Although KeySpan’s Connecticut-to-New York Islander East Pipeline project appears to have passed final environmental muster at FERC this week, agency staff conceded there is an “environmentally preferable” system alternative to the proposed pipeline.

The Commission staff concluded the ELI System Alternative, which is based on Iroquois’s ELI extension project, is superior from an environmental standpoint because “it has a shorter Long Island Sound crossing, avoids more shellfish leases, and would only have air quality and noise impacts onshore in Connecticut.”

The environmental impacts of the ELI System Alternative on Long Island, NY, “would be identical to [those of the] Islander East Project. However, we also recognize that there are other policy-related considerations and/or factors that may make this alternative less desirable,” the FERC staff said in its final environmental impact statement (FEIS) on the Islander East project. Staff did not identify the factors, noting they “are beyond the scope of this document.”

It said there were a “number of major considerations” the Commission would have to weigh before it could recommend the ELI alternative over the Islander East project.

As for Islander East project itself, staff said construction and operation of the pipeline would have “limited adverse environmental impact,” provided the agency’s “recommended mitigation measures” were followed. “We believe these [mitigation] measures would substantially reduce the environmental impact of the project.”

The proposed 50-mile Islander East line would transport natural gas from Connecticut to the Long Island market. The pipeline, if built, would be equally owned by Duke Energy Gas Transmission (DEGT) and KeySpan Energy Delivery Long Island (KEDLI). FERC awarded Islander East a preliminary determination on non-environmental issues last December.

Originating from DEGT’s Algonquin Gas Transmission’s system, the pipeline — made from 24-inch and 30-inch diameter pipe — would extend from Connecticut across Long Island Sound to Wading River, NY, and other points on Long Island, where it would connect with KEDLI. It would have access to a number of major supply basins in North America, including the recently developed Sable Offshore Energy Project off the coast of Nova Scotia in Atlantic Canada.

Islander East and the pending Algonquin project — to upgrade 13 miles of existing pipeline and build a new compressor station in Cheshire, CT — would supply about 285,000 Dth/d of natural gas for energy markets in Connecticut, Long Island and New York City. The Algonquin upgrade also was addressed in staff’s FEIS.

The gas supplied would be enough to heat approximately 600,000 homes and meet local gas company growth on Long Island and in New York City, according to the sponsors. Both the Islander East and Algonquin projects have been targeted for in-service in 2003.

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