ORANGE COUNTY, N.Y. — For many years, in rural parts of New York state and surrounding areas, receiving proper natural gas flow had been a challenge for the thousands of properties that dotted the international boundary between the United States and Canada, from Lake Erie to Westchester County, N.Y. But in 2002, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved a proposal for a new, large-diameter natural gas pipeline system. In 2006, after a lengthy environmental review and a changing natural gas marketplace, the FERC amended the original plan, and in June 2007 authorized Millennium Pipeline to commence construction. By December 2008, the 182-mile-long, 30-inch-diameter pipeline had been laid in the ground and was in service, successfully delivering 525,499 dekatherms per day. But the project itself was not quite complete.
By Tom Wedegaertner
