Patrick Schlesinger (he/him), ELR Staffer, Class of 2026

The seafloor can be an efficient trap for pollutants, but what results when that floor is dredged, and the pollutants scattered? This is the question posed by a new pipeline which was approved in November 2025 for construction underneath the Raritan Bay and the New York-New Jersey Harbor. 

The pipeline’s construction would entail massive amounts of environmental degradation, so New York and New Jersey had denied the project permits three times before. The last time the project was up for review, in 2020, New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation (“DEC”) denied permits, citing a failure to demonstrate compliance with state water standards. In 2018 and 2019, the DEC had denied the project for the same reasons. In its denial, the DEC stated that the project “would have adverse water quality impacts in New York State. This includes significant water quality impacts from the resuspension of sediments and other contaminants, including mercury and copper.” In its 2020 denial, the DEC also noted that the project proposal involved a pipeline which was to be buried to a shallower depth than the DEC sought, and that the project was to be constructed in an area that it would block green energy projects from being developed in the future. 

The DEC’s reasoning for its current reversal and grant of the project was vague, and some have asserted that the decision was politically motivated. Nothing in the current application showed that the pipeline would be any more compliant than the proposals of the previously denied applications. The DEC alluded to the 2023 EPA Rulemaking and Guidance on the Clean Water Act, yet gave no explanation for how the pipeline–in the same form as before–would now meet water standards. President Trump had been a champion of the pipeline. When the pipeline moved closer towards approval after an August 2025 conference between Governor Hochul and President Trump, critics decried a bargain struck between Hochul and Trump. For her part, Hochul has denied a quid pro quo arrangement between her office and the White House. Environmental groups, democratic lawmakers, and environmental lawyers have come out against the pipeline, and on November 18th, 2025 a coalition of environmental nonprofits sued New York and New Jersey for review of the pipeline’s approval. The conservation director of the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter stated, “It is truly a sad day when New York leaders cave to the Trump administration and agree to build pipelines that New Yorkers do not need and cannot afford.”

Given that the DEC reversed its decision on a project that it previously found would violate environmental law, commentators such as Michael B. Gerrard, an environmental law professor at Columbia, have noted that, “The DEC had said the pipeline would impair water quality. They have now reversed themselves. This begs for a lawsuit.” Jared Knickley, Managing Litigator at NRDC, stated, “There is nothing factually or legally different about the pipeline now that can justify DEC’s reversal. If built, the NESE pipeline would still pose a direct threat to fishing and shellfishing, marine habitats, and recreational uses throughout the Harbor. We’re suing to stop that from happening.”