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Seneca Lake Activists Celebrate Decision to Nix Natural Gas Storage Project
More than 4 trillion gallons of freshwater fill Seneca Lake. It's the main source of drinking water for 100,000 people in the region.
And on top of that: "The lake is absolutely magical and beautiful. For some reason I just gravitate here," said Jennifer Turpin of Horseheads.
Yet for years, it's been repeatedly threatened by toxins like propane, methane and butane.
"This is not the place for industrial gas storage and transport," said Gas Free Seneca President Joseph Campbell
"There's a legacy of contamination problems that were never cleaned up," said Toxics Targeting President Walter Hang.
But Thursday, activists are celebrating a victory that came as quite a shock. Salt mining company Crestwood decided suddenly to nix a controversial project.
They'd been pushing for years to expand their natural gas storage operation along the lake, despite pushback and protests from environmental groups. But in a twist, the company itself decided to drop the project, even though they had the approvals and permits they needed to move forward.
"This is a company that really only cares about one thing, and that's the bottom line," said Hang.
According to the company's bi-weekly report, it no longer saw the value in the project, saying the bids it received didn't support the investment it would have to make to bring the project to completion.
"It's a validation of what we've been fighting for," said Campbell.
But activists say their fight is far from over. Crestwood is still pursuing an entirely separate project for a propane storage facility.
"I think the propane storage was always the bigger, badder of the two projects. It's all pain and no gain for us here in the Finger Lakes," said Campbell.
In the meantime, they're thankful their hard work has paid off, and they're hopeful it will continue to pay off as they face the next challenge.
Neither Crestwood, nor Schuyler County legislators who are in favor of the project, could be reached for comment.
"What Are You Hiding?" – Citizens Question Dominion Pipeline Project
Representatives of Dominion Transmission heard their company’s commitment to being a good neighbor questioned over and over in a meeting at the Varna Community Center on Monday, May 1.
The Borger Compressor Station, on Ellis Hollow Road in the Town of Dryden, is slated to receive upgrades as part of Dominion’s $158 million “New Market” pipeline upgrade project. The company wants to push more natural gas from Clinton County, Pennsylvania, to utilities Brooklyn United and Niagara Mohawk. The two National Grid subsidiaries have signed a contract for Dominion to supply them with up to 102,000 decatherms, or over 100 million cubic feet, of gas per day. That’s enough, the company says, to heat 3.6 million households.
There was no specific action by a town board or other agency in question at this meeting: Dominion has all of the permits and permissions from local, state, and federal regulators to move forward with the New Market project, and construction on parts of it are underway. Many of the citizens who spoke asked Dominion to do better as a neighbor – in the areas of transparency, emissions, and neighborhood impact of its facilities and construction.
DOMINION: PIPELINE WORK IS ‘LIMITED’
Asked by Dryden officials to hold a meeting explaining their project and addressing concerns, the Dominion representatives clearly intended Monday night to be more informational than confrontational. After introductions of the nine staffers, Don Houser, state policy advisor for Pennsylvania and New York, and Michelle Pugh, supervisor of engineering products, launched into a slideshow showing pictures of the site around the Borger Compression Station on Ellis Hollow Road.
Don Houser, Dominion PA/NY state policy director, speaks at the Varna Community Center on May 1, 2017.
Photo: Josh Brokaw/TruthSayers
No new compressor engines are being installed at the Borger station, Pugh explained. The station already has 22,000 horsepower of compressing power from two turbines built in the 1980s and a third added later – no more will be added.
[The New Market project includes adding new compressor stations in Chemung and Madison counties and adding three more compressors at an existing station in Montgomery County. Here’s Dominion’s informational site.]
The scope of work at Borger includes adding coolers, putting in three more microturbines for internal power, making underground modifications to the piping, and installing a filter separator, Pugh said. The Dominion engineer did make one faux pas that inspired snickers: while explaining the role of silt fencing in erosion control, Pugh described one slide as “black snake looking stuff.” That “Kill the Black Snake” was a rallying cry of the water protectors at Standing Rock clearly has not made Dominion’s internal memos.
