The proposed 700 MMcf/d Millennium Pipeline project from Ontario to New York City crossed a key environmental hurdle when the National Marine Fisheries Service of the U.S. Department of Commerce issued a favorable biological opinion late last month. The Fisheries Service said the project’s Hudson River crossing would have only minimal impact on the endangered shortnose sturgeon.

The agency said based on the time of year of construction, “the apparent low density of the shortnose sturgeon in the action area, and the type of dredge equipment being employed, NMFS believes that the incidental take of shortnose sturgeon will be minimal.” NMFS added that the project is not likely to “reduce the reproduction, numbers, and distribution of the [fish] in a way that appreciable reduces their likelihood of survival and recovery in the wild.”

Such approvals normally wouldn’t seem like much for major interstate pipeline planners, but Millennium has been under regulatory review for more than three and a half years. The project has been under the microscope from inception because of its crossing of Lake Erie and the state of New York (remember the opposition Iroquois inspired?).

Its route through Westchester County in particular has been under the gun for more than a year because of a battle with Consolidated Edison over right of way and significant landowner opposition. It suffered through the fifth public meeting in Westchester last month as part of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s ongoing environmental review.

The review has taken so long that its Canadian sponsors took their blueprint for the upstream pipeline in Ontario off the regulatory books and went home to wait out the U.S. regulatory process, before moving forward at the National Energy Board in Canada.

As a result, approvals, however small, are still significant. “This favorable assessment of Millennium’s Hudson River crossing is yet another confirmation of the careful environmental research and sound design work that has gone into this project,” said Millennium Chairman David Pentzien. “When the facts and merits of our proposal are fairly and openly considered, Millennium clearly stands as the most environmentally sound solution for delivering new energy supplies to the New York region.”

With the renewed interest by the Bush administration and FERC Chairman Pat Wood to smooth the way for energy infrastructure projects, Millennium may finally get the certificate for which is has patiently waited.

Millennium will originate at the Canadian border in Lake Erie and extend across the southern tier of New York to a terminus in the New York City metropolitan area. More than 90% of the pipeline route uses existing utility corridors, with about 224 miles of the project replacing and upgrading a 50-year-old existing pipeline system that serves a number of gas utilities and their customers in New York. The $700 million project will be constructed and operated by a partnership formed by four major North American energy companies — Columbia Gas Transmission Corp., MCN Energy, TransCanada PipeLines, and Westcoast Energy.

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