UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

BEFORE THE
FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION

Texas Eastern Transmission, LP

Docket No. CP11-56
Algonquin Gas Transmission, LLC PF10-17

MOTION TO INTERVENE OF SIERRA CLUB, FOOD & WATER WATCH,

AND NO GAS PIPELINE

On January 5, 2011, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) issued

a notice of application under § 7 of the Natural Gas Act, 15 U.S.C. § 717f, and § 157 of

FERC’s regulations, 18 C.F.R § 157.1 et seq., for the proposed New Jersey-New York

Expansion Project (“NJ-NY Project”), FERC Docket No. CP11-56-000. As stated in

FERC’s notice of application, Texas Eastern Transmission, LP (“Texas Eastern”), and

Algonquin Gas Transmission, LLC (“Algonquin”)(hereinafter collectively referred to as

“the Applicants”) seek, among other things, authorization to construct an interstate

natural gas pipeline and associated facilities in New Jersey and New York. 76 Fed Reg.

2360. In accordance with Rule 214 of FERC’s Rules of Practice and Procedure, 18

C.F.R. § 385.214, the Sierra Club, Food & Water Watch and No Gas Pipeline

(“Intervenors”) respectfully move the Commission to grant intervention in the above-

captioned matter. While Intervenors have included several substantive comments in this
motion, Intervenors also intend to submit more extensive substantive comments at a later

date.

I. COMMUNICATIONS AND CORRESPONDENCE

Service in this proceeding should be made upon, and communications should be

directed to the following persons:

William J. Schulte, Esq.

Eastern Environmental Law Center
744 Broad Street, Suite 1525
Newark, NJ 07102
wschulte@easternenvironmental.org

II. INTERVENORS

The Sierra Club is a non-profit organization formed in 1892 with 65 chapters and

over 750,000 members nationwide. Sierra Club – New Jersey is the state chapter of New

Jersey, and it has over 20,000 members who hold monthly meetings throughout the state.

The Hudson-Meadowlands Group has over 500 members who reside and recreate in the

vicinity of the proposed project. The New Jersey Chapter’s mission is to explore, enjoy

and protect the wild places of the Earth; to practice and promote the responsible use of

the Earth’s resources and ecosystems; to educate and enlist humanity to protect and

restore the quality of the natural and human environment; and to use all lawful means to

carry out these objectives. The Atlantic Chapter of the Sierra Club represents 35,000

members across New York State; 11,907 of those are part of the New York City group.

Approximately 600 of those members live within about one mile of the 1500-foot long

non-jurisdictional pipeline that Con-Ed proposes to construct along 10th Avenue between

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Gansevoort Street and West 15th Street. It is the mission of the Atlantic Chapter to

protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment.

Food & Water Watch is an international non-profit organization that works to

ensure that the food, water, and fish that humans consume is safe, accessible and

sustainable. To that end, Food & Water Watch promotes policies that will maintain the

environmental integrity of our drinking water supplies and the health of the ocean, rather

than put them at risk of degradation. Food & Water Watch has over 15,000 supporters

who live within 15 miles of the proposed pipeline. Moreover, over 640 local supporters

in Hudson and Union counties in New Jersey, as well as New York City, have joined our

nationwide Renew America’s Water campaign, calling on Congress to invest in our water

and wastewater systems to ensure we have safe, clean and affordable water for all and to

safeguard the environment.

No Gas Pipeline is a grassroots community group of concerned citizens based in

Jersey City, New Jersey. No Gas Pipeline was formed out of significant concerns on the

part of the community which will be directly impacted by the NJ-NY Project. No Gas

Pipeline has done extensive work in the community to raise public awareness of the

project and to engage the community in a public debate on the impacts of the project.

III. GROUNDS FOR INTERVENTION

The Intervenors are extremely concerned about this application. Members of

these organizations and the constituents that they serve live in areas that will be directly

impacted by the NJ-NY Expansion Project. The pipeline and its associated facilities will

cut directly through some of the most heavily industrialized and densely populated areas

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of New Jersey and New York – areas that already bear a disproportionate share of our

society’s environmental burdens.

The impact from construction activities alone will expose members of these

communities to increased levels of health-damaging particulate matter in an area that is

chronically in Non-Attainment for the Clean Air Act’s ambient air quality standards for

PM2.5. Construction of the pipeline will also potentially impact numerous freshwater

wetlands and other waterbodies and the species they support, in addition to disturbing

already contaminated areas and thereby raising the potential for further exposing these

communities to harmful contamination. Moreover, the operation of such a proposed

pipeline in such proximity to vulnerable communities increases the risk of exposure to

hazardous air pollutants, not to mention the increased risk of a disaster similar to the

recent spate of natural gas pipeline explosions as seen in places such as San Bruno,

California, Philadelphia, and Ohio.

Other specific concerns that the Intervenors have include, but are not limited to,

the following:

(a) Non-compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act Segmentation

Guidelines and FERC Regulations.

