Rosendale Town Board opposes joint environmental review of Pilgrim Pipeline

ROSENDALE – The Rosendale Town Board is on record opposed to the plan by the state Thruway Authority and Department of Environmental Conservation to serve as co-lead agencies in the environmental review of the proposed Pilgrim Pipeline along the Thruway.
In a letter to the DEC, the town board pointed out that it has been the policy of the state agency “to discourage co-lead agency of SEQR processes, and the town does not see how this case merits an exception.”
Rosendale Councilwoman Jennifer Metzger, who is leading the charge, said it is counter-productive to have two agencies involved.
The whole purpose is to have one unified environmental review of a project,” Metzger said.  “When you have two different agencies with two different sets of interests, missions, they are going to view the issues differently and it makes the process very complicated when you have two agencies with discretionary authority on such an important decision.”
The Rosendale board members wrote that in their opinion, “the criteria for a lead agency determination strongly favor DEC.”  The Rosendale Board members say the pipelines would put drinking water for millions of people in New York and New Jersey at risk.
Metzger believes other local governments will join the effort to oppose the joint lead agency proposal.
The Kingston Common Council was the first municipality in Ulster County to oppose this joint environmental review plan.
The pipeline, if approved, would carry southbound fracked crude oil from Albany to New Jersey and, in a parallel pipe, carry purified product back north.