Last Updated: March 10, 2010

North Shore School Districts Looking for Pipeline Revenue

• Adam Grohman
During the first Locust Valley Central School District Budget Meeting, Dr. Anna Hunderfund indicated that Locust Valley, along with other North Shore school districts, is still looking for possible tax revenues from a buried pipeline located in the waters of the Long Island Sound. As previously reported (The Leader, May 2009), school districts are currently in “litigation” in an attempt to “annex” portions of the Long Island Sound as “part of their districts” in a novel way to gain revenue from an off-shore pipeline. The leadership of several school districts are hoping that this previously unknown revenue source could provide a pipeline of much needed cash to school district coffers.
As previously reported, according to Dr. Laurence Aronstein, Superintendent of the Glen Cove School District, he and several other school districts had been informed (now two and a half years ago) by the Nassau County Tax Assessors Office that they should investigate a possible way to expand their tax base by looking at the bottom of the Long Island Sound. Locust Valley took the lead and initiated discussions with school districts from Great Neck to Cold Spring Harbor to secure badly needed revenue for their districts. Beneath the waves is a natural gas pipeline that, in addition to pumping gas to points east of Long Island, may also be forced to pump commercial tax payments into the local school district shrinking bank accounts. First, however, the school districts have to find where exactly the pipeline is in relation to their district.
As of May 2009, the Locust Valley Central School District recommended that other districts retain the services of a marine surveying company to engage in the search for the exact location of the pipeline to determine its proximity to each of the school districts. Once included in the district’s boundaries, the inclusion would then signal an increase in the tax base for the individual districts because the owners of the pipeline would then have to be assessed as property owners within the district. Dr. Anna Hunderfund commented this past week that “We hope that taxes from the pipeline will provide relief for our taxpayers.”
The owner and operator of the pipeline is Iroquois Gas Transmission System, L.P. which is “a partnership of affiliates of five U.S. and Canadian energy companies.” At the heart of the company is their four hundred and eleven mile interstate natural gas pipeline system that according to the company’s website “begins at the TransCanada interconnect in Iroquois, Ontario/Waddington, NY and terminates at its interconnect with the facilities of the Consolidated Edison Company of New York at Hunts Point in the Bronx.” The section that the school districts hope to locate and eventually financially tap is part of the four hundred and eleven mile system that is located in the Long Island Sound. According to an Iroquois Gas spokeswoman the “Iroquois Gas Transmission System’s pipeline under Long Island Sound was constructed in 1991 and began operations in January 1992. The 26.3 mile marine segment enters the sound at Milford, CT and comes on shore in Northport, NY. The Eastchester line, which is approximately 36 miles from Northport to the Bronx, began operations in February 2004.”
With dwindling state aid, possible unfunded mandates, and pending proposals on the Governor’s agenda forcing financial instability for school districts statewide, the possibility of a pipeline of “cash” in the waters of the Long Island Sound may end up being a treasure trove for our community’s youth and our taxpayers.

 

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