Gas Pipeline Extension

For AFS Under Review

By Andrew Gorosko

Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) members are reviewing the wetlands/watercourses protection aspects of manufacturing firm’s proposal to extend a natural gas pipeline to its industrial complex at 11 Edmond Road, near Interstate 84.

At a March 14 IWC session, William Joyce, the chief executive officer of Advanced Fusion Systems, LLC (AFS), presented documents to IWC members depicting the possible routes that a gas line could follow from the Iroquois Gas Transmission System high-pressure pipeline in Sandy Hook to the AFS site.

That mapping showed two of the three possible routes that the gas pipeline might take. Both of the two routes would involve extending the pipeline beneath I-84 and also beneath the adjacent Tom Brook in the area lying east of the Schoolhouse Hill Road bridge over I-84. The third possible pipeline route was not depicted in the documents.

Directional drilling would be used to extend the gas line beneath the heavily traveled limited-access highway.

“We need a supply of natural gas,” Mr Joyce told IWC members. The gas line would be installed four feet below ground level, he said.

According to application documents submitted to the IWC, the gas line installation would require the physical alteration of approximately 210 square feet of terrain regulated by the IWC, including 200 square feet of wetlands soils and 10 square feet of streambed.

The gas line extension project would include the construction of a 2,100-square-foot gas metering/gas decompression building at the AFS site, according to the application.

Mr Joyce said that Iroquois has suggested three possible routes for the gas line extending from its gas transmission line in Sandy Hook to the AFS site. The route to be used has yet to be decided.

Rob Sibley, the town’s deputy director of planning and land use, said that the construction work needed to install a gas line beneath the stream would be brief. Mr Sibley urged IWC members to visit the area to check the possible locations where the gas line would cross beneath Tom Brook.

Mr Sibley said that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission also would review the proposed gas line extension to the AFS site.

Mr Joyce said AFS wants to have the gas line extended to its property this spring.

IWC Chairman Anne Peters said IWC members would inspect the area where the gas line would cross beneath Tom Brook and would again discuss the proposal at their March 28 session.

During the past several months, the Connecticut Light & Power Company (CL&P) in a $9 million project has been installing additional electrical service to the AFS site for the firm’s manufacturing.

In September 2010, AFS paid $6.3 million to buy an industrial building at 11 Edmond Road, which formerly was occupied by Pitney-Bowes, Inc.

In an expanded industrial plant, AFS would manufacture high-speed electrical switching devices for very high electrical voltages. AFS’s products would be used to protect the nation’s electrical power supply grid in the event of disruptive solar storms or terrorist attacks. Some of the firm’s work would be performed for the US Department of Defense.

AFS also would make environmental cleanup equipment, sterilization gear, and x-ray laser microlithography equipment. AFS would manufacture environmental pollution remediation equipment that is used to clean up contamination problems stemming from the presence of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxin.