After nearly four years of waiting, FERC staff last week concluded that the controversial U.S. leg of the Millennium Pipeline project could be built and operated to meet environmental standards if a number of “specific” Commission-developed mitigation measures, on top of those already proposed by the pipeline, are taken.

The construction of the 373-mile pipeline, which would transport Canadian gas under Lake Erie to eastern New York, would create impacts that are “locally significant,” and while they may be “mitigated extensively” through proposed and recommended mitigation, “many are unavoidable,” the staff said in its final environmental impact statement (FEIS) on the pipeline project.

The environmental effects would be “most significant” during the construction phase, it noted. As a result, “we have developed specific mitigation measures, in addition to those proposed by Millennium, that we believe to be appropriate and reasonable for construction and operation of the proposed facilities.” These measures, staff said, would enable the Millennium project to satisfy environmental standards.

In the end, “we believe that this project is the preferred alternative for providing up to 700,000 Dth/d of natural gas transportation service” to the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York markets, it concluded.

As for the hotly-contested issue of Millennium’s route, FERC staff recommended that the pipeline follow the ConEd Offset/Taconic Parkway alternative that was proposed by several municipalities in Westchester County, NY. “There is no clear environmental advantage between the 9/9A proposal [sought by Millennium] and the ConEd Offset/Taconic Parkway Alternative. Neither route is popular with the people who would be affected by its construction. Either route could be constructed with limited adverse impacts,” the Commission staff said.

“However, the ConEd Offset/Taconic Parkway Alternative has the advantage of co-location on an existing utility right-of-way for over half of its length, rather than imposing a utility within a narrow transportation corridor.” As a result it “would be less disruptive to affected communities.”

FERC staff examined a total of nine major routes alternatives for Millennium, but it noted that it was “unable to find an alternative [to the ConEd Offset route] that would not create similar disturbances to other locations, other landowners, and other environmentally sensitive areas in New York or neighboring states.”

The FEIS brings the 714 MMcf/d Millennium project one step closer to getting a certificate from the Commission. Sponsors of the U.S. project, which has been pending at FERC since late 1997, are Columbia Gas Transmission, TransCanada PipeLines, Westcoast Energy and MCN Energy Group. The Canadian portion of the proposed pipeline has been put on hold, as sponsors wait to see what action FERC takes in the U.S.

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