The Millennium Pipeline Co. received two major environmental approvals from New York officials, which paves the way for construction of the 181-mile natural gas pipeline across New York’s Southern Tier and lower Hudson Valley.

The Buffalo, NY, and New York City district offices of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers jointly issued a permit authorizing Millennium to install the pipe across federal jurisdictional wetlands, waterways and beneath navigable waters. Also, the company received a water quality certificate from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation specifying detailed conditions for installing the project across water resources.

The approvals “culminate years of detailed environmental evaluations conducted by Millennium and a variety of government agencies,” the company said. The pipe project was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in late December 2006 (see Daily GPI, Dec. 22, 2006).

“We now have all of our major regulatory approvals in place to begin construction,” said Millennium President Dick Leehr. “We have given the highest priority to designing our project with sensitivity toward environmental protection and will continue this commitment during construction. We appreciate the significant efforts of the regulatory agencies in reviewing our project.”

The pipeline is anchored by KeySpan Energy Delivery Long Island, Consolidated Edison of New York, Central Hudson Gas and Electric Corp. and Columbia Gas Transmission Corp., and it will transport up to 525,400 Dth/d when it goes in service in November 2008. Millennium is jointly owned by affiliates of NiSource Inc., KeySpan Corp. and DTE Energy.

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