“We’re hoping you understand really the limited amount of work at that location in the New Market project.” Houser said after about 20 minutes of presentation, with somewhat limited interruptions.
CITIZENS: STOP THE PROPOSED EXPANSIONS
Locals filling up the room, about 130 at the meeting’s peak, then took over and interrogated the Dominion staff for the next two and a half hours.
The first question to get emphasis, as noted by the Journal and Times in their wrap-ups of the first hour or so of the meeting, had to do with the new pressure and amounts of gas running through the Dominion pipeline after the project is done relative to what is already flowing through the pipeline. The current maximum pressure is 900 pounds per square inch [PSI], and that won’t be increased. Citizens asked Dominion share a figure in the increase in gas volume, by at least identifying an approximate order of magnitude.
“We can’t disclose that information,” Pugh said, “our customers don’t even know … It’s critical energy infrastructure information.”
After much pestering, Houser eventually said he would find information about how much gas Dominion was last permitted to move, in 2010, and get back to the town board with a baseline figure.
Citizens at Varna Community Center, May 1, 2017.
Photo: Josh Brokaw/TruthSayers
Ross Horowitz stood up and said that the Town of Dryden board “should do everything at its disposal to stop the proposed expansions pending local approval of the [Stormwater Polllution Prevention Plan] and requiring a special local permit, that should be denied because of conflict with Dryden’s comprehensive land use plan.”
Dryden supervisor Jason Leifer, who moderated the meeting, responded to that comment: “The town has limited authority … even with the special use permit process we could not stop this because of the oil and gas act, which is federal level.”
Walter Hang, of Toxics Targeting, stood up to talk about chemicals dumped on site in the 1990s that he’s been saying still need cleaning up since last summer.
Walter Hang, of Toxics Targeting, speaks at a meeting on the Dominion New Market project at the Varna Community Center, May 1, 2017.
Photo: Josh Brokaw/TruthSayers
Though Leifer has written letters on behalf of constituents to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [FERC] as well as the state, Hang asked him again to withdraw the stormwater permit and ask the governor to do the same thing, as a follow-up to a request Leifer made in February. [Dryden’s consultant has said that the stormwater permit application does not encroach on wetlands, as Hang has said.] Then Hang turned his attention to the gas company’s staffers.
“Dominion has to answer the key question,” Hang said, “will you withhold this project from going forward until these contamination problems are fully investigated and fully remediated?”
“To the DEC it remains closed,” Houser said of the spill cases, after the room’s applause lessened.
“So your answer to Walter is no, you will not hold up the project,” another man cut in.
“We are under construction,” Houser replied.
A bit later, Cornell professor Tony Ingraffea stood up to say that he measured methane levels in the atmosphere in 2015, and found them to be 2.6 parts per million, or 50 percent more than the natural background level.
“You said you had no leaks,” Ingraffea said. “It is impossible to run a compressor station without leaks. Why don’t you just tell us?”
Tony Ingraffea, Cornell professor, speaks at a meeting on May 1, 2017 at the Varna Community Center.
Holly Payne then stood up, before Dominion people had a chance to respond, and “went a bit off the handle,” by her own later admission. Her 10-year-old daughter has been experiencing unexplained migraine headaches.
“These are our kids. they’re not your kids. These are our children breathing that. They’re our children. My kid has an issue with her health that is unexplained. What is she breathing? We live point seven miles below the gas pipe. What are you hiding? What are you doing to my child? What is it? it’s not a neutral issue about money to Schenectady and New York City. It’s not. It’s our children. And I’m glad you make good salaries. But what are you doing to my kid? She’s not a data point. Explain to me what’s going out in the air that you blow off that rattles our windows over and over again. Tell me. What is it?”
Holly Payne, working mother, asks Dominion Transmission representatives what’s coming out of their pipeline. Varna, May 1, 2017.
Photo: Josh Brokaw/TruthSayers
Houser deferred Payne’s question to Gary Comerford, Dominion air quality consultant: “We’ve already talked about what’s in emissions and permit tests. I’ll let him go over it again,” Houser said.
