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Groups protest DEC handling of Constitution Pipeline

May 13, 2015 12:04 am
Several enviromental groups are complaining about the process as the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) considers approving the Constitution Pipeline. The 124-mile project would carry fracked gas from Pennsylvania into New York and beyond, from west of Albany to near Binghamtown, largely parallel to I-88. A May 11 letter from the groups Catskill Mountainkeeper, Stop the Pipeline, Sierra Club, Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy, and others, says that after the Constitution Pipeline resubmitted its application on April 29, the DEC said the public would have only 15 days to comment on the resubmitted application, with land surveys still underway and significant information not yet released. "DEC appears to be on the brink of deciding whether or not to grant permits for this fracked-gas project, yet we've been told that the public only has a couple more days to comment on information that nobody has seen," said Mark Pezzati of Stop the Pipeline. "CP now wants to trench through thousands of linear feet of streams and wetlands that it previously proposed to drill underneath," said Keith Schue with Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy. The groups are asking the DEC to post all information that CP has submitted to the agency and hold the public comment period open until at least 60 days after that.