All permits issued by DEC must comply with its public interest review found in 6 NYCRR 608.8.
It states that the proposal must be:
- reasonable and necessary;
- can not endanger the health, safety, or welfare of the people of NYS; and
- “will not cause unreasonable, uncontrolled or unnecessary damage to the natural resources of the State, including soil, forests, water, fish, shellfish, crustaceans and aquatic and land-related environment.”
Specific requirements for obtaining a water quality certification are found in 6 NYCRR 608.9,
which includes a provision requiring compliance with “State statutes, regulations and criteria
otherwise applicable to such activities.” 6 NYCRR 608.9(a)(6). Therefore, the public interest
review in 6 NYCRR 608.8 applies to water quality certifications issued under section 401 of the
federal Clean Water Act.
NYS water quality standards are found in 6 N.Y.C.R.R. parts 701 – 704.
Section 701 describes the classifications of surface waters and ground waters by use of an alphabetical system.
The Water Quality Standards are in section 703.
In section 703.2, there is a ten row, three-column Narrative Water Quality Standards chart. The
columns are:
- the ten parameters;
- classes of surface and ground waters ; and
- the standard to be applied.
In 2014, Stop the Pipeline prepared documents to help people make comments to DEC. These included:
- A document on the classifications of surface waters and ground waters and some of the pertinent standards.
- A list of affected NYS streams by county, which was taken from FERC’s FEIS. At the end of this document, we simplified the Narrative Water Quality Standards chart so that only the classes of streams crossed by the pipeline are included.
- A summary of the classification of streams and other waterbodies by county and when construction can occur based on these classifications.