Attorneys for the long-stalled Island Islander East pipeline petitioned Superior Court in New Britain, CT, last Monday to force state environmental regulators to issue a water quality permit that would clear the way for the construction of the 50-mile natural gas pipeline from Connecticut to Long Island.

“Islander East strongly believes that our proposed pipeline is consistent with Connecticut’s federally approved water quality guidelines. This is why on April 16 we asked the Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection [DEP] to reconsider [its] denial of our application for a water quality certificate” in February of this year, said Islander East spokesman John Sheridan.

“Now that the Commissioner failed to respond to our request within the 60-day time frame prescribed by Connecticut’s general statutes, we have notified him and other interested parties that we will exercise our right to seek a declaratory ruling from Connecticut’s Superior Court.”

With project approvals from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, New York State and the Department of Commerce in hand, “we believe we have a powerful battery of facts to support the argument that we will make in court,” Sheridan said. “Our central argument continues to be that the [DEP] applied the wrong set of standards when they denied our water quality permit.”

Islander East, which is sponsored by Duke Energy and KeySpan, claims that the DEP’s denial of a water quality permit, rather than being based on federal standards under the Clean Water Act (CWA), was incorrectly based on state standards under its Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) statute, Sheridan told NGI.

“The ruling we seek from the Superior Court would require the [DEP] to correctly apply its federally approved water quality standards and to issue a water quality permit to Islander East,” he said.

The legal action is the latest volley in an ongoing battle between Islander East and the state of Connecticut over the proposed pipeline that would cross the Long Island Sound to Long Island, NY, supplying natural gas to the New York City area.

The state of Connecticut initially tried to halt the Islander East pipeline project by claiming it was inconsistent with its CZMA statute, which gives states the right to block projects deemed detrimental to their coastal areas. But Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, in May, overruled the state’s decision. The state is now withholding the water quality permit to prevent construction of the pipeline.

Earlier this year, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal applauded the DEP’s denial of a water quality permit for the proposed pipeline, saying the decision was a “death knell” for Islander East. “The only regret about Islander East’s demise is that it took so long,” he said at the time (see NGI, Feb.16).

Blumenthal vowed he will oppose the pipeline’s request to Superior Court. “Every regulatory action taken by DEP to prohibit this environmental disaster has been lawful and proper. I will vigorously defend the denial of the required permits and authorizations for this project, as it plainly does not deserve approval,” he said in a prepared statement.

The pipeline project would extend 50 miles from New Haven, CT, across Long Island Sound to Suffolk County (Long Island) near Yaphank, NY, delivering 285,000 Dth/d of gas initially and ultimately 400,000 Dth/d. Additionally, Algonquin Gas Transmission, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, would loop about 13.7 miles of existing pipeline in Connecticut and add a new compressor station in Cheshire, CT. Approximately 90% of the Islander East pipeline land route will be located along existing corridors.

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