ELR Citation: ELR 20327
No(s). 553 (N.Y. Mar 14, 1973)

In a further development of the Scenic Hudson controversy, New York's highest court rules that the state commissioner of environmental conservation had a reasonable basis for determining that construction and operation of the Storm King Mountain pump storage facility will not violate water quality standards applicable to the Hudson River. All issues which do not deal directly with water quality are held extraneous since the Federal Power Commission's approval of the project has already been litigated, and the state commissioner's authority extends only to the issuance of the water quality assurance. Four conditions attached to the commissioner's decision which require Consolidated Edison, the facility's owner, to monitor the facility's effects on water quality and to terminate operations if the required standards are violated are proper, since this is standard practice in pollution control regulation.

For lower state court decisions see 2 ELR 20207 and 2 ELR 20499. For previous federal court decisions concerning FPC approval of the project see 1 ELR 20292, 1 ELR 20496, and 2 ELR 20436.

Counsel for Plaintiffs
Albert K. Butzel
Peter A. Berle
David Sive
Berle, Butzel & Kass
425 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10022

Norman Redlich
Evelyn Junge
Evan A. Davis
Ira H. Zuckerman
Law Department, City of New York
Municipal Building
New York, NY 10007

John M. Burns, III
Spear & Hill
63 Wall Street
New York, NY 10005

Counsel for Defendant
Louis J. Lefkowitz Attorney General
Stanley Fishman Assistant Attorney General
Julius Feinstein
Ruth Kessler Toch
State Capitol
Albany, NY 12224

Counsel for Intervenor-Defendant Consolidated Edison Co.
Carl D. Hobelman
G. S. Peter Bergen
LeBoeuf, Lamb, Leiby & MacRae
One Chase Manhattan Plaza
New York, NY 10005

Opinion by Fuld, Ch. J. All concur. Breitel, J., taking no part.