York State Department of Conservation (NYSDEC) August 30, 2017 deadline to decide two critical Millennium Pipeline projects in Delaware, Sullivan and Orange Counties — The Eastern System Upgrade (ESU) and the Valley Lateral Project (VLP) — there is a decision on VLP, but we still are waiting on ESU. After years of advocacy against these projects; years of public documentation against these projects; years of mounting evidence that both of these projects alone do not and cannot met state requirements for the critical 401 WQC permit — the public is handed a decision on one project, but not yet the other.
While some may argue that by handing down a decision that relies on FERC failures to consider fully GHG emissions, NYSDEC is abdicating their explicit responsibility for the critical 401 WQC permit. I tend to agree with this contention. While the cumulative GHG impacts of Millennium’s proposals certainly were missing from the FERC EA process, both the ESU and VLP projects pose very serious, very critical water quality impacts that ALONE make these projects untenable.
Some may argue that both these projects have become such a ‘political football’ that there is an internal strategy unknown to the public to achieve a ‘compromise’, a ‘negotiation’, a ‘palatable alternative’ that gets batted around in lawsuits certainly being drafted right this very moment. Some may even argue that a ‘win is a win’, end of story. But the process matters and facts matter- and those have always been on NYSDEC’s side throughout these two projects.
With the full acknowledgement that there really is no way to untangle the cast of characters — Millennium, FERC, CPV, VLP, ESU, Percoco, the ‘Ziti’ truck, local politicians, commerce partnerships, ect., ect., ect., acting against, around, under and through the public’s clear interest in its own health and safety, a few facts to ponder as we all sit in the stands of New York’s very special version of Kabuki theatre:
- Literally 2 minutes before the 5pm FERC COB 8/30/2017, the Sierra Club filed the following brief on the ESU Docket. Let it be known that the Sierra Club along with all the other ‘Big Greens’ - with the exception of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network & Food and Water Watch have been conspicuously absent for both of these projects, much to the public’s chagrin.
- Property owners on the Valley Lateral Connect project have been mounting their own defense, taking matters into their own hands. They are surveying their own properties and what they are finding is ALOT of endangered habitat that has NOT been disclosed in public.
3. On the Valley Lateral Connect project, Millennium has gone to incredible ‘lengths’ to adopt HDD drilling methods, changing the alignment late in the permitting process AFTER the FERC EA was issued. As of this past weekend, this ‘new’ alignment has been mapped by the public and is available as an interactive map. This is the project alignment that has been denied by NYSDEC as of August 30, 2017.
4. While Millennium proposed utilizing HDD drilling methods to assuage NYSDEC over water impacts, recent HDD failures on major pipelines belie the true costs and risks of HDD methods. And amazingly, after Sunoco Mariner East 2 was allowed to proceed after prior, multiple and significant HDD failure and damages, they have AGAIN failed utilizing this method.
Stay tuned. Is this what the public wanted and deserves? Not fully. Is this an outright public defeat? No. Is this something to celebrate? Sure. Will this be taken away from the public and argued away on legal grounds far away from the fact that both these projects do not meet the standards of the 401 WQC permit? Definitely.
