My letter to the Schuyler County Legislature: Dear Members of the Schuyler County Legislature, I attended the Resolution Review Committee meeting on Wednesday, June 4. I was astounded that the Legislature would allow the Chairman, Mr. Fagan, to ram-rod through the Resolution Supporting Finger Lakes LPG Storage etc, without going through the usual channels of bringing it out of one of the standing committees where the pros and cons would be thoroughly debated. I am also appalled with the lack of meaningful discourse that ensued. With the exception of Mr. Lausell, there was virtually no discussion on the benefits vs the risks of the Project that this resolution would be supporting. The Watkins Glen High School Model UN class put this legislature to shame yesterday. Barb Halpin wondered about the possible political fallout. Mr. Fagan seemed concerned with the possibility that Crestwood would pull out putting 130 jobs at risk. I have heard Mr. Fagan speak with disdain about other municipalities telling us what to do here in Schuyler County. These municipalities are our neighbors here in the Finger Lakes and recognize that decisions made in Schuyler County affect them as well. However, Mr. Fagan seems to be OK with Schuyler County being held hostage by a Houston, Texas based firm with no ties to our Region that is using threats to get their way. Ms. Halpin had it right when she said that this should have no bearing on the Legislatures decision, that businesses make decisions based on business. Crestwood isnt going to go sit in a corner and pout because they didnt get their way. US Salt is a profitable business and is going to be here for a long time, whether owned by Crestwood or someone else. Please know that by voting yes on this resolution you are not only voting against the wishes of thousands of your constituents that oppose this ill conceived plan as well as over 200 local and regional businesses, the real back bone of our local economy, but you are also putting your name on a seriously flawed document. To get a sense of who those businesses are, please refer back to the map that Mr. Fagan scoffed at yesterday and notice the yellow dots. Those dots represent the business locations. Please note how many are located in Schuyler County. A report by PhD Economist Dr. Jannette Barth outlines some of the negative impacts this facility would have on our local economy (attached) and that these, mostly tourism related, businesses are concerned about. Allow me to point out some of those flaws. Please refer to your own copy of the resolution as I go through it point by point. The caverns were used for a 20 year period by Teppco to store propane, from 1964 until 1984 when Teppco abruptly moved operations across Rt 14 and began storing propane in shallow, lined rock caverns that were engineered and developed exclusively for that purpose. NYSEG began storing a small amount of natural gas (1.45 billion cubic feet) in 2 caverns in 1996 on an Underground Storage Permit issued by DEC in 1995, a total of approximately 18 years. To say that gas has been stored there since 1964 without incident is disingenuous at best. There were no voluntary concessions regarding the brine ponds by, then, Inergy. When asked by both DEC and the Town of Reading to re-configure the brine ponds, the company responded that they had looked at alternatives and, primarily because of cost, they had rejected the alternatives to the 100 million gallon, 14 acre brine pond. It wasnt until the US Army Corps of Engineers stepped in and informed the company that there were federally protected wetlands that would be impacted, and that they had to mitigate those impacts, that the 2 smaller brine ponds were designed. The State Geologist who signed off on the project was Acting Associate State Geologist Andrew Kozlowski whose specialty is Pleistocene Glacial Geology, NOT underground hydrocarbon storage. Mr. Kozlowski states that he reviewed the application materials provided by Finger Lakes. His letter was dated March 15, 2013. This was well before 2 independent geologists, both PhDs and one of whom (Clark) DOES specialize in salt cavern geology, wrote reports detailing the geology of the brinefield and the inappropriateness of using those caverns in bedded salt for large scale LPG storage. The report by Dr. Clark (attached) includes a scathing rebuke of Inergy/Crestwood for failing to provide FERC with a 1969 report by CH Jacoby, an engineer who worked for International Salt, documenting a 400 thousand ton solid chunk of rock that fell from the roof of one of the caverns now slated for natural gas storage. This was after FERC specifically asked the company if they were aware of any roof or wall collapse of ANY cavern in the brinefield. The companys response was that they were unaware of any collapse in caverns slated for gas storage (FERC Docket # CP13-83). Contrary to the resolution as written by Mr. Fagan, the DEC has NOT completed