Plenty of paperwork part of process to site green hydrogen project in Massena

“What we’d like this board to function as is to designate itself as the lead agent for SEQR purposes, and to authorize us then to send the requisite notices to the involved parties to start the 30-day process to make sure that all those other parties don’t object to this board functioning as lead agency. We think this is the appropriate place for that analysis and determination to be made,” Mr. McAuliffe said.

He said they would prepare the entire packet, take care of the mailing, and keep track of the dates so they know when the 30-day comment period begins and ends. Documentation will be provided to the Planning Board, he said.

Mr. Kenna said the project also required a referral to the St. Lawrence County Planning Board. Vance Fleury, chair of the Massena Town Planning Board, said they had since received the county’s comments.

“We sent it to them. It wasn’t mandatory. They were just giving us advice. It’s pretty straightforward,” Mr. Fleury said.

Mr. Kenna said they also need approval for a lot line adjustment.

“This is currently two parcels of land. Our intent is to combine these two parcels,” he said.

In addition, he said, the proposal requires a State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (SPDES) Permit. Plans for an on-site septic system are part of the SPDES permit. He said the application has been drafted and is ready to submit to the state Department of Environmental Conservation for review and approval.

“That is the process water discharge permit. So, we are working with the New York State DEC. Our intent is to discharge the process water into the power canal. Initially it will be 300 (thousand gallons a day), but we’re putting in for the full 600 to the DEC so that the permit doesn’t need to be adjusted later should the plant expand. The DEC will review that permit application and what they will do is basically tell Air Products as part of the permit the conditions of the permit, the things they have to monitor,” Mr. Kenna said.

“The reality is they simply take hydrogen out of the water,” he said. “So, the water that’s going back to the canal is the same water essentially that we’re pulling out of the river as far as the constituents and its makeup. We’re not adding anything to it. We’re just taking a little bit of hydrogen out as it goes through and we’re sending it back in. That will all be covered by the state permit.”

He said, because of the environmental justice requirements for the area, they also had to submit a public participation plan that’s currently being reviewed by DEC.

“We will be required to do some public outreach and have a public hearing about this,” Mr. Kenna said.

Also part of the paperwork process is a Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan.

“We have to meet state regs for storm water design. We have to ensure that the rate of water leaving the site and the quantity of water leaving the site is not greater after development than before,” he said.

The site includes wetlands that also need to be addressed. They include DEC wetlands along the New York Power Authority corridor.

“We’re not impacting any of those,” Mr. Kenna said. “There are several small isolated wetlands throughout this site The area outside of our basin is a federal wetland as well. These small isolated wetlands, we believe are too small and they’re isolated. So, we’ve submitted the jurisdictional determination request to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. They’re going to review that and if they agree with us, then there will be no permit or anything required for that as well.”

He said there are also wetlands where the discharge line goes down to the canal.

“They are not state regulated, but they are Army Corps wetlands. Our outlet structure will be less than a tenth of an acre. So, it won’t require any mitigation. But, we will need a permit,” he said.

Mr. Kenna said a traffic study had been submitted.

“Everything leaving the site from a truck transport will be going north to (state Route) 131 and not through the village. So, we ran the routes north out of the site. There will not be a significant impact in traffic,” he said.

Studies are also being done to address visual impacts, noise, hours of operation — it will be a 24/7 operation, officials said — and natural resources, as well as historical, archaeological and cultural resources, and public resources.

“The State Historic Preservation Office required us to do a phase one archaeological investigation and go out and do a bunch of test pits all over the site to see if we can find any artifacts. They have not found anything yet. Once they’re able to otherwise get out there and finish that, we will provide that report to the State Historic Preservation Office, and they’ll hopefully sign off on that,” he said.