TRC provided full-service environmental consulting and regulatory permitting services for development of the Hudson Transmission Project. The Project involved the construction of a Back-to-Back AC-DC-AC Converter Station in Ridgefield, NJ and installation of a new 230 kilovolt (kV) AC link to the nearby PSE&G Bergen Substation, also in Ridgefield. From the Converter Station, a new 345 kV electric transmission cable system is routed underground from Ridgefield to Edgewater, NJ where it then crosses the Lower Hudson River estuary in a buried submarine cable configuration. The cable system makes landfall in New York City at Pier 94 on the Upper West Side waterfront where it interconnects via underground cable to the existing Con Edison West 49th Street Substation.
The cable system consists of about eight miles of buried transmission cable, approximately four miles of which is installed beneath the Hudson River.
TRC and the Project Team prepared comprehensive environmental, land use, cultural resource, visual, and routing studies to characterize existing conditions and identify potential impacts in New York and New Jersey. TRC also assessed the potential effect cable installation would have on water and sediment quality in surrounding areas of the lower Hudson River. The assessment included: modeling of potential sediment and surface water constituent concentrations during and after cable installation; review and interpretation of historical Hudson River surface water and sediment quality data; calculation of risk-based sediment concentrations protective of food chain accumulation; and comparison of potential future surface sediment constituent concentrations with regulatory benchmarks and risk-based levels. TRC managed environmental monitoring, Independent Environmental Inspectors onboard the cable removal vessel, and TSS/Water Quality monitoring. TRC developed and implemented regulatory strategies for New York, New Jersey, and the USACE New York District permits.
TRC prepared and submitted an application for a New Jersey In-Water Waterfront Development Individual Permit and Water Quality Certificate in less than three weeks to enable NJDEP to complete their review to meet the accelerated project schedule. TRC was responsible for the preparation and monitoring of the following regulatory permit applications:
- Article VII Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need with the New York Public Service Commission
- Joint application and review by the New York District of the United States Army Corps of Engineers
- New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
- New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
- New Jersey Meadowlands Commission