YORKTOWN – The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) held a scoping session for the residents of Yorktown and the surrounding area Monday night regarding the proposed project for the replacement of the Algonquin Pipeline and its environmental review.
Putnam Valley Councilwoman Wendy Wetzell addresses the session
Attendees at the session conveyed mixed reviews about the Atlantic Bridge project proposed by the Algonquin Gas Transmission.
Maggie Suitor, environmental project manager for FERC, said the proposal would traverse three states.
“The current project includes 18.1 miles of pipeline in five pieces throughout New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts,” said Suitor. “It also includes the addition of compression at two existing compressor stations in Connecticut and one new compressor station in Massachusetts.”
Those in opposition to the project maintain it will have crucial environmental impact to the surrounding areas and pose danger of pipeline rupture to those who live in the surrounding communities. However, it seems the main concern in respect to the validity of the project is its assumed association with other pipeline projects in New York and the Northeast.
Opponents, including Erik Lindberg of Peekskill, claim that the AIM,
Atlantic Access and Atlantic Bridge projects are all interdependent and
because they are being environmentally evaluated as separate projects
are illegally segmented.
“Every single time we grill them on it, ‘oh yea, they’re completely dependent upon each other,” Lindberg said. “They won’t build Atlantic Bridge if AIM doesn’t get completed. They should be considered as part of the same EIS; they are illegally segmented as presently proposed and it undermines public confidence that we don’t get a clear picture of the true environmental impact.”
Those who support the project believe the environmental concerns are overblown. Proponents, including the union workers like Stephen Reich, believe the pipeline project will only improve the safety and reliability of an already existing pipeline structure.
“This project has a very low impact environmentally and in other
ways, due to the majority of it being done in existing right of ways,”
said Reich. “Projects such as this only improve the safety of the
existing infrastructure that been under your feet for the last sixty years,
giving you the gas that all of you use right now.”
FERC has issued a Notice of Intent for the project but, because it is in the scoping period and because there are no actual applications as of yet, they cannot take action on a project.
