Atlantic Sunrise: which route to take?

Geraldine Nesbitt – owner of The Nesbitt Parcel – is said to be in full agreement with the EPA and Corps’ 15 February letter to the pipeline owners.

Nesbitt has always asserted that a less destructive route for the pipeline should be taken than the one Williams insisted upon.

The letter stated that all of the available information and the agencies' site visits indicate that the Alternative 12W pipeline route is the least environmental damaging practicable alternative compared to the Nesbitt 12E alternative that was pushed by the pipeline owners – The Williams Companies and Williams Partners.

In the letter, Mr Chandler of the US Army Corps and who wrote the letter, stated that the Corps concluded that “comments and information received by this office, and observations by representatives of this office and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicate that the 12W alternative route would have less adverse impact on the aquatic ecosystem, and does not have other significant adverse environmental consequences,” in contrast to the Nesbitt 12E Alternative promoted by Williams.

“Specifically, Alternative 12W appears to result in less impacts to wetlands; result in less permanent conversion of forested and scrub shrub wetlands to emergent wetlands; impacts wetlands and waters of lesser value (alternative 12W impacts wetlands and waters that are degraded by ongoing human activity such as roadways, agricultural activities and commercial and residential impacts); has no impacts to Natural Heritage Areas; and impacts less forested and undisturbed vegetated buffers along streams and wetlands,” the letter states.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/regulations-and-standards/10032017/atlantic-sunrise-which-route-to-take/