Cuomo administration rejects Constitution pipeline
Cuomo. (Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of the Governor)
By SCOTT WALDMAN 3:26 p.m. | Apr. 22, 2016 follow this reporter
ALBANY—The Cuomo administration has denied the water quality permits for a controversial pipeline in what has become another primary test of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s environmental legacy.
On Friday, which is Earth Day, the state Department of Environmental Conservation denied the water quality certificate the pipeline developers need to begin construction. Most of the pipeline’s federal permits have already been approved and the project developers have already shipped all of the pieces into the state and even began clearing trees in Pennsylvania.
Though the administration has approved other pipelines, the Constitution pipeline application did not contain adequate information to determine whether it would meet water quality standards, the DEC’s chief permit administrator, John Ferguson, wrote in the rejection.
“The Application fails in a meaningful way to address the significant water resource impacts that could occur from this Project and has failed to provide sufficient information to demonstrate compliance with New York State water quality standards,” wrote John Ferguson, the “Constitution's failure to adequately address these concerns limited the Department's ability to assess the impacts and conclude that the Project will comply water quality standards.”
Administration officials pointed to the inadequate depth of the pipeline in streams, as well as what they described as a
“lack of detailed project plans.” They accused the Constitution developer of intentionally providing vague or incomplete responses to DEC questions.
The Constitution pipeline would have crossed hundreds of bodies of water and involved the clearing of between 100,000 to 700,000, according to figures provided by the developer and those provided by environmental groups.
Developers expected the approval for more than a year, and ordered the fabrication of the pipeline. Much of it is sitting in pieces in storage, including in the Albany region, ready to be deployed for a construction process that was to have taken about a year or less.
Friday's decision was a "disappointment," said Christopher Stockton, a spokesman for William company, the pipeline's developer.