STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Staten Island’s largest environmental protection organization is among a coalition suing the state of New York over the significant risks to water quality posed by the Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline.
The Staten Island group, Protectors of Pine Oak Woods, joins Food & Water Watch, Surfrider, and Sierra Club in the case announced Tuesday against the state Department of Environmental Conservation for approving the quality certification for the NESE pipeline.
The environmental concern is that the pipe would have to be embedded underneath the settled seabed, which would stir up decades worth of contaminated sand and other materials that have since laid dormant.
Earthjustice, a non-profit national leader in environmental law, is representing Protectors and NY/NJ Baykeeper.
On Nov. 7, the state DEC issued a Water Quality Certification, Excavation & Fill Permit and State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit for the NESE pipeline, which would include a 17.4-mile underwater segment through the Raritan and Lower New York bays, passing Staten Island’s shores.
“As governor, a top priority is making sure the lights and heat stay on for all New Yorkers as we face potential energy shortages downstate as soon as next summer. We need to govern in reality,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement at the time, ensuring a “continued commitment to renewables and nuclear power to ensure grid reliability and affordability.”
Here, aquatic wildlife is shown flourishing on Staten Island in September 2025. Today, Staten Island’s largest environmental organization announced a lawsuit against the state Department of Conservation over NESE pipeline water quality risks.Jason PaderonPreviously denied
The DEC has previously denied the exact same pipeline for failing to demonstrate compliance with state water quality standards, the groups stressed through their attorneys in announcing the lawsuit.
If built, the pipeline would tear up the harbor floor, destroy marine habitats, and suspend mercury, copper, PCBs and other toxins in the water, says Jose Ramírez-Garofalo, an ecologist and president of Protectors.
The pipeline would harm sensitive shellfish beds and undercut the billions of dollars New York has invested to improve water quality in the harbor, the group of ecologists say.
“There’s also going to be impacts to our shoreline communities, people that fish, people that live on the shore‚’’ Ramírez-Garofalo said.
Hochul is likely caving to pressure from President Donald Trump to approve the pipeline, Ramírez-Garofalo said.
“There’s no reason for New York state to turn around on this project otherwise‚’’ he said. ”It’s been 20 years of improved water quality that has brought whales, dolphins, fish and bald eagles to the New York City area. It’s shocking and disheartening that the state would jeopardize decades of progress on that front, when we were previously the leaders on that front.”
The controversial project has been fervently opposed by the borough’s elected officials, and failed in 2018, 2019 and 2020 to achieve the Clean Water Act’s Section 401 Water Quality Certification.
Paying for the pipeline will come in the form of a 3.5% boost to National Grid bills across New York City and Long Island, despite several areas not receiving any of the energy that will be generated from it, opponents say.
Staten Island is one of those areas that will not benefit from the gas transferred in the pipeline, though a National Grid spokesperson previously promised $2.5 billion in energy savings over the next 15 years for downstate New York residents, including Staten Islanders.
Here, veteran boater Guy Buono is shown aboard his vessel in August 2025, saying he fears the negative effects on the aquatic wildlife from the NESE pipeline. Today, Staten Island’s largest environmental organization announced a lawsuit against the state DEC over the risks to the environment posed by the pipeline.Jason Paderon
Earthjustice and the National Resource Defense Council filed comments to DEC in August 2025 asserting that the NESE gas pipeline project does not comply with New York’s water quality standards and, therefore, cannot be approved under section 401 of the Clean Water Act.
“DEC’s approval is a 180 degree reversal – in 2020 it denied the exact same application,” said Susan Kraham, managing attorney for Earthjustice’s Northeast Region. “The project hasn’t changed, the impacts haven’t changed — the only thing that has changed is DEC’s decision, which it reversed with no reasonable explanation.”
Earthjustice represents more than 1,000 public-interest clients for free, including major environmental groups and local communities.
In 2024, Earthjustice successfully enforced New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act against cryptomining companies, protected Florida wetlands under the Endangered Species Act, stopped a massive gas pipeline in the Northeast, and won safeguards for grizzly bears and other wildlife from trapping in Idaho, according to its website.
Cynical politics
The initial denial of this project in 2020 was in the spirit of our state’s long history of environmental protection, but their arbitrary reversal is in the spirit of cynical politics, said Ramírez-Garofalo.
Borough President Vito Fossella, who has been among the proposed pipeline’s harshest critics, issued a statement on Nov. 7 reiterating his opposition to the pipeline and saying he is “dismayed,’’ by the decision.
“When the work begins to build this pipeline, miles of sediment will be disturbed, the environment of the bay will suffer, and Staten Island commercial businesses, boaters and fishermen will be made to suffer,” Fossella said in the statement. “At this juncture we must ask, ‘what, if anything, has changed from when this project was first proposed?’”
On Nov. 11, more than 200 people gathered in front of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s New York City office to denounce the green lighting of the pipeline.
In its 2020 failure to pass the standards needed to obtain the certification, the state Department of Environmental Conservation wrote the following:
“DEC has determined construction of the NESE pipeline project would not meet New York state’s rigorous water quality standards. Construction of the proposed project would result in significant water quality impacts resulting from the re-suspension of sediments and other contaminants, including mercury and copper, and would disturb sensitive habitats, including shellfish beds and other bottom-dwelling marine life, clearly demonstrating that a default mixing zone is not appropriate for this project. New York is not prepared to sacrifice the state’s water quality for a project that is not only environmentally harmful, but also unnecessary to meet New York’s energy needs.”
Playing politics with clean water endangers all New Yorkers, said Roger Downs, conservation director of the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter. “By approving the 401 Water Quality Certificate, the NYSDEC has undercut the same agency scientists that determined the NESE pipeline would cause unacceptable degradation of water quality and marine life to New York waters just a few years ago.”
Ramírez-Garofalo said the suit aims to stop the pipeline one final time, and he stressed that Staten Islanders should write to their elected officials, specifically Hochul, “and urge her and her administration to swiftly reconsider their decision on the NESE pipeline.
“We will let this play out in court,’’ he said. ”We will be diligent and we will continue to fight as long as we can.”
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