Dominion does provide emissions testing results to the Department of Environmental Conservation [DEC], Comerford said, but Lisa Marshall of Mothers Out Front said that her organization has had trouble getting detailed reports of the most recent results. Mothers Out Front is planning on spending over $9,000 for a baseline air monitoring report before construction begins at the Borger station, and Leifer has supported their request for Dominion to fund the testing. Mothers Out Front is also sponsoring a petition drive to get Gov. Cuomo to stop the project — it has garnered over 650 signatures.
The question was then asked by Keith Schue why improvements, like oxidation catalysts, hadn’t been added to the compressors to reduce emissions. The Dominion response was it was not permitted in this project. Marshall took exception to this explanation:
“When you do modifications to your house you have to bring things up to code that weren’t code when the thing was put in 30 years ago,” Marshall said. “And you know it. The best technology that protects the air quality of this community is not being put in – not because it’s not permitted but because it costs money.”
“Dominion could say we would like to be better neighbors to people in Ellis Hollow and we could upgrade,” Marshall later added, as the meeting ground to a close near 10 p.m. A “make it happen” chant began.
Dominion received their initial notice to proceed from FERC in April 2016, and a subsequent one in January of this year. The DEC issued air permits in December 2016, after three hearings in the Horseheads area on air quality. A request from the Dryden town board to get a DEC hearing in the area never had a result.
The only thing the town could do at this point, Leifer said, is ask them to voluntarily go through a special permit process. The Dryden board had done everything in its power to stop the New Market project upgrades, town board member Linda Lavine said early in the evening.
That “doesn’t mean as activists we shouldn’t do everything in our power we can do,” Lavine said.
Ken, a retired teacher from Cooperstown and one-time arrestee at a We Are Seneca Lake protest in Schuyler County, had a more direct statement for this reporter as the meeting was breaking up: “When are we going to see some blockades down there?”
The FERC docket number is 14-497 for the New Market project, but your best bet to find documents is probably just searching “New Market Project” in the FERC elibrary.
Dominion’s website for this project. And the email is newmarket@dom.com
There’s more information on this project, including links to air permits, at Otsego 2000.
Dominion attempts to calm pipeline concerns
Photo: Nick Reynolds
For the better part of a year, anti-natural gas activists and neighbors to a natural gas compression station up near Ellis Hollow have vocally opposed an expansion to the project intended to accommodate a greater amount of natural gas flowing through their community.
On Monday night, those activists had a chance to meet face-to-face with the company’s engineers to ask questions about Dominion Energy’s proposed upgrades to the existing New Market Pipeline, object to the process in which it was approved and, for some, make a Hail Mary appeal to company representatives to partake in a voluntary – and legally unnecessary – review process with the Town of Dryden.
Of the nearly 100 people crammed into the meeting space of the Varna Community Center (many bearing signs and t-shirts expressing explicit opposition to the expansion of natural gas consumption), nearly 40 came with questions regarding a proposal to upgrade a pre-existing pipeline to allow for an increased quantity of natural gas to flow from its source in Northern Pennsylvania to the Hudson Valley, where it supplies heat to an estimated 3.6 million people, according to company figures. The expansion is necessary, Dominion representatives said Monday, to accommodate the demands of the company’s two biggest customers in the state – Brooklyn Union Gas and New York State Electric and Gas – and their desire to purchase cheaper, domestically-produced gas rather rely on imports from Canadian gas markets.
While the project itself does not entail the building of a new pipeline, the upgrades to the compressor station were characterized as being a “limited amount of work,” by the Dominion representatives in attendance. However, a common theme of concern from those assembled was not the impacts of the work itself, but what it meant: a greater volume of natural gas flowing through the borders of the Town of Dryden and, in the eyes of some, greater risk assumed.
Dominion, citing the logistics of “critical utilities infrastructure,” would not specify exactly what quantity the increase would entail at maximum capacity, saying their pipelines are rated according to pressure. The compressor station itself would allow the company to pump an additional, but unspecified, amount of gas at up to 900 pounds per square inch which, as members of the audience were quick to point out, ultimately meant a greater volume of gas, period.
