The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has approved key permits for the proposed Northeast Supply Enhancement, or NESE, natural gas pipeline project.
The approval includes a required Clean Water Act Section 401 Water Quality Certification. The decision was outlined in a letter issued to Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company, which is developing the project.
According to the DEC, the decision follows an extensive review process that included updated federal guidelines, an extended public comment period, and consideration of more than 17,000 public comments. Officials said the review also accounted for new environmental data and lessons learned from other recent projects involving in-water construction.
The Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) Project includes the construction, installation, and operation of a new 26-inch diameter pipeline to transport natural gas from Pennsylvania through New Jersey, travelling underwater in the Raritan Bay and Lower New York Bay to approximately three (3) miles offshore of the Rockaway Peninsula in the borough of Queens, New York. The overall project involves the installation of approximately 23.5 miles of new underwater pipeline, and approximately 17.4 miles of new pipeline will be installed within New York State waters. The NESE Project is designed to provide approximately 400,000 dekatherms per day of incremental firm natural gas transportation service to National Grid to serve existing customers in Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island. The new pipeline would connect to the existing Rockaway Delivery Lateral in Queens, and it is intended to support reliability and help displace the use of oil.
The state has attached several environmental conditions to the permits. Those include on-site third-party monitoring, construction restrictions to protect aquatic life such as sturgeon and hard clams, and a dredge management plan to prevent contamination of nearby waterways.
DEC estimates the required mitigation measures will cost about $23.5 million. The agency said it will continue to oversee the project to ensure compliance with state and federal environmental standards.
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