Water Withdrawal

The withdrawal of millions of gallons of clean water from any stream, let alone two protected trout and trout-spawning streams, would be a violation of DEC §703.2 Narrative water quality standards for flow. The replacement of this formerly clean water after hydrostatic testing with water now contaminated with oil, drill cuttings, biocides and other unknown substances would be a violation of DEC §703.2 Narrative water quality standards for Taste-, color-, and odor-producing, toxic and other deleterious substances; for suspended, colloidal and settleable solids; and for oil and floating substances.

Is the Constitution Pipeline project reasonable and necessary?

This letter is in regard whether or not the Constitution Pipeline project is reasonable and necessary, whether or not it will endanger the health, safety or welfare of the people of the State of New York, and whether or not it will cause unreasonable, uncontrolled or unnecessary damage to the natural resources of the state, including soil, forests, water, fish, shellfish, crustaceans, and aquatic and land related environment.

The FEIS fails to adequately document wetland disruption

The removal of wetlands, or their relocation to other areas, will increase the impact of future storm events. According to the DEC, a project must not cause unreasonable, uncontrolled or unnecessary damage to the natural resources of the state, including soil, forests, water, fish, shellfish, crustaceans, and aquatic and land-related environment.

CP threatens New York’s trout population

The Catskills is famous for its trout fishing. The brook trout is our State Fish. The proposed Constitution Pipeline (CP) would threaten New York’s trout population. According to an article from the DEC magazine Conservationist: [...]

Three 100-year floods in less than a decade!

The hilly regions of the Catskills and Southern Tier have experienced three 100-year floods in less than a decade. Scientists and lawmakers in New York, along with the NYDEC, acknowledge that the frequency of these [...]

CP would clear-cut 1,000 acres of forested land

The Constitution Pipeline (CP) would clear-cut 1,000 acres of forested land along its proposed route through four of New York’s most flood-prone counties. This would equal the loss of between 400,000 and 1.2 million trees, [...]

Pipeline Would Take 1.2 Million Trees

If the DEC were to approve the permits for the Constitution Pipeline, DEC would be giving a thumbs-up to clear-cutting 1,000 acres of forested land in New York. Assuming ten feet between each tree, this [...]

Disturbingly, no commitment has been made to use HDD in the final EIS for the project

CP is proposed to cross 91 wetlands and 277 streams, no commitment whatsoever has been made to use HDD in the final EIS for the project. In fact, plans by CP became worse between the draft EIS and final EIS because the few crossings where HDD had been planned have now been changed to Direct Pipe. Direct Pipe is a cheaper, inferior trenchless technique involving shallow burial and more surface disturbance.

DEC protect NY water and safeguard our streams and rivers from flooding

An article in the December 2014 issue of the DEC’s own magazine, Conservationist, discusses the importance of stream equilibrium, or a stream’s ability to “pass water and sediment during small and large flood events, and then regain its natural shape.” The article, which addresses learning from past floods in New York how to better handle future ones, states: “stream sections can become unstable when human activity upsets that equilibrium and alters the stream’s ability to move its water and sediment effectively. When this happens, the stream can become a source of flooding for communities located along its banks.”

Trout Habitat Will Be Lost

When disturbed, the trout can possibly move to better habitat in cooler streams with less sediment bed load, but if the oxygen sensitive macroinvertebrates such as the mayflies, stoneflies, caddisflies and others are pressured, they [...]

Sample DEC comment on Bird Impacts

The construction and operation of the Constitution Pipeline will pose dangers to many bird species. Careful consideration should be taken before granting a 401 certificate for the project.

Sample DEC comment on Trout-Spawning

Fish, especially baby trout, need a lot of dissolved oxygen (>7.0 mg/L) in their spawning streams. They also need clear cold water, and will not survive if the water is too turbid (muddy), or too warm. However, construction in clay soils on steep slopes will cause a turbid runoff lowering the amount of oxygen in the water and smothering trout eggs in silt.

Sample DEC comment on Irreversible impacts from CP

Construction of the Constitution Pipeline clear-cut of hundreds of thousands of trees, the use of herbicides to maintain the clear-cut areas, the restrictions to our land, the noise and structural damage from blasting and jackhammers, the contamination of our village and town water and personal wells and water bodies from the blasting, the degradation of our water quality, and the additional paths this project will create for storm runoff.

Sample DEC comment on flooding and tree cutting

Construction of the Constitution Pipeline violate Section 401 of the Clean Water Act and in particular, Tree Cutting Along Hillsides, Flooding and Sediment Deposition in relation to the Disturbance of the Bed or Banks of a Protected Stream or Other Watercourse.

Sample DEC comment on 100 year floods

In the joint application, the best management practices (BMPs), size of pipe flumes for stream crossings, and design of the required silt fences are based on engineering calculations of a 5-year storm event.1 CP considered 2-year, 5-year, and 10-year storm events, but is assuming a 5-year storm event as the basis for their 401 water quality certificate, and 4 related permits. There is no rational basis for this assumption.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email