Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline (ASP) Will Move Marcellus Shale Gas 

The Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline (ASP) will move Marcellus Shale gas from Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania to as far as south as Alabama. The ASP is a Williams Energy Partners project, which currently operates the Transco system (a network of over 10,000 miles of pipeline).  ASP will consist of compression and looping of the Transco Leidy Line in Pennsylvania along with a greenfield pipeline segment, referred to as the Central Penn Line, connecting the northeastern Marcellus producing region to the Transco mainline in southeastern Pennsylvania. In addition, existing Transco facilities are being added or modified to allow gas to flow bi-directionally. The line cuts through 10 central Pennsylvania counties (Columbia, Lancaster, Lebanon, Luzerne, Northumberland, Schuylkill, Susquehanna, Wyoming, Clinton and Lycoming).

FERC issued a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for the project on Feb. 3, 2017. And, despite active litigation that questions permits issued by the states as well as certification from FERC, construction began in March 2017 and, in October 2018, FERC allowed for the project to go into service.

 Two Avenues of Litigation 

Delaware Riverkeeper Network has pursued two avenues of litigation in order to prevent this destructive pipeline, including a case that was just applied for certification to the Supreme Court of the United States. The first case brings a challenge to a permit issued by Pennsylvania for the project and is still pending in front of the Third circuit. In this case, Delaware Riverkeeper Network claims that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection failed to allow for public partition in the issuance of a NPDES permit for the project, in violation of the federal Clean Water Act.

The second case, first filed at both the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board and the U,S Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, alleges that PADEP improperly issued a Clean Water Action Section 401 Water Quality Certification for the project, and that Delaware Riverkeeper Network, as well as other groups appealing similar natural gas permits, have the right to appeal the 401 Certification to the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board, the state administrative body. The second conflict, whether the appeal of a permit goes to the U.S. Court of Appeals or to the state administrative adjudicatory body, arises due to language in the Natural Gas Act that requires permits issued for natural gas projects to be appealed to U.S. Courts of Appeals. In argument in front of the Third Circuit, Delaware Riverkeeper Network argued that under the Natural Gas Act, the Clean Water Act, the federal constitution, and Pennsylvania’s laws and regulations, any permits issued by the state of Pennsylvania should be first appealed to the PA Environmental Hearing Board (EHB). While the EBH agreed with the DRN, in the case filed at the EHB, the Third Circuit did not. Instead, the Third Circuit found that the EHB has no authority to review the issuance of permits under the NGA. This holding is contrary to fundamentals of federalism, the Clean Water Act, and Pennsylvania law. Further, it is contradictory to holdings in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and within the Third Circuit itself.

After receiving the opinion from the Third Circuit, Delaware Riverkeeper Network felt that it was necessary to appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. On January 9, 2019, Delaware Riverkeeper Network submitted a petition for certification to the Supreme Court of the United States arguing both that Third Circuit was wrong in its interpretation and that if this decision is left to stand, it will create uncertainty for states in the Third Circuit (which includes Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) as well as nationally as it conflicts with other opinions issues by the First Circuit (Berkshire Envtl. Action Team, Inc. v. Tenn. Gas Pipeline Co., LLC, 851 F.3d 105 (1st Cir. 2017) and with an opinion issued by the Third Circuit itself (Twp. of Bordentown v. FERC, 903 F.3d 234 (3d Cir. 2018).

Below are some photos of monitoring and community watchdogging underway at the Transco Williams Atlantic Sunrise gas pipeline. DRN has trained over 50 volunteers to document construction conditions over the last few months. These pictures were taken in the vicinity of a trout stream located in Schuylkill County after the landowner called us with concerns and complaints. 

