Gas compressor station gets go ahead - Westfair Communications

A gas transmission company won a court ruling last week allowing it to begin preliminary work for a $42 million compressor station in Brookfield, but a federal judge won”™t rule until February on whether to allow the rest of the project to proceed.

Iroquois Gas Transmission System LP, which has a Shelton office, sued the town of Brookfield in mid-November, saying the town is flouting a federal directive allowing Iroquois to build a compressor station.

Iroquois Gas owns a 400-mile pipeline running from the New York-Ontario border to Long Island and then the Bronx, supplying natural gas to several Connecticut energy companies along the way.

In Brookfield, the Iroquois pipeline intersects with one owned by Algonquin Gas Transmission L.L.C. Because the Iroquois pipeline has higher pressure, it is unable to receive gas from Algonquin.

A compressor station would fix that, allowing Iroquois to feed additional gas from Algonquin into the New York City market. In September Iroquois received authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to build the station where the companies”™ pipelines intersect in Brookfield, along with several other improvements dubbed the Northeast 07 Project that would cost $1 billion.

In early November, the Brookfield Inland Wetlands Commission denied a construction permit, citing what it said was the potential for water contamination and saying it had not seen sufficient evidence the company had scouted other locations. The site Iroquois Gas owns is within a half-mile of a school.

In its lawsuit, Iroquois says the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission had already ruled that the company had adequately addressed groundwater and other site-location issues.

FERC has the power to pre-empt state and local rules when it comes to the siting of gas facilities, according to FERC spokeswoman Tamara Young-Allen. Despite FERC”™s jurisdiction over such projects, Iroquois wanted a federal judge”™s order in hand to ensure that contractors are not interfered with as they begin construction work.

Iroquois Gas says it must begin grading and other site preparation work by Dec. 15 to meet a contractual obligation to deliver fuel by next November to Consolidated Edison Inc., the major utility servicing New York City and Westchester County, N.Y.

Con Ed is not allowing Iroquois any wiggle room, according to Chris Olert, a Con Ed spokesman.

“We expect the company to fulfill its contract with us,” Olert said.

When it comes to building energy infrastructure to serve New York, Connecticut has a long history of proclaiming “not in my backyard.”

Brookfield resident and Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell has supported measures to improve Connecticut”™s energy profile, but has expressed concerns over a Texas company”™s attempt to anchor a liquefied natural gas terminal in Long Island Sound.

An Iroquois Gas executive said that any NIMBY sentiment by town officials is misplaced in this instance.

“It is true that (the Brookfield project) is contracted on a firm basis to deliver gas to Con Edison,” said Jeff Bruner, general counsel of Iroquois Gas. “Even though it is firmly contracted, to the extent it is not being used for that purpose it can be used to supply Connecticut.”

Bruner added that New York property owners did not oppose the pipeline”™s initial construction to serve Connecticut residents.

Algonquin is working on New England”™s only other major gas project in the pipeline, a 46-mile pipeline between eastern Connecticut and Massachusetts.