Comments of Deborah McCarthy, Trustee of the Village of Croton-on-Hudson, New York, on the Millennium Pipeline Project; Public Hearing, November 13, 2002.
My name is Deborah McCarthy, and I am a Trustee of the Village of Croton-on-Hudson. I would like to comment today on a few additional points concerning the Millennium project and its alternatives.
In particular, I would like to call the Department’s attention to a number of serious gaps in the public record of this proceeding. In response to all these issues that have been described, Millennium has continued to merely point to FERC’s certification of the pipeline, saying that these impacts have already been reviewed and found to be insignificant, or that the alternatives have been reviewed and found infeasible. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
In fact, FERC’s review of the pipeline’s environmental impacts completely failed to consider the coastal implications of the pipeline on Croton-on-Hudson. Similarly, FERC’s environmental impact statement not only applied the wrong standards for reviewing the pipeline’s impacts on the Haverstraw Bay crossing, but also has no mention of the impacts of blasting on the Haverstraw Bay habitat -- because Millennium neglected to bring this to the agencies’ attention. We ask, how much more is there about this project that we have not yet been told?
More importantly, however, FERC itself relies entirely on Millennium’s assurances that the pipeline’s impacts will be minimal, and that no other alternatives exist. In fact, however, Millennium’s original environmental study of this project -- a report prepared by a different consultant than the one Millennium currently uses -- has never been made public, and has not been made part of the record in this proceeding. Similarly with regard to alternative routes, not one of Millennium’s actual engineering studies or itemized cost estimates have been made part of the public record -- if such studies even exist.
We call on Millennium to submit to the record of this proceeding and make available for public review its original environmental study in its entirety, as well as any engineering analyses and cost estimates it has developed on the alternative routes.
In sum, as the speakers before me have pointed out, the Millennium proposal would have unacceptable and unwarranted adverse impacts on our community. The seriousness of these impacts, the lack of any real need for this pipeline, and the availability of alternatives all demand that the Department uphold the State determination.
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