Broadwater is Failing to Give Us All the Info We Need

Here's Save the Sound/Connecticut Fund for the Environment's take on the New York State Department of State letter to FERC about Broadwater:

New York Department of State disputes Broadwater assessment.

Broadwater Fails ‘Information 101’ Again.

In a letter addressed to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) made public this week, the New York Department of State (DOS) points out numerous flaws in Broadwater Energy’s application process and illustrates how Broadwater’s assumptions have failed to provide full information on alternatives and due consideration for the project’s impact on the interests of the region’s citizens.

The letter points chiefly to three things. 1) Broadwater has so far glossed over potential Atlantic Ocean alternative siting options for its proposed liquefied natural gas storage facility; 2) When reviewing siting alternatives, Broadwater and FERC have not sufficiently considered the impact of the safety exclusion zones, which prohibit public use of public land and water around the LNG delivery tankers (4-6 a week) and the facility itself; and 3) FERC should not “rely exclusively on information provided by Broadwater in its filing to assess environmental impacts associated with shore crossings.”

To read the letter, visit
http://elibrary.FERC.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?accession_num=20070703-4006

Save the Sound’s comments can be found below.

“The DOS letter points to issues Save the Sound has raised from the beginning” said Leah Schmalz, “a public light is being shown on Broadwater’s ill advised scheme which side-steps alternative options for siting their LNG complex in the Atlantic Ocean with less destructive technology.”

“The DOS rightly demands that FERC consider the types, sizes, and impacts of the facility’s exclusion zones, like those surrounding the platform and the LNG supply tankers, on the public’s use as part of the ‘foot-print’ of the facility,” Schmalz said, “Broadwater has no problem seizing the public’s water and land for their exclusive use, they shouldn’t be allowed to ignore or whitewash the consequences.”

“The New York Department of State accurately points out to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission what citizens have been demanding for nearly two years – that FERC do its own careful analysis, and not merely reiterate Broadwater Energy’s party line,” Schmalz said.

Work Starts to Revive the Long Island Sound Cleanup

Work will begin in earnest next week to try to persuade the state of Connecticut to fulfill its responsibility to clean up Long Island Sound, the details of which you can read here and here.

Save the Sound, the Connecticut
 Conference of Municipalities, and the American Council of Engineering
 Companies will hold a Clean Water Summit on Thursday, December 7, in Hartford. From Save the Sound’s advisory:

Experts and elected officials will discuss why the Clean Water Fund is important, what challenges have led us to today's inadequate funding levels, and the options available to ensure that appropriate funding is allocated in the future. Those involved will include DEP Commissioner Gina McCarthy, state Sens. John McKinney, Bill Finch and Eileen Daily, state Reps. Richard Roy, Cameron Staples, Robert Keeley and Clark Chapin, along with and MDC Chief Operating Officer Bob Moore, Connecticut Conference of Municipalities Executive Director Dominick DiGangi, Weston First
Selectman Woody Bliss, and others.

The state has put virtually nothing into the Clean Water Fund in recently after averaging almost $50 million annually for years. The result is that Connecticut’s part of the Sound cleanup has stalled. Finch and Legislator-Soundkeeper Terry Backer have proposed putting $70 million in the fund in 2007. To do so, they’ll have to persuade Speaker James Amann. Good luck with that.