A brand-new, 124-mile pipeline from Susquehanna County to New York is one step closer to being laid in the ground after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission released its final environmental impact statement Friday.

Constitution Pipeline would have “some adverse environmental impacts,” but if the pipeline company sticks to its proposed mitigation plans and FERC’s recommendations, “these impacts would be reduced to less than significant levels,” the document states.

The project is a 30-inch- diameter pipeline capable of shipping 650 million cubic feet of gas per day, enough to power 6.2 million homes if burned for electricity, according to FERC estimates. The plan also includes several meter stations, pipe interconnection, communication towers, mainline valves, and launchers and receivers for maintenance devices known as pigs.

The line would begin off T-548, also known as Turnpike Road, in Brooklyn Twp., Susquehanna County, and end in Schoharie County, New York.

During construction, the pipeline company would use strips of construction rights of way ranging from 125 feet wide in agricultural uplands to 75 feet wide in wetlands. The permanent right of way will be 50 feet wide.

During construction, the project will affect 1,871.5 acres, the equivalent of about 1,417 football fields. About 762 acres, or about 577 football fields, will remain as permanent rights of way.

Along the way northeast, the pipeline will cross 289 bodies of water. For 21 of these crossings, crews will drill and thread pipe through the ground underneath the streams or ponds. For the other 268, they plan to use various dry crossing methods, which involve damming, pumping or diverting water around the trench where they lay the pipe. Wet crossing methods “could be considered if the dry crossing options are rendered infeasible,” the document states.

“Constitution has adjusted its proposed route and extra workspaces in numerous locations to better avoid waterbodies,” it states. “We have reviewed Constitution’s proposed mitigation measures and find them acceptable.”

Constitution Pipeline is a joint venture among pipeline company Williams, Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., Piedmont Natural Gas Co. Inc. and WGL Holdings Inc.

Cabot has agreed to ship about 500 million cubic feet of its gas per day on the new line, spokesman George Stark said. The other 150 million goes to Southwestern Energy Co.

In third quarter earnings calls Friday for both companies, investment analysts quizzed the CEOs on what the line would mean for them, according to transcripts by Seeking Alpha.

Constitution is among the most significant near-term infrastructure projects for Cabot in the Marcellus region, CEO Dan Dinges told investors.

“We think we are going to be able to get a half (billion cubic feet) of our gas to a different price point,” Mr. Dinges said. “And that price point certainly currently and historically has been a better price point than the general market. So that is attractive to us.”

Leidy Southeast and Atlantic Sunrise, two other Williams pipeline projects, are also crucial for the company, which operates many of the top-producing wells in the state.

“All in all, it’s shaping up,” Cabot senior vice president for marketing Jeffrey Hutton said. “We are thrilled about (the) Constitution step forward, but there is always additional capacity that’s on the horizon. We are always looking to get it.”

Southwestern’s CEO Steven Mueller had less to say.

“I don’t know that we have any thoughts on that too much,” he told an analyst. “We follow (it) just like everyone else does.”

The next major step is to get approvals from New York State, he said.

“Unless there is some kind of mis-estimate on water crossing or road crossings, it’s a relatively short process,” he said.

Constitution plans to begin construction as early as February and finish by the end of 2015, the document states. Before it begins work, it must get final FERC approval in the form of a certificate of public convenience and necessity, along with other permits from state and federal agencies.

Once that happens, the company can use eminent domain acquire a permanent right of way from a landowner who doesn’t want to sell, though it must compensate them.

That’s the fate 57-year-old New Jersey resident Janet Terchek wanted to avoid when she sold her property to Constitution.

A retired postal worker, Ms. Terchek grew up in New Jersey. But with parents from Forest City, she often visited Susquehanna County growing up. She purchased property in Harmony Twp., the county’s northeast corner, to build her dream retirement home.

When the pipeline company came, she told them she wasn’t interested, but the looming possibility of losing her land anyway made her choose to sell.

There were also the changes wrought by an industry she doesn’t support. She said she visited the county last weekend to see her aunt and was overwhelmed with the truck traffic, pipelines, well pads and compressor stations that have sprouted in this part of the Marcellus Shale region.

“It’s not the nice rural area it was when I was growing up,” she said.

She said she sold her property to Constitution in May. They were the only interested party, she said, and she was ready to cut ties to the county.

“I really wanted no part of it,” she said. “I’m done with Northeastern Pennsylvania.”

Chris Stockton, a Williams spokesman, would not say what percentage of easements for the pipeline’s proposed route Constitution has already acquired from landowners. He did say 90 percent of the route has been surveyed.

Constitution still has plenty of work to do before it receives the final nod from FERC and other agencies. The commission’s analysis and recommendation span 464 pages, available on FERC’s eLibrary under the docket number CP13-499 or on thetimes-tribune.com.

Contact the writer: bgibbons@timesshamrock.com, @bgibbonsTT on Twitter