The Williams NESE pipeline still can’t start work in New Jersey. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on Oct. 22 denied Williams unit Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co.’s petition for panel and full-court rehearing of a Sept. 8 decision that vacated New Jersey’s Clean Water Act Section 401 water-quality certification for the more-than-$1 billion Northeast Supply Enhancement project, ENR reported Oct. 26. Transco had told the court that losing the permit “will delay construction” and could put its Nov. 1, 2027, in-service date at risk.
The certification now goes back to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. The agency can supplement its explanation, require more analysis, issue a new or revised certification or reach a different result. Absent further court action, the mandate is expected Oct. 29.
Why the NESE pipeline’s New Jersey work is on the critical path
NESE adds about 37 miles of pipe and related facilities to the Transco system and 400,000 dekatherms a day of capacity for National Grid customers in New York City and Long Island. The New Jersey scope is Compressor Station 206 in Somerset County, the 3.4-mile Madison Loop in Middlesex County and about six miles of offshore pipe in Raritan Bay.
Transco calls Station 206 a critical-path item that takes about 13 months to build. It told the court construction had to start in 2026 and finish in 2027 because onshore, offshore and compressor work all have to fit around permit conditions and seasonal restrictions. New Jersey work was first set to begin Oct. 1. Transco asked the court to make NJDEP act in time for a start no later than Oct. 30. The court denied rehearing without granting that.
FERC can’t issue a notice to proceed on the New Jersey pieces without a valid state certification, Transco said. So the compressor job waits on Trenton.
Section 401 certification and a remedy fight Transco lost
Transco didn’t contest the court’s findings. The panel found NJDEP had left material water-quality monitoring and adaptive-management provisions unresolved without requiring its own approval before dredging, and hadn’t adequately explained how Raritan Bay dredging would meet state standards. The rehearing petition was about remedy “solely”: let the agency fix the gaps while the permit stayed in force.
That’s the part pipeline builders should notice. Every deficiency involved Raritan Bay, where Transco said work wasn’t scheduled to start until March or April 2027. The vacated certification also covers Station 206 and the Madison Loop, whose environmental impacts weren’t challenged on appeal. One flawed segment froze the whole state’s scope.
Williams’ tone has changed, too. After the Sept. 8 ruling, a spokesperson said the company didn’t expect it “to adversely affect project construction or the anticipated in-service timeline.” The rehearing petition said the opposite. Williams didn’t answer ENR’s questions on the schedule or a Supreme Court appeal, and no stay request was on the docket as of Oct. 26.
What’s left of the NESE schedule
New York’s water-quality certification has held up in court, and Pennsylvania approved its segment earlier. Williams marked an official construction start at an April 14 groundbreaking in Brooklyn but hasn’t said how much work is done. The same statute sits behind the federal fight over which waters count, covered in Exchange’s look at the WOTUS perennial-flow proposal.
Here’s the schedule problem in one line. Thirteen months of compressor work starting Nov. 1 ends Dec. 1, 2027, a month after the date National Grid’s customers are supposed to get the gas.