State agency OKs water quality certificate, advancing Propel cable project

The state Department of Public Service last week issued a water quality certificate for the Propel NY Energy cable project, a day after the Village of Sea Cliff submitted a report that highlights the project's potential damage to shellfish.

The department, which is the administrative arm of the Public Service Commission, issued a six-page ruling on Friday, providing a needed stamp of endorsement from the state, which now leaves the primary permit required for the project to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The certificate doesn’t mention the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which is the state agency that regulates water quality.

A DPS spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The certification stated Propel’s developers at the New York Power Authority and New York Transco will "avoid and minimize impacts to wetlands, to the maximum extent practicable," by keeping to measures outlined in public filings. They include meeting preconditions outlined in the developers’ application, awaiting a "notice to proceed" from the DPS, conforming to construction agreements, and providing copies of the certificate to the Army Corps and construction contractors.

Conforming to the construction and operation conditions is important "to prevent the contravention of water quality standards during the installation, operations, and maintenance of the project," the certificate said, making sure any discharges during the work "do not adversely impact water quality during sensitive fish spawning or other significant aquatic periods that may contravene water quality standards or impair the water's best usages for fish propagation, or fish and other aquatic resources survival."

Sea Cliff has pointed out in its filings that the project assumes a 100% mortality event for hard clams in Hempstead Harbor.

Sea Cliff’s most recent filing found the damage could be more extensive than the state has been led to believe, said Bruce Kennedy, village administrator. In a letter to the Hempstead Harbor Protection Committee on Thursday, Kennedy expressed concern about the state's approval. The committee is a conservation group made up of local municipalities.

The state’s water quality certification is "alarming," Kennedy wrote, particularly after his Thursday filing pointed to "major unresolved issues affecting Hempstead Harbor, including shellfish impacts, anchoring and spudding, construction disturbance, burial, restoration and other environmental concerns."

Propel has said its work would minimize such impacts.

Susan Craig, a spokeswoman for NYPA, said the underwater construction portion of Propel was designed to “avoid and minimize impacts while adhering to many restrictions and requirements that protect marine life, water quality, and use of the waters.”

Propel “must adhere to stringent environmental and water quality conditions” that were included in the PSC-granted Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need, approved on Sept. 17.

Kennedy pointed to findings by consulting firm Cashin Associates in his filing, including that the project could impact about 12 acres in the 4-mile stretch of Hempstead Harbor where the cable will lie. Cashin estimated that about 216,590 clams lie in the "direct disturbance" area of the project, based on a 2021 shellfish survey. That figure doesn’t include the youngest clams, which were not screened in the survey because of their small size.

Another 64,977 clams could be impacted by water turbidity tied to a 9-foot-deep cable trenching process, Cashin estimated, because "the greater burial depth will require more substrate disturbance and longer installation time.”

While Propel has minimized the potential losses to the oyster population in the bay, the Cashin study estimates there are 58,204 oysters in the disturbance areas of the bay, along with adjacent areas that will be impacted. Cashin estimated the total cost to replace oysters alone in the bay would be more than $1.8 million.

Kennedy in his letter to Hempstead Harbor Protection Committee members argued the certification "makes it even more important that the HHPC member municipalities make sure the Army Corps conducts its own independent review of the actual conditions and unresolved issues" rather than rely on the DPS certificate.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.