Location: Brookfield and Milford, CT; Dover and Athens, NY | Status: Active
Summary: Save the Sound is pursuing a legal challenge against the Iroquois Gas Transmission System’s Enhancement by Compression (“ExC”) Project, which would create new emissions and health burdens on already overburdened environmental justice communities and would conflict with New York’s and Connecticut’s greenhouse gas reduction goals. The project would add compression at various stations along the Iroquois Pipeline to increase the amount of natural gas transported to New York utilities, despite the lack of demonstrated need for it when considering the renewable resources coming online.
The Iroquois Pipeline is a natural gas transmission system that runs from Canada, through southeastern Connecticut, to New York to provide natural gas to New York utilities. The ExC Project would add new compressor turbines to the Athens, Dover, and Brookfield Compressor Stations.
These new turbines would result in additional greenhouse emissions totaling over 160,000 metric tons per year (roughly 80,000 in Connecticut and 82,000 in New York). These emissions would interfere with Connecticut’s ability to comply with its Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA), which requires Connecticut to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to at least 45 percent below 2001 levels by January 1, 2030. They would also undermine New York State’s ability to meet its 2030 emission limits established by Article 75 of the Environmental Conservation Law and conflict with the state’s established goals of investing in renewable energy infrastructure instead.
On top of these greenhouse gas emissions, the ExC Project would result in more nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, and hazardous air pollutant emissions. Exposure to these pollutants can aggravate lung diseases, inflame and damage the airways and make the lungs more susceptible to infection, and increase human mortality rates.
In July 2025, the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP) issued a tentative determination approving permits for the Brookfield Compressor Station expansion. Save the Sound, as well as residents across Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania, submitted powerful comments against this tentative determination. Save the Sound, the Brookfield Board of Selectmen, and the Stop the Brookfield Compressor Station Coalition also filed separate petitions for an adjudicatory hearing.
On October 15, 2025, DEEP issued a ruling denying all petitions without reaching any conclusion on the sufficiency of the factual allegations in them. On November 4, 2025, Save the Sound, jointly with the Town of Brookfield, appealed this Ruling to the Superior Court, arguing that the Ruling violated the law and is arbitrary and capricious.
Next Step: Await DEEP’s response to our administrative appeal.
Further Reading:
- PRESS RELEASE: Opposing new natural gas infrastructure in NY – Save the Sound
- PRESS RELEASE: Save the Sound attorneys urge denial of new pipeline compressors in Connecticut – Save the Sound
- PRESS RELEASE: Save the Sound requests adjudicatory hearing to challenge Iroquois pipeline permit
Action Opportunities:
Last Updated: December 11, 2024