Due to the imminent threat posed by the pipeline to the streams and wetlands it is meant to cross, the threat of impaired air quality from compressor and dehydration station emissions, and the threat of continued global climate change posed by increased fossil fuel infrastructure, the Seneca Nationof Indians (SNI), local governments, and several environmental groups have been actively opposing NAPL for over three years [1].SNI fears the worst of all potential risks the construction of these facilities and installation of the pipeline pose to their people. SNI presidential elect Todd Gates fears the impending natural gas pipeline puts his own people, the souls of his ancestors, and his human and nonhuman relatives alike in grave danger. In a statement to a local television station, Mr. Gates reiterated the ‘Water is Life’ sentiment, popularized by the NoDAPL movement in North Dakota, when asked to summarize his stance against NAPL [4]. Furthermore, according to Dr. Jason Corwin, the Executive Director of Seneca Media and Communications Center, the pipeline corridor is set to run throughout the ancestral territory and burial grounds in what is now Western New York. Dr. Corwin claims that FERC has had little if any consultation with SNI as per federal regulations, considering the immediate proximity to ancestral burial grounds and sustenance-providing water bodies the construction is proposed to be sited on [5]. 

NAPL presents multiple threats to the environmental health of the Upper Lake Erie and Niagara River Watersheds. It requires the crossings of 77 intermittent and 60 perennial streams, 19 of which are classified by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) as protected trout streams. Upwards of 100 acres of wetland and 350 acres of forest can be disrupted and/or permanently impacted; due to the necessity to maintain accessible “Right of Way”, ensuing revegetation will take substantial time to replace. The stream trenching during installation can destabilize the stream bed; such conditions can result in increasing water temperatures, decreasing water quality, turbidity, impacting downstream aquatic life. Construction of NAPL could also have negative impacts on the Cattaraugus Creek Basin Aquifer, the sole source of drinking water for 20,000 citizens in surrounding Cattaraugus, Erie, and Wyoming counties in New York [6].

Owing to the culmination of these potential threats posed by NAPL, the resistance movement has grown from the grassroots, community-based local level to regional and progressively broader audience. A formidable resistance from the start, NoNAPL opposition was born out of public hearings held by Supply dating back to 2014; the company was immediately met with a fight from local residents, landowners, and the SNI, all of whom feared the loss of their land, homes, and environmental safety. Concerned citizens and environmental organizations joined forces to increase awareness of the issue through a number of means, initiating with letter and postcard campaigns to state and local representatives. With awareness rapidly spreading and numbers growing, the resistance took their energy to the streets of Albany, NY, the governor’s house, and to National Fuel’s headquarters in Buffalo, NY to march, rally, and sit in, demanding their human rights be valued over those of the company and its profits [7]. A number of local landowners are resisting NAPL in court, which has thus far proven to be a relatively successful avenue to gradually crush NAPLs potential future [8]. As of most recently, another medium of mobilization has taken the form of film, in a new documentary by the SNI entitled “Denying Access: NoDAPL to NoNAPL” [5]. 

The future of NAPL is unknown for now, but it is safe to say that the project has received significant opposition from regional and governmental actors. The NYSDEC has denied Supply its water quality permit, which the company desperately needs if it is to start construction and have legal precedence in the court of law. This and other regulatory delays have forced Supply as of December 2018 to file for an extension to meet their 2022 in-service target for NAPL [9]. As long as people continue to support litigation from the NYSDEC, petition the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to deny Supply water permits, and awareness of NoNAPL continues to grow, the opposition can stand a fighting chance to defeat another environmental injustice [5]. 

Supply will construct 96.9 miles of 24 inch diameter pipeline, starting in Sergeant Township, McKean County, Pennsylvania, and Allegany, Cattaraugus, and Niagara Counties, New York, finishing at Supply’s existing Porterville Compressor Station in the Town of Elma, Erie County, New York. Supply will install an additional 5,350 hp of compression at this existing compressor station, as well as construct an interconnection with Tennessee Gas Pipeline located in the Town of Wales, Erie County, NY. Empire will build a brand new 22, 214 hp compressor station adjacent to Killian Road in the Town of Pendleton, Niagara County, New York, as well as an approximately 2 mile stretch of 16 inch/24 inch pipeline in the Town of Pendleton, Niagara County, NY. Additionally, Empire will construct a new natural gas dehydration facility on Liberty Drive in the Town of Wheatfield, Niagara County, NY (10).