Updated: Millennium Pipeline buys 80 acres from Eldred Preserve; Plans compressor station

Posted 8/21/12

ELDRED, NY — On December 23, Millennium Pipeline Company bought about 80 acres of land from the Eldred Preserve, according to documents in the Sullivan County Clerk’s office.

The land is …

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Updated: Millennium Pipeline buys 80 acres from Eldred Preserve; Plans compressor station

Posted

ELDRED, NY — On December 23, Millennium Pipeline Company bought about 80 acres of land from the Eldred Preserve, according to documents in the Sullivan County Clerk’s office.

The land is located adjacent to the route of the Millennium Pipeline, leading to speculation that the company wants to use it for a compressor station. That amount of acreage, however, is far more than what would be needed for a compressor station.

A Millennium spokesperson said they intend to build a compressor station at the site similar to the one in Hancock. It will be the third new compressor station on the line after the ones at Hancock and Minisink that have stirred sharp controversy.

This is not the only new project for Millennium. In November 2015, the company submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Committee (FERC) an application to construct the Valley Lateral Project, a pipeline that would supply gas to a 650 megawatt power plant launched by Corporate Power Ventures (CPV) in the Town of Wawayanda, a project that has sparked a large backlash among residents of the area.

Millennium has a history in Sullivan County that has left some with bad feelings. In 2006 the company asked the Sullivan County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) for tax breaks in exchange for laying down a new, larger pipeline in an existing pipeline right of way. Several local politicians urged the IDA not to grant the tax breaks, which cost local towns significant revenue.

The IDA, however, granted the tax breaks, as did IDAs from seven other counties. IDA officials in Tioga County, on the other hand, said “no” to the tax breaks, and the company went ahead with the expansion anyway.

In 2008, after the pipeline expansion was finished, the highway superintendent in the Town of Cochecton accused Millennium of leaving $1 million of damages to town roads, which the company denied.

Then there was the house on Hungry Hill Road in the Town of Hancock, just over the county line, where the foundation and septic system were damaged by the expansion of the pipeline. Millennium bought the house from the couple that owned it, and ultimately put a compressor station on the property, which has caused a great deal of concern among the neighbors.

The company also built a compressor station in the Orange County Town of Minisink, in a highly populated area, when they had a chance to build the facility in a place where almost no people live. The operation of that facility has prompted at least one family to walk away from their $200,000 investment home because of negative health impacts.

According to the company’s website, Millennium is jointly owned by affiliates of Columbia Pipeline Group, National Grid and DTE Energy.

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