FERC Docket Number: CP18-46

In November, Adelphia Gateway, L.L.C. (Adelphia), a subsidiary of New Jersey Resources Corporation, announced that it was buying an 89 mile pipeline from Talen Energy Corp. On January 12, 2018, Adelphia filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for its proposed Adelphia Gateway Project (AGP). The proposed $143,00,000 pipeline project consists of acquiring and converting 89 miles of existing oil and natural gas pipelines, including constructing and operating two new 5,625 horsepower compressor states, installing 4.75 miles of new 16-inch diameter lateral pipelines, and constructing 8 new meter stations. The project will run from Martins Creek, PA to Marcus Hook, PA crossing Delaware, Chester, Montgomery, Bucks, and Northampton Counties, PA. It proposes to ship a total of 250,000 dekatherms a day of natural gas per day.

The whole of the pipeline would lie in the Delaware River watershed and in a portion of the watershed where numerous other pipeline projects are currently in operation, being construction, or are being proposed including, but not limited to, two Mariner East 2 pipelines, Marcellus to Market project, the PennEast project, and the Greater Philadelphia Expansion Project.

See below for a fact sheet describing the resources impact by the Adelphia Gateway Project.

UPDATE 9/19/2018: 

DRN wrote to the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) asking that DRBC exercise jurisdiction over the Adelphia project, and require that the project receive a DRBC docket before it is allowed to proceed.

UPDATE 5/1/2018: 

On May 1, 2018 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) released a notice of intent to prepare an environmental assessment (EA) for the proposed Adelphia Gateway Project (AGP). Comments to FERC on the scope of all potential environmental and community impacts are due.  Two scoping hearings were held on May 30 and May 31 in Center Valley, PA and Essington, PA.

UPDATE 2/22/2018: 

FERC requested for Adelphia to initiate the process of providing a third party contractor given concerns that have already been voiced about the project by stakeholders and interveners.

References:

Adelphia Unveils its 84-mile natural gas pipeline through Philly; Will it spur protests?, Andrew Maykuth, Philly.com, January 16, 2018, http://www.philly.com/philly/business/energy/adelphia-gateway-files-ferc-application-20180116.html.

Clean Air Council’s Initial Comments on the Adelphia Gateway Pipeline Project, Clean Air Council, Docket ID No. CP18-46-000, https://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?accession_num=20180213-5358.

Resource Report No. 1: General Project Description, Adelphia Gateway, LLC, https://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/File_list.asp?document_id=14634543.

Request for Third Party Contractor, FERC, Docket ID No. CP18-46-000, https://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?accession_num=20180222-3040.

The Paulins Kill River

In the Town of Highland, Sullivan County, New York, Northgate Resorts is proposing to overhaul the former Kittatinny Campground with an operation they call Camp FIMFO.  The proposal would transform most of the existing low impact tent camp sites to RV sites, cabins or glamping structures with water, sewage and/or electric hook ups; adding a mountain roller coaster, water slides, a swimming pool, mini golf, more parking, more septic systems, as well as replacing some of the old existing buildings with new.

The Paulins Kill river in northern New Jersey still maintains extraordinary biological diversity and high water quality, but the river has been fragmented by dams and has suffered from other human abuses for decades.  The Delaware Riverkeeper Network has been working with the State of New Jersey and a number of outstanding groups (including the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Park Service, The Nature Conservancy, American Rivers, and the Academy of Natural Sciences) to both reverse the historical damage to the ecosystem and to bolster the diversity of native species that continue to live within the system.

Among the most important positive steps forward has been the removal of the first dam on the Paulins Kill in 2018.  The Columbia Lake Dam was located less than a half mile upstream from the Delaware River confluence, blocking the strong runs of migratory fish still thriving in the Delaware River from utilizing the Paulins Kill watershed.  Led by the State of New Jersey, the Nature Conservancy, and American River, this first-blockage dam was removed beginning in August of 2018, with documentation of migratory fish returning to the Paulins Kill already in both 2019 and 2020!!.

But the return of migratory fish (including American Eel and American Shad) is just the beginning of the broader ecological restoration of the Paulins Kill.  Further work by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and its partners seeks a more complete and holistic recovery of water quality and ecological diversity, including such key species as freshwater pearly mussels.

Watch this video from our 2019 Paulins Kill Mussel Survey: