The Northern Access Pipeline route would have crossed the Cattaraugus Creek Basin Aquifer system. (Antepenultimate/Wikimedia Commons)
NEW YORK – Environmentalists are celebrating Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s decision to block construction of a 99-mile pipeline through western New York.
The 24-inch Northern Access Pipeline would carry natural gas from Pennsylvania to Canada. But late Friday, while all eyes were on the state budget process, the Department of Environmental Conservation quietly denied a critical water-quality permit, effectively preventing pipeline construction.
Alex Beauchamp, northeast region director for Food and Water Watch, said the project would have affected 192 streams and 600 acres of forest, and crossed the sole source of drinking water for 20,000 people.
“This is a real victory for the grassroots who fought this, day in and day out, particularly folks out in western New York who really never let up,” he said, “and I think without that activism, this victory just doesn’t happen.”
National Fuel, the company that wants to build the pipeline, said it would create up to 1,200 jobs and provide reliable energy supplies to western New York, the Midwest and Canada. There is as yet no word on whether it will appeal the decision or move the pipeline route.
Beauchamp said building more natural-gas infrastructure just deepens reliance on energy sources that harm the environment.
0 Comments