On September 15, 2017, FERC issued an order determining
that the New York State Department of Environmental
Conservation's ("NY DEC") failure to act on
Millennium Pipeline Co. LLC's ("Millennium") Clean
Water Act ("CWA") permit application before the statutory
one-year deadline resulted in a waiver of its authority to issue
the permit. FERC's decision has the effect of nullifying
the NY DEC's prior denial of Millennium's permit
application. FERC's order also allows Millennium to move
forward with its "Valley Lateral Project" without the NY
DEC's water quality permit.
On November 13, 2015, Millennium applied for a certificate of
public convenience and necessity pursuant to section 7 of the
Natural Gas Act ("NGA") requesting authorization to
construct and operate the Valley Lateral Project, a 7.8-mile
pipeline project in Orange County, New York. As part of the
environmental review associated with the project, Millennium
applied for, in accordance with the CWA, a
