Daniel Adamson, FERC director of the Office of Energy Projects,fired off a letter of rejection to Millennium Pipeline earlier thismonth, regarding an amendment application for a proposed routechange along the highly controversial power transmission right ofway in Westchester County, NY. He also told Millennium officials toconsider substituting a proposed extension of the Iroquois GasTransmission system for the Millennium project.

New York regulators forced Millennium to change the route along Consolidated Edison’s six 345 kV high voltage transmission lines because of safety concerns (see NGI, May 15, April 24, March 27 and March 13). Millennium filed the amendment April 9. Adamson, however, told Millennium’s David Pentzien the amendment application was woefully inadequate because it was missing numerous environmental details and a discussion of the impact on the cost of developing the project. He said the filing lacked significant data and environmental analysis, including impact on endangered species, detailed discussion of the impact on habitat at certain river crossings, or specific information about pipeline locations in relation to established right of way.

“Your amendment application filed in Docket No. CP98-150-001seeking authorization to construct the Millennium Pipeline isdeficient,” Adamson said. “Our review shows that MillenniumPipeline Company (Millennium) failed to include the minimumrequired environmental information needed for the Commission staffto begin processing of a complete application… Therefore theamendment application…..is rejected without prejudice toMillennium refiling a complete application.”

Adamson also ordered Millennium officials to submit a discussionof Iroquois Gas Transmission’s Eastchester Project as a possiblealternative to the entire Millennium project or for the portion ofMillennium in Westchester County. Iroquois filed an application forthe project last month. The $170 million, 30-mile extension wouldhelp meet gas demand in New York City. It would run from Iroquois’mainline in Northport, Long Island 27 miles beneath Long IslandSound to a connection with ConEd’s gas lines in the Bronx. It alsowould involve building several new compressor stations and addingcompression at existing stations. If approved, the EastchesterExtension project will start service in 2002. It initially woulddeliver about 220 MMcf/d of gas compared to Millennium’s proposed714 MMcf/d. It also would be significantly cheaper to build thanthe $650 million, 442-mile Millennium project.

Rocco Canonica

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