Photo: Jessy Edwards for the BK Reader.Īfter a push late last year from Sane Energy and anti-pipeline activists, the public filed more than 6,000 comments against the project, and the DEC opened a public hearing on the issue. “These increased potential emissions alone - especially in an area with already-poor air quality and in a non-attainment area for ozone - warranted a conclusion that the project may have significant environmental impacts,” the lawsuit says. The DEC only looked at a short environmental assessment form submitted by National Grid, and didn’t look at supporting information to assess areas of environmental concern, the lawsuit said.Īt the very least, the project would increase the Greenpoint vaporizers’ emissions by 31%, opponents claim. It says the DEC assessed the application in a vacuum, without considering how the project could lead to trucking of explosive LNG gas through NYC and required the completion of the North Brooklyn Pipeline. A protest against the expansion in Downtown Brooklyn. However, the lawsuit claims the department made the wrong decision. In November, the DEC issued a “Negative Declaration” ruling the project would not have significant adverse environmental impacts. National Grid said the vaporizers would not add more LNG to the facility, but would allow it to transform gas quicker on the coldest days. The vaporizers heat up liquified gas so the utility can add more gas into the system during peak demand. National Grid applied in May 2020 to New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) for an air permit to add the two new vaporizers to its facility. In Thursday’s lawsuit, Brooklyn residents say increased emissions from the project would harm the health of local residents and contribute to climate change, but New York regulators ignored that. Photo: Supplied/Gabriel Jamison The background We cannot go on like this, living life in fear cause of big companies doing harm to our communities.?īrownsville residents protest the pipeline. “This pipeline, I looked at the schematics, it goes through all the Black and Brown communities, and ends up in ours which is a Black and brown community. The first four phases of the pipeline have already been built through Brownsville, Bed-Stuy, Bushwick and Williamsburg. He said the expansion would require National Grid to complete the final part of the North Brooklyn Pipeline through Greenpoint, which opponents have been fighting for over a year. “I’m appalled that we weren’t even notified,” Fye said, noting in his affidavit that he knew nothing of the Greenpoint expansion from National Grid, and that it would further reduce air quality in the area. Photo: NationalGridĬooper Park Residents Council Vice President Elisha Fye said the expansion must be stopped immediately to protect the families of the NYCHA building, and other Brooklyn residents. Phase 4 is under construction and Phase 5 is currently under proposal. The lawsuit was brought by the Cooper Park Resident Council, which represents 701 families living in NYCHA housing half a mile from the facility, as well as three other Brooklyn residents and nonprofit Sane Energy Project. It alleges the pair has turned a blind eye to the environmental impact of adding two new Liquefied Natural Gas vaporizers to the utility’s Greenpoint facility. In a lawsuit filed Thursday afternoon in the Supreme Court of New York County of Queens, residents took aim New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and National Grid. A group of Brooklyn residents have teamed up to take legal action against a proposed National Grid expansion in Greenpoint, saying the project’s environmental impact has been “flatly ignored” by state regulators.
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