Constitution Pipeline opponents want water permit block

Opponents of the proposed Constitution Pipeline have flooded state regulators with comments urging the rejection of water permits that the US$700 million natural gas transmission system needs before it can be built.

Some estimates say that the state Department of Environmental Conservation fielded some 8000 comments in opposition to the project before the close of business last Friday, which was the agency’s deadline for taking public input on the permit applications.

The underground pipeline, 30 in. in diameter, would run through fields, forests and farms from northeastern Pennsylvania to the town of Wright in Schoharie County, crossing into Broome, Chenango and Delaware counties along its 124 mile route.

The project planners say the pipeline would carry enough gas to power 3 million homes, and a feeder pipeline connected to it is expected to supply new gas service for Sidney, Afton, Bainbridge, Delhi and Unadilla, among other communities.

The proposed pipeline took a major advance forward last month, with a federal judge granting it eminent domain rights to easements on properties whose owners had been resisting right-of-way agreements.

Pipeline construction is now expected to begin this summer, said Christopher Stockton, a spokesman for Williams Partners, the energy company that is the lead partner in the consortium of firms behind the US$700 million project, which would run 124 miles from northeastern Pennsylvania to the Schoharie County town of Wright.

Edited from various sources by Elizabeth Corner

Sources: The Daily Star, News10.com

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/project-news/04032015/constitution-pipeline-opponents-want-water-permit-block/