Applicant: Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company LLC
Project: Northeast Supply Enhancement Project (NESE)
DEC Application IDs:
2-9902-00109/00007 (Article 15 Title 5 Excavation and Fill in Navigable Waters)
2-9902-00109/00009 (Section 401 - Clean Water Act Water Quality Certification)
2-9902-00109/00010 SPDES (Article 17 Titles 7 & 8 Industrial SPDES – Surface Discharge)
FERC Docket CP17-101 & CP20-49-001
Project Locations: Lower New York Bay and Raritan Bay (Queens and Richmond County)
Project Description and Background:
The Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) Project includes the construction, installation, and operation of a new 26-inch diameter pipeline to transport natural gas from Pennsylvania through New Jersey, travelling underwater in the Raritan Bay and Lower New York Bay to approximately three (3) miles offshore of the Rockaway Peninsula in the borough of Queens, New York. The overall project involves the installation of approximately 23.5 miles of new underwater pipeline, and approximately 17.4 miles of new pipeline will be installed within New York State waters. The NESE Project is designed to provide approximately 400,000 dekatherms per day of incremental firm natural gas transportation service to National Grid to serve existing customers in Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island. The new pipeline would connect to the existing Rockaway Delivery Lateral in Queens, and it is intended to support reliability and help displace the use of oil.
The NESE Project would be installed a minimum of 4 feet below the sea floor through a combination of jet trenching, clamshell dredging, backfilling, and horizontal directional drilling (HDD). Construction is proposed in a manner that will minimize impairment of the best usages of the waters, but mitigation will be required for unavoidable impacts to marine resources.
Changes from earlier proposals that were considered in DEC’s 2025 review of the application materials include the 2023 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Clean Water Act rulemaking and guidance executed after DEC’s 2020 review of the NESE Water Quality Certification application; all public comments; availability of project-specific conditions consistent with State requirements to avoid or significantly minimize potential project impacts; other recently constructed projects that required in-water construction activities; and substantive revisions to ecological considerations, such as a correction to the hard clam density that was considered in the 2020 application.
Public Engagement and Responsiveness Summary
On July 2, 2025, NYSDEC issued a Notice of Complete Application in the Environmental Notice Bulletin (ENB), commencing a 30-day public comment period. On July 23, 2025, the public comment period was extended another 15-days, and comments were accepted through August 16, 2025. NYSDEC received over 17,000 new public comments. NYSDEC prepared a summary of the public comments received and provided responses in a Responsiveness Summary (PDF).
Final Permit Decision
NYSDEC issued a Section 401 Water Quality Certification and Article 15 Excavation & Fill Permit (PDF), and an Industrial SPDES Permit (PDF) and Factsheet (PDF), for the NESE Project on November 7, 2025. A detailed cover letter (PDF) provides a narrative summary of the salient permit conditions. The project's Statement of Justification (PDF) is also available.
Permit issuance is based on a project’s ability to meet permit issuance standards. For the NESE Project, this includes meeting applicable New York State water quality standards, including the requirement of being reasonable and necessary pursuant to 6 NYCRR 608.
NYSDEC also considered the findings of reliability and need from the Public Service Commission (PSC) in their “Order Regarding Long-Term Natural Gas Plan and Requiring Further Actions” dated September 18, 2025 as well as FERC’s reissuance of the Certificate of Public Convenience and Need.
Document Availability:
Filed application documents are available for review at the NESE website.