its review of this Project. Had Mr. Fagan done as I did and called Mr. David Bimber, Region 8 Deputy Permit Administrator for the project (now assigned to Region 7 in Syracuse but still very much on top of the project), he would have gotten the same answer. Mr.Bimber told me yesterday that there is a very rough draft of the Final Environmental Impact Statement that is circulating internally. The DEC is still going over public comments from 2 years ago and is still reviewing public comments received more recently, including the 2 geologists reports already referenced. They are nowhere near issuing a Final EIS or a permit. Since the Resolution in question never came out of committee, and since there was virtually no discussion at yesterdays meeting, I wonder what independent review the Legislature has undertaken to satisfy itself that the underground storage of LPG can be done safely and without impact to drinking water sources or to Seneca Lake. Have any members of the legislature read the entire draft EIS. When did this review take place? Where can the public find the minutes of those meetings? FERC did ignore the recommendations of 2 independent PhD geologists as well as Dr. John Halfman of the Finger Lakes Institute, all of whom believe that LPG storage in those caverns is dangerous, in approving the natural gas storage, but they also stated that they acknowledge the existence of the North/South trending Jacoby-Dellwigg fault that bisects the brinefield. They also quote Dr. Jacoby as stating that repeated cycling of brine and LPG can result in dissolution of salt in the caverns and the roof collapse of well 30 was the result of that process (FERC Docket #CP13-83). Mr. Fagan suggests that the Project will result in excess of $20 million to the tax base. I wondered where he got those figures and exactly what this project would mean to Schuyler County financially. The Enterprise Products facility is very nearly the same foot print and storage capacity as the proposed Crestwood facility. A trip down to the Real Property Tax office after I left the Resolution Review Committee meeting revealed that the 4 parcels that Enterprise Products owns are assessed at just over $10.5 million and contribute $107,743.80 to the Town of Reading and Schuyler County in property tax. This is a pittance compared to what the local businesses and the tourist economy generate. The Project will have little benefit to residents of Schuyler County as regards to stable supply and savings to residential and commercial customers. Propane prices are market driven and are not affected by storage proximity. There is currently 1.5 million barrels of propane stored at Enterprise Products in the Town of Reading, and members of the Legislature visited the Crestwood owned Savona facility where there is an additional 1.5 million barrels of propane. 3 million barrels of propane is more than enough local supply. To get a sense of who would benefit from this extra storage one has only to watch the proponents of this Project. The New England Propane Gas Association has been quite vocal lately about the need for this facility. Is it our responsibility to store propane for Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire? I hope the members of the legislature that went on Mr. Fagans field trip to Savona noticed the giant brine ponds, the rusty steel tanks and pipes, the enormous 30,000 gallon bullet tanks and the industrial rail siding. That is exactly what youre going to get on that hillside South of Rt 14A (see picture attached). As an aside, Mr; Fagan is on record saying that he take(s) Inergy (now Crestwood) at their word that they have no plans for expansion beyond the current ( 2.1 million barrels) proposal. Please ask yourself, if the 1.5 million barrels Crestwood stores in Savona requires a 3 track rail siding, why does this Project require a 6 track siding? And why does Crestwood boast on their website that, at their US Salt facility, they currently have Over 40 million barrels of previously solution mined cavern capacity convertible to energy storage. crestwoodlp/operations/ngl-crude-services/us-salt.asp Lastly, Mr. Fagan again claims that those opposing the project (he mentions Gas Free Seneca by name earlier in the resolution) have successfully lobbied to (sic) the Governor and the DEC to simply not make a decision on Finger Lakes application. Implying, of course, that the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement is simply languishing on the Governors desk. I would like to think that we had that effect but, the truth is, the process is still going forward and is still under review. Thank you for your attention. I hope you do your home work over the weekend and do the right thing at Mondays regular meeting of the Legislature and vote no on this resolution.
Posted on: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 23:46:05 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015