In Section 1.14 of Resource Report 1, the Applicants argue that the environmental

impact of the Con-Ed segment “does not warrant FERC review.” At those pages

they purport to address the four factors of 18 C.F.R. § 380.12(c)(2)(ii) for

determining when non-jurisdictional pipeline segments nonetheless do warrant

FERC review under NEPA. In so doing they appear to misinterpret the factors

and apply them incorrectly. Intervenors believe that the Con-Ed segment does

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 warrant FERC review and therefore request that FERC review the environmental

and public safety impacts associated with the Con-Ed segment.

(b) Vulnerability of the SCADA controls at Compressor Stations, Metering and

Regulating Stations, and Remotely Operated Valves to a Stuxnet-like Computer Worm

Attack.

The Applicant’s Resource Report No. 11 on Reliability and Safety states that the

proposed project will be monitored in part by data acquisition and control systems

present at all metering and regulating stations along the system. The so-called

Stuxnet Computer “worm,” has now been reliably reported to be able to attack

data acquisition systems similar to one Applicants intend to used on their Project.

See, e.g., “Stuxnet Malware Targets Energy Infrastructure SCADA Systems,”

October 15, 2010, available at

http://www.abanet.org/litigation/committees/energy/news.html. There is nothing

in the Applicants’ Reliability and Safety Resource Report to show that Applicant

has given any consideration whatsoever to this evolving threat to these data

acquisition and control systems. Therefore, Intervenors request that Applicants be

required to consider and respond to this potential threat.

(c) Applicants’ failure to adequately address PCB Disposal in its PCB Resource Report.

The Applicants’ PCB Resource Report acknowledges the presence of PCB’s in

the 15 miles of 12 and 20 inch pipe it intends to remove, and assures the

Commission that it will be properly disposed of according to its corporate

procedures. In light of Texas Eastern’s past history with PCB’s, this assurance is

inadequate. In 1990, the EPA fined Texas Eastern $15 million for extensive PCD

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 contamination at 89 of its sites. See

http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/epa/25b.htm. In addition, Texas Eastern was

required to pay for PCB cleanups estimated to exceed $750 million. In light of

this history and the sensitive nature of the area in which the NJ-NY Project is

proposed to be built, Intervenors request that Applicants be required to

supplement its PCB Resource Report with a supportable estimate of the quantity

of PCB’s in the pipe that will be removed, whether the PCB scrubbing will be by

pigging on site before pipe removal, the degree of contamination remaining in the

pipe after PCB scrubbing, and the ultimate disposition of both the pipe and the

PCB contamination contained therein. Morever, FERC should condition any

certificate that is granted to assure public oversight of all environmentally

sensitive operations conducted by this company throughout the life of the project.

(d) Consumers will potentially be exposed to excess levels of radon in their residences

due to the high radon content of Marcellus Shale gas, and the short distance to market.

The Marcellus Shale gas, from which a large majority of the gas that will travel

through the pipeline if built, potentially contains a very high concentration of

Uranium and Radium and is thus a source of harmful Radon. This Radon mixes

with the produced natural gas and is potentially released into residences through

the burner tip of cooking stoves and other appliances. In the 1970’s the

Government Accounting Office published a report that estimated that about 15

persons died from lung cancer each year due to such radon exposure nationwide.

The report pointed out that the number was small because the majority of gas

produced was in the Gulf and Southwest part of the United States, and the

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 majority of gas use was in the East, which would give the 3.3 day half-life of

radon an opportunity to decay before it reach the burner tip. The NJ-NY Project,

on the other hand, will receive gas from wells in Pennsylvania and New York,

which are close enough to where the majority of the consumers reside that the gas

will have less opportunity to decay than heretofore. As noted above, the radon

concentration of Marcellus Shale gas is very high. Thus, measurable excess

deaths from lung cancer may result from the NJ-NY Project. Intervenors

therefore request that Applicants be required to analyze the increased public

health and environmental health effects that this project will cause on end-users in

the projected market area.

The Intervenors have considerable interest and are invested in protecting the

environmental and public health of the areas in which the pipeline is proposed to be built.

Intervenor’s intervention in the NJ-NY Project application process is in the public interest

as required by 18 C.F.R. § 385.214(b)(2)(iii). No other party in this proceeding will be

able to adequately protect these interests. Accordingly, Intervenors have a direct and

substantial interest in the outcome of this application process.

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IV. CONCLUSION

For the reasons set forth above, the Intervenors respectfully request that this

Motion to Intervene be granted and they be permitted to participate, with the full rights of

a party, in the above-captioned proceedings before FERC.

Respectfully Submitted,

/s/ William Schulte

William Schulte, Esq.

Eastern Environmental Law Center
744 Broad Street, Suite 1525
Newark, NJ 07102
Phone: (973) 900-0514
wschulte@easternenvironmental.org

Attorney for Intervenors

Dated: Januray 26, 2011

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 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BEFORE THE
FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I hereby certify that on January 26, 2011, I filed Sierra Club – New Jersey, Sierra Club
Atlantic, Food & Water Watch, and No Gas Pipeline’s (“Intervenors”) Motion to
Intervene to be served via electronic mail using the eFiling link at www.ferc.gov.

Dated: January 26, 2011

/s/ Karen Hughes
Karen Hughes, Paralegal
Eastern Environmental Law Center

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