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A federal appeals court has ruled against Islander East, a proposal to build a fifty-mile pipeline under Long Island Sound from Connecticut to New York.

Islander East, a partnership between Spectra Energy and National Grid, has been trying to build a pipeline that would tunnel under shellfish beds near the Thimble Islands in Branford, since 2001.

But now the second U-S Circuit Court of Appeals in New York has declined the pipeline company’s request to review a decision made by the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. The DEP denied a water quality certificate, required under the Clean Water Act, in 2004 and again in 2006 – even though federal regulators had approved the project. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal calls the court’s decision a death knell for the project.

“They might as well surrender and go elsewhere. Without a water quality certificate this very horrendous project is literally dead in the water.”

A spokeswoman for Spectra Energy says the court’s decision is a disappointment, but the company is still considering its options.