Agency responses to Constitution pipeline DEIS

Four agencies have specifically stated the DEIS is deficient, must be revised, and possibly supplemented. (The Army Corps feels the same, but, as a Cooperating Agency, didn’t use those terms.)

All five call for greater studies of alternative routes along existing easements. The specific requests vary by agency.

They all think going through interior / upland forests, and forested wetlands, is madness.

Most have said that the DEIS is incomplete because 24% (30 miles) of the proposed route HAVE NOT BEEN SURVEYED.

— big round of applause for the resisting landowners!

Here are links to the heavy weight agency comments:

Comment of US Environmental Protection Agency under CP13-499.
http://elibrary.FERC.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?accession_num=20140409-5120

U.S. Department of the Interior Submits Comments under  Draft Environmental Impact Statement, Constitution Pipeline and Wright Interconnect Projects, Pennsylvania and New York CP13-499 et al.
http://elibrary.FERC.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?accession_num=20140408-5035

Comment of Army Corp of Engineers under CP13-499.
http://elibrary.FERC.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?accession_num=20140408-5149

Comment of New York State Department of Environmental Conservation under CP13-499 et al.
http://elibrary.FERC.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?accession_num=20140407-5409

Comment of New York Public Service Commission under CP13-499.
http://elibrary.FERC.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?accession_num=20140407-5001

I’m slowing reading everyone’s comments. It will take some time for me to get through them all.

We’ve really done a remarkable job. Thanks to everyone for your time and financial contributions.
Anne Marie

Evan Osnos: A Chemical Spill in West Virginia : The New Yorker

Evan Osnos: A Chemical Spill in West Virginia : The New Yorker.

AIR POLLUTION: Oil and gas boom, budget woes strain EPA’s monitoring network — Monday, March 31, 2014 — www.eenews.net

AIR POLLUTION: Oil and gas boom, budget woes strain EPA’s monitoring network — Monday, March 31, 2014 — www.eenews.net.

It’s Not Just Keystone — Five Dirty Pipelines You’ve Never Heard Of | Blog, Connecting the Dots | BillMoyers.com

It’s Not Just Keystone — Five Dirty Pipelines You’ve Never Heard Of | Blog, Connecting the Dots | BillMoyers.com.

Green Days – SUNY Cortland

Green Days – SUNY Cortland.

Harmful Air Pollutants Build Up Near Oil And Gas Fields | Chemical & Engineering News

Harmful Air Pollutants Build Up Near Oil And Gas Fields | Chemical & Engineering News.

Waters of the U.S. | US EPA

Waters of the U.S. | US EPA.

From: David Masur, PennEnvironment Director <action@pennenvironment.org>
To: jlacreevy <jlacreevy@aol.com>
Sent: Tue, Mar 25, 2014 12:34 pm
Subject: Biggest clean water news of the decade

Breaking news: The EPA just proposed a rule to restore Clean Water Act protections to 49,000 miles of waterways across Pennsylvania.

Put it over the finish line. Send a comment today.

Take Action

Click here

Dear Jean,

Brandywine Creek. The Wissahickon. Neshaminy. Nine Mile Run.

What do all these streams have in common?  Every single one of them is unprotected under the Clean Water Act.

Today, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed a rule to restore Clean Water Act protections to hundreds of Pennsylvania waterways and wetlands and the 8 million Pennsylvanians who get their drinking water from these sources.

Thank the EPA for taking this historic step forward and ask them to see it through to the finish line.

As big as this is, we haven’t won yet. In fact, the most important piece of the fight has just begun. The EPA is asking for public input on their plan in the next few months, and the nation’s biggest polluters are already lining up to stop it in its tracks.

Polluters who have benefited from these loopholes for years are fighting back. Big Ag is saying this rulemaking is cause for “battle,”[1] and last time the EPA took a step half this big, ExxonMobil threatened “legal warfare.”[2]

That’s why I’m contacting you now — to make sure we can send 30,000 messages from Pennsylvanians to the EPA so they hear loud and clear that we are serious about clean water.

Nobody should be allowed to treat our waterways like their personal sewer.

Will you ask the EPA to finish the job?

For more than a decade, PennEnvironment has worked to close loopholes in the Clean Water Act that have left nearly half of Pennsylvania’s’ streams and many acres of wetlands at risk of unchecked pollution. These waterways are critical–they feed and filter our drinking water sources and are some of our favorite places to swim, boat and fish.

Today’s announcement comes on the heels of hundreds of thousands of messages sent from people like you asking the Obama administration to act. Over the past three years, along with our sister organizations across the country, we’ve had more than 1 million conversations with everyday people about protecting our waterways, and we’ve built a coalition of more than 400 local elected officials, 300 small farmers, and 300 small business owners to stand with us and call on the EPA to act.

Let’s finish the job.

Tell the EPA: It’s gone on long enough. Restore Clean Water Act protections to the waterways we love and depend on.

Thanks for all you do,

David Masur
PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center Director
P.S. A decade of work comes down to this. The EPA’s announcement today brings us closer than we’ve ever been to getting our waterways the protection they deserve. But it’s you who will help see it through to the end. Send your public comment in today to close Clean Water Act loopholes once and for all.

[1] “Leaked Draft of Water Jurisdiction Rule May Not Be Final EPA Position, Vilsack Says,” Amena H. Saiyid, Bloomberg BNA. 17 January 2014
[2] “Oil Industry Trheatens Obama Admin Over Clean Water Act Guidance for Wetlands,” Paul Quinlan, The New York Times. 15 April 2011

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Scientists: Lack of Data Means Fracking Impacts Unknown | Climate Central

Scientists: Lack of Data Means Fracking Impacts Unknown | Climate Central.

Drilling, Fracking Efficiency Fuels Oil and Gas Boom | Climate Central

Drilling, Fracking Efficiency Fuels Oil and Gas Boom | Climate Central.

So we can extract all the shale oil/gas and export it to raise the prices…..

“British Columbia-based geoscientist David Hughes, whoseresearch was presented at the Geological Society of America meeting this week in Denver, says the story hidden in oil well production numbers is that oil and gas production from fracking could peak in some places as soon as 2016.”

Beneath Cities, a Decaying Tangle of Gas Pipes – NYTimes.com

Beneath Cities, a Decaying Tangle of Gas Pipes – NYTimes.com.