Photo: Nick Reynolds
Members of Dominion’s team, in an effort to assuage these concerns, outlined numerous mitigations in place at the Borger Compressor Station including silt fences (to prevent significant runoff from the site during heavy rains), the laws and regulations already in place in New York State, and the functions of various safety measures in place to isolate leaks when – or if – they happen. (Most of the leaks come, one representative said, from people not checking the ground before they begin a digging project).
Yet, as the site falls within an area containing an estimated eight wetlands and 11 creeks in the Cascadilla Creek watershed, there was some concern – and scrutiny – as to how the company was planning around the site. One man, in an impassioned set of comments delivered to the sound of rousing applause and snapping fingers, said no risk – not even a minimal one – should be taken with our waterways. Local activist Walter Hang – who has helped to lead the charge against the pipeline’s increase in capacity – cited a legacy of spills at the site, while considered closed by the Department of Environmental Conservation years ago, he still disputes as never being cleaned to standard, thereby nullifying the legitimacy of the state permits the under-construction project has already obtained. One person speculated on whether or not the pipeline would set a precedent to eventually expand natural gas consumption by an even greater degree in New York City and the Hudson Valley, noting the proposed natural gas plant in Dover, New York being weighed as a replacement for the notorious nuclear facility at Indian Point, which is slated for shutdown by 2021.
As the state has already provided the company with all the necessary approvals needed to move forward, little more can really be done to stop the project: Because the Town of Dryden has limited authority on federally-regulated utilities infrastructure, realistically the only thing town officials can do is to ask the company to voluntarily go through a special land use permitting process, said town supervisor Jason Leifer.
However, he said, it is possible for the town to write a letter or two, should they feel like it.
Dominion meets the community to discuss pipeline
Officials from Dominion discuss how the company would handle a spill if one were to happen. Officials met with the public on Monday at the Varna Community Association building to discuss the upgrades at the station in Dryden.
Matt Weinstein / staff video
Town of Dryden supervisor Jason Leifer moderates a question-and-answer session on Monday. The public information meeting was hosted by officials at Dominion to discuss the natural gas pipeline upgrades in Dryden. Don Houser, Dominion's state policy adviser, looks on.
(Photo: Matt Weinstein / staff photo)
The atmosphere was contentious Monday night as about 100 people stuffed into the Varna Community Association building for a public information session on the upgrades to the Borger Compressor Station in Dryden.
Officials from Dominion Energy – the Virginia-based company which owns the station – hosted the meeting to answer questions, address concerns from the community and deliver a presentation on the changes in progress at the station, which was interrupted several times by an eager audience. Two issues kept popping up during the public comment session: how much more natural gas will be added into the pipeline and will Dominion pause the project until closer examination of an on-site spill from 1998 is conducted?
With the upgrades currently underway, Dominion hopes to add 33,023 horsepower of compression to the existing state pipeline transmission system, which includes the Borger Compressor Station and a station in Horseheads. The project will allow the delivery of additional supplies of natural gas to National Grid distribution areas upstate to meet the growing consumer demand for the fuel. The project’s total cost is expected to be about $159 million.
"We appreciate the opportunity to talk with the community about our operations at Borger Station,” said Jen Kostyniuk, director of Dominion Energy communications. “The modifications we are making at Borger are minor and within the existing footprint of the station. We will continue to meet all requirements specified in the air permit issued by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation.”
At the Dryden station, Dominion is adding three microturbines to increase electrical output and two gas cooling stations. Dominion officials were asked several times exactly how much more natural gas will be running through the pipeline but they said it depends on demand and the numbers, which are not publicly available, change often due to the demand.
About 100 people attended a public information session on Monday hosted by officials at Dominion to discuss the natural gas pipeline upgrades in Dryden.
(Photo: Matt Weinstein / staff photo)
A spill was reported at the Dryden facility in 1998, when it was owned by CNG Transmission. An investigation showed the concern was from petroleum byproducts including light gas distillates, lubricating oil and glycol. The spill was cleaned appropriately according to the DEC, although the full contamination could not be excavated at the time. The case was closed in 2001.
“We are under construction,” said Don Houser, state policy adviser for Dominion. Houser said as far as Dominion is concerned and unless told otherwise, the DEC has closed the case on the spill.
