GUILDERLAND — A site owned by the Northeastern Industrial Park off of Depot Road has become a site for work on the proposed and controversial Constitution Pipeline.

Construction of a huge orange silo prompted neighbors and passers-by to wonder what was going on; workers at the site responded that they were not allowed to say.

Called Contractor Yard 5B, the property at 2 Van Buren Road, was formerly owned by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. It was once the site of an Army Depot.

After being cleaned up by the Corps of Engineers it was sold to the Northeastern Industrial Park.

The site is in the midst of being prepped to coat 1,000 lengths of pipe with concrete, to be shipped to another site for use in the Constitution Pipeline.

The actual project will not begin until the contractor is issued a Notice to Proceed, which has not yet been authorized.

“The contractor has a permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,” said Guilderland Supervisor Kenneth Runion. “Therefore they can operate outside of the standard municipal regulatory requirements.”

Hence, the project had not come before the town’s zoning or planning boards.

Representatives from the Northeastern Industrial Park did not return calls seeking comments this week.

The controversial Constitution Pipeline Project was proposed in 2012, by Cabot Oil & Gas, Piedmont Natural Gas, WGL Holdings, and Williams. It would include 124 miles of 30-inch natural gas pipeline running underground from Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania; through Broome, Chenango, Delaware and Schoharie counties in New York; and ending at a compressor facility in Wright, not far from the Albany County line.

The pipeline would transport 650,000 dekatherms of natural gas per day, and the goal would be to connect abundant Appalachian natural gas supplies in Pennsylvania with northeastern markets.

The existing Wright compressor station, owned by Iroquois Gas Transmission, would receive an addition of 22,000 horsepower of new compression. It would enable the delivery of gas from the Constitution Pipeline into both the Iroquois and Tennessee pipelines.

The Constitution Pipeline Company does have permission to prepare the site at Contractor Yard 5B for concrete coating, but not to coat the pipes yet, nor to actually build the pipeline.

In a weekly report from the company issued on Oct. 27, a section labeled Construction Status stated that “The contractor continued mobilization of Contractor Yard 5B to begin site-prep for concrete coating of the pipe…Work this week was focused primarily on finalizing setup of the concrete facility and associated equipment.”

It said some minor improvements were made in order to access roads onsite, including bringing more gravel to the yard and improving and maintaining erosion control devices. Berms consisting of sand covered in geotextile fabric for stockpiling coated pipe were installed.

There were no landowner or resident complaints related to compliance at the site, according to the report.

There was, on Oct. 6, a pit excavated on the west side of Depot Road, outside the FERC-approved limits of disturbance, and after the noncompliance was discovered, the activity was halted immediately, the pit was filled in, and a variance request was submitted and approved. The variance allows continued construction of a water line installation.

A Notice to Proceed must be issued by FERC before the coating project can actually begin and that notice is “currently pending necessary federal authorizations,” said the report.

There has been much opposition to the Constitution Pipeline project, particularly by a group, organized in June 2012, called Stop the Pipeline.

“We have held up this project longer than anyone has ever held up a natural gas pipeline project,” said Anne Marie Garti, a long-time member of the group.

When the pipeline was first proposed, she said, it was predicted to be fully operational by March 2015. Now, in October 2015, the project has yet to start.

The two main reasons for opposition are property owners’ rights and environmental impacts, said Garti.

She said the pipeline company hired engineers to figure out the best route for the pipe, and that they drew up the shortest, most direct route, which cuts through private properties as well as through the largest section of intact forest land in New York State.

The Constitution Pipeline Company needs permanent easements granted by landowners to operate and maintain the pipeline, as well as temporary easements during construction, for setting up workspaces.

The companydid not return calls for comment, but its literature says it will pay landowners fair market value for the amount of land included in the easement and that it can only use the land for constructing the pipeline; the landowner can continue to use that land for his or her own purposes.

The company says it will also pay landowners for any damage to crops or structures caused by construction and maintenance of the pipeline.

“When you own land, you expect to have rights to what happens on it,” said Garti. “This is a huge property-rights issue.”

She was raised in Delaware County and owns a home close to where the proposed pipeline would run.

The pipeline, as proposed, would run under 1,000 acres of forest in New York. Construction would require the removal of 700,000 trees. The pipeline would cross under 300 streams and miles of wetlands.

Some of the specific environmental concerns raised by Stop the Pipeline include forest fragmentation, crop restriction, water quality degradation, and new pathways for storm runoff.

A draft environmental impact statement was issued by FERC in February 2014, which stated “The FERC staff concludes that construction and operation of the projects would result in adverse environmental impacts.”

It said the conclusion was drawn from data requests, field investigations, alternative analyses, and literature research.

FERC approved the projects, however, because it said the Constitution Pipeline Company would take measures to “minimize impacts on natural and cultural resources during construction and operation.”

The report said the company would implement an Upland Erosion Control Revegetation and Maintenance Plan; Wetland and Waterbody Construction and Mitigation Procedures; Soil Protection and Subsoil Decompaction Mitigation Plan; Unanticipated Discovery of Contamination Plan; Spill Plan for Oil and Hazardous Materials; and more.

The company would also, according to the report, use “specialized crossing methods for several waterbodies and wetlands…and provide mitigation for unavoidable impacts on waterbodies and wetlands through coordination with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,” and Pennsylvania and New York’s departments of environmental conservation.

FERC did recommend that the company develop a forest impact mitigation plan.