FERC staff has issued an environmental assessment (EA) for Dominion Transmission Inc.’s proposed New Market project in Upstate New York, concluding that it would not significantly affect the quality of the environment if approved by Commissioners.

Dominion first asked for Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval of the project in June 2014 (see Daily GPI, June 3, 2014). At that time, Dominion requested approval by last April, which would have allowed construction to begin last month with service by November 2016. Cost of the project was estimated at $159 million [CP14-497].

New Market would provide 112,000 Dth/d of firm transportation service, with more than 33,000 hp added to Dominion Transmission’s existing system. It would improve access for two National Grid subsidiaries, Niagara Mohawk and Brooklyn Union.

Two compressor stations with 11,000 hp each are to be built in Madison County, NY, and Chemung County, NY. Additional compression would be added to the Brookmans Corners Station in Montgomery County, NY, with upgrades at the Borger, Utica and the Brookmans Corners stations.

A public comment period on the EA is open until Nov. 19.

Simultaneous with its request last year for approval of the New Market project, Dominion asked FERC to OK the Clarington project in West Virginia, which would also rely on home-based supply from the Appalachian Basin. FERC approved the $77 million Clarington project two months ago, allowing it to build new compression facilities, interconnects and associated equipment to boost capacity on its mainline system by 250,000 Dth/d (see Daily GPI, Aug. 21).

Clarington would allow Dominion to provide 250,000 Dth/d of incremental firm transportation service for Consol Energy Inc. The producer, which currently has more than 500,000 net acres in the Marcellus and Utica shales, signed a 15-year binding precedent agreement in 2013 for the capacity.