The Federal Energy Regulatory Commis-sion's conclusion that Broadwater Energy's plan to locate a massive floating liquefied natural gas facility in Long Island Sound “would result in limited adverse environmental impacts” is utterly ridiculous.

Broadwater wants to plop a 61/2–story high floating gas terminal in the middle of Connecticut's most precious resource and the federal agency charged with assessing the environmental impact determines it will be negligible.

Who do they think they're fooling?

The proposed terminal would measure 1,200 feet long, 180 feet wide and 80 feet high and be located in waters about nine miles from the Long Island shoreline and 10 miles from Connecticut. It would be attached to a yoke mooring system that includes a mooring tower embedded in the seafloor. The floating storage and regasification unit would look like a giant ship and remain moored in place for the duration of the project — which is expected to be 30 years or more.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell is hopping mad, and rightfully so, and has vowed to fight the FERC's decision.

People in Connecticut do not want a flaming gas monstrosity in the middle of Long Island Sound, and have said so repeatedly, apparently to deaf ears.

Citizens here believe the risk is too great to the Sound, which they consider one of the state's most valuable resources. Their battle cry has been: “Our water, not Broadwater,” and they have made passionate arguments that the terminal would pose security and safety risks, as well as degrade the environment.

But the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission disagrees. In its Final Environmental Impact Statement on the Broadwater project released last Friday, it concluded that the two to three weekly deliveries of liquefied natural gas by carrier vessels would pose no hazard. And it determined that the temporary storage, and vaporization or regasification process, would also pose no harm. As would the transmission of the final product through a 22-mile subsea gas pipeline that Broadwater plans to build beneath Long Island Sound.

During construction, the FERC acknowledges “the primary impacts would be physical disturbance of the seafloor and related turbidity ...”

That's an awfully mild description for the destruction the pipeline could cause.

Last summer Peter Auster, science director of the National Undersea Research Center at the Avery Point branch of the University of Connecticut and his colleagues from the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection spent five days examining the seafloor of the Stratford Shoal. That is the expanse bisecting Long Island Sound that would be the site for the offshore LNG facility and the “turbidity” caused by the 22-mile pipeline.

Their research found forests of finger sponges and dense communities of northern star coral, along with beds of blue mussels and lobster burrows, all of which would be to varying degrees at risk if Broadwater moves forward.

FERC goes on to say that “the impacts of primary concern would consist of minor impacts to water quality, air quality, fisheries, recreational boating and fishing, and commercial vessel traffic, as well as minor to moderate impacts on visual resources. All impacts occurring during operation would continue through the life of the proposed project.”

Let that sink in, “through the life of the proposed project.” Thirty years to live with a huge floating gas terminal in the middle of Long Island Sound.

It is a bad idea, pure and simple.

People have worked hard here to improve the quality of the Sound and to preserve it for marine life and wildlife, for recreational boaters and commercial fisherman. They want to maintain the Sound's serenity and beauty — not have a massive ship filled with gas permanently parked in the middle of it.

The federal finding did offer one ray of hope. It's conclusion states: “If the proposed project is found to be consistent with the public interest ... we conclude that it would result in limited adverse environmental impacts. “

Clearly, it's not in the public interest. So don't allow it.

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