Opinion ID: 797350
Heading Depth: 6
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Impact on Water Quality

Text: 55 The record shows that the pipeline installation's impact on water quality would be short-term, and Respondent does not suggest that such a result would be inconsistent with the CTWQS. See id. at 3 (acknowledging that [t]urbidity of the water column would be relatively short-term); FEIS at 5-3 (stating belief that impacts to water quality [of the Sound near the Connecticut shore] would be short-term in nature, because elevated turbidity levels caused by sediment dispersion through the water column typically return to background levels within days of completion of backfilling, and therefore impacts on Long Island Sound water quality should last no more than several months); John C. Roberge, Potential Sedimentation Impacts Which Could Result from Dredging at 3 (2003) (Roberge Report) at 4 (noting that dredging in the Long Island Sound historically causes suspended sediment concentrations returning to pre-project levels almost immediately following cessation of the trenching operations); TRC Envtl. Corp., Evaluation of Benthic Impacts Associated with Islander East's Modified Offshore Construction Techniques, at 6 (2003) (TRC Report) (estimating that organisms along the pipeline route would be exposed to increased turbidity at any one location for only around 6 hours). Thus, we do not read the CTDEP Denial to place significant reliance on the pipeline project's temporary impact on water quality. 56