“The existing facility at Borger complies with NYDEC regulations designed to be protective of the environment,” Kostyniuk added. “Dominion is committed to environmental stewardship and continually seeks to improve its facilities whenever possible. We look forward to continuing our dialog with neighbors."
Don Houser, Dominion's state policy adviser, discusses the natural gas pipeline on Monday in a public information session hosted by officials at Dominion to discuss the pipeline upgrades in Dryden.
(Photo: Matt Weinstein / staff photo)
Some commenters also took issue with Dominion’s Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan. Walter Hang, of Toxics Targeting, who opposes the pipeline expansion, says the SWPPP Dominion sent to the state and Dryden is "incomplete, inadequate and factually incorrect for regulatory compliance purposes." Hang claims Dominion's New Market Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan failed to identify multiple wetlands, waterways and buffer zones within the approved and proposed revised limits of disturbance for the expansion of the Borger Compressor Station facility at 219 Ellis Hollow Creek Road.
Dominion stands behind their mapping of the station and said no wetlands would be disturbed. Dryden Town Supervisor Jason Leifer, who did his best to serve as moderator on Monday night, said he will send a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo asking for a closer look at SWPPP.
About 100 people attended a public information session on Monday hosted by officials at Dominion to discuss the natural gas pipeline upgrades in Dryden.
(Photo: Matt Weinstein / staff photo)
Cleanup Inadequate At NY Exxon Legacy Sites, Enviros Say
Law360, New York (April 21, 2017, 5:54 PM EDT) -- Environmental advocates on Thursday released an analysis of petroleum spills across New York allegedly from Exxon Mobil Corp. and its predecessors, arguing that more needs to be done to clean up the contaminants.
The analysis, which was conducted by environmental database firm Toxics Targeting Inc. and announced with the New York Public Interest Research Group, allegedly found that there was a significant failure to adequately clean up petroleum spills at a vast array of facilities ranging from pipelines to gas stations.
Walter Hang of Toxics Targeting said it was wrong that so many spills had not been cleaned up to meet state standards.
“Justice delayed for decades is justice denied,” he told Law360 on Friday.
The analysis highlighted oil leaks from an old 300-mile pipeline built by Exxon predecessor Standard Oil that ran from Olean, New York, into New Jersey. According to the analysis, oil releases were reported in Olean, Cameron Mills and Hancock, which are along the pipeline’s route. Some of those releases have not been cleaned up to state standards, the analysis said.
In addition, the information released by Toxics Targeting said that a large oil spill in Brooklyn along Newtown Creek is not fully cleaned up despite it being around for decades. That spill is commonly referred to as the oil spill in Greenpoint. The New York Department of Environmental Conservation has a website dedicated to the spill, which highlights years of work aimed at remediation.
The analysis focused solely on Exxon and its predecessors.
“They have been around a really long time. They were really the first giant oil and petroleum product company and as a result the problems that resulted from their business activities have been around probably longer than anyone else on the scale that we are seeing in New York,” Hang said.
According to the statement released by NYPIRG, it teamed up with Toxics Targeting prior to Earth Day to focus on the impact of fossil fuels on the environment.
Sean Mahar, a spokesman with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, said it is attentive to any spills that are reported.
“DEC rapidly responds to and cleans up thousands of contaminated sites every year in every corner of the state to ensure that the environment and public health are protected at all times while aggressively pursuing and holding those accountable for the contamination,” Mahar told Law360 in a statement. “Our dedicated field staff and first responders will continue their daily response to spills to keep New Yorkers safe.”
The analysis was conducted via regulatory information compiled by Toxics Targeting obtained through the state's Freedom of Information Law, according to the announcement.
A representative for Exxon said the company disagreed with the findings contained in the analysis.
“Where historical impacts exist as a result of its own or its predecessors’ operations, the company works under the oversight of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to address those impacts,” William F. Holbrook, a company spokesman, told Law360 in a statement on Friday. “Remediation of legacy sites is a broad issue for industry and ExxonMobil is an active participant. ExxonMobil takes its environmental responsibility seriously and is committed to meeting its compliance and remediation obligations.”