WRITE ON: Shrubbery over citizens

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Jan 172015
 

WRITE ON: Shrubbery over citizens

Posted: Friday, January 16, 2015 5:05 pm

The Town of Reading’s elected officials have failed a real-world civics test three times in less than a month.

They locked the public out of the Reading Town Hall — a town hall paid for, maintained and heated with taxpayers’ dollars — on Dec. 17, on Jan. 7, and then again Tuesday, each time leaving as many as 50 people outside in bitter winter cold.

On Jan. 7 and Tuesday, the wind chill dropped the effective temperature to well below zero.

While people shivered outside, a judge in a toasty-warm courtroom (with very limited seating) heard cases against people facing trespassing charges for blocking the gates at the Crestwood salt-cavern gas storage site on Route 14.

But the spacious (and also well-heated) town hall room was kept vacant, except for two Schuyler County Sheriff’s Deputies, charged with keeping the people outside from entering the building while also guarding the courtroom.

Until the weather turned really cold in December, the town hall meeting space outside the courtroom was open to these same citizens, many of whom were either waiting to go into the court themselves or there to support arrestees.

But according to one town official, board members got their knickers in a twist when someone accidentally stepped on some decorative plants outside.

Town Supervisor Marvin Switzer said the town board told him it won’t stand for people damaging “the shrubbery” and ordered the lockdown of the hall.

How the town’s shrubbery is protected by locking citizens out of a public building in the middle of winter is a tangle of such illogic it seems impossible to unravel. Impossible unless the town board’s deliberate, mean-spirited action has its real roots in board members’ pique at the Crestwood protesters.

Since the massive natural gas and liquid propane gas storage project was first proposed, the Town of Readinghas behaved as if persons unwilling to join them as boosters of salt-cavern gas-storage are annoyances, not concerned citizens with a differing opinion.

Early in the debate several years ago, the town planning board suspended all public comments about gas storage. Other topics were welcome for comment, for questions or to engage the planners in discussion. But any utterance mentioning gas storage would rile the chairman to angrily demand silence.

That Reading slap at the free speech clause of First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has been eclipsed with this freeze-the-public maneuver. It’s a not-very-subtle attempt to thwart the public’s constitutional right to assemble.

In addition to locking people out on Dec. 17, no parking signs were posted on the roads around the town hall, ostensibly for safety reasons. More likely they were to discourage people from attending court or a peaceful anti-gas storage rally because the signs haven’t appeared in Reading for other recent events.

In the wake of these disgraceful incidents, the members of the Reading Town Board need to brush up on their civic responsibilities as elected representatives whose duty is to serve the public, not just those people they choose to favor based on politics.

Differences of opinion about the safety and suitability of the Houston-based company’s natural gas and proposed LPG storage facility are part of the healthy give and take of democracy.

Had the Schuyler County Legislature done its civic duty four years ago and led discussions and debate about the project, the nearly 200 people arrested for trespassing might not be visiting the Reading Court at all.

But it didn’t and so now it’s time for the Town of Reading to reread (or read for the first time) the pertinent sections of the U.S. Constitution and then adjust its civic priorities.

Priority should be given to the health and welfare of citizens and for the lawful right of citizens to assemble, not to protect ornamental shrubbery.

Fitzgerald worked for six newspapers as a writer and editor as well as a correspondent for several news services. He lives in Valois and Watkins Glen with his wife. They are owner/operators of a publishing enterprise called *subject2change Media. His “Write On” column appears Fridays. He can be contacted atMichael.Fitzgeraldfltcolumnist@gmail.com.

Gas storage at Seneca Lake fuels outrage and support

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Jan 172015
 

Opponents cite safety, environmental concerns; supporters point to need for additional storage of natural, liquified petroleum gases

Ray Finger, rfinger@stargazette.com | @SGRayFinger 4:56 p.m. EST January 16, 2015

 

The continuing uproar in the Finger Lakes region over storage of natural and liquefied petroleum gases in salt caverns at Seneca Lake shows no sign of resolution anytime soon.

The furor is over construction plans by Crestwood Midstream Partners to expand natural gas storage and add LPG storage in existing caverns on the lake’s western shore. Gas would be withdrawn during the heating season, with the facility connected to an interstate pipeline and options to ship by truck and rail.

Supporters of the project say gas has been stored in the caverns safely for many years, and that the LPG facility will protect propane customers from price fluctuations while meeting the needs of homes and businesses because propane is not produced in the state.

Opponents of both storage plans see a threat to their safety, health, drinking water supply and the economic sustainability of the region’s hospitality industry because of the potential for heavier industrialization.

“People are very passionate about what’s going on,” said state Assemblyman Phil Palmesano, R-Corning, whose district includes Schuyler County and who has not taken a position on Crestwood’s LPG plans. “Without question, it’s one of the most emotional, passionate issues that I’ve seen.”

And there’s no end in sight to all of the wrangling.

So far, 180 protesters participating in the We Are Seneca Lake civil disobedience campaign have been arrested at the gates of the Crestwood facility in the Town of Reading, about 2 miles north of Watkins Glen.

Those arrested are among more than 300 people who have been trained in protest tactics that include nonviolence, said Sandra Steingraber, distinguished scholar in residence in the Department of Environmental Studies and Sciences at Ithaca College.

More than 1,000 people have signed a pledge to protect the lake, meaning there are 700 people who haven’t been trained yet, she said.

“We can keep this thing going for quite a long time, and we intend to do so,” said Steingraber, who was arrested at a protest on Oct. 29.

The most recent protest campaign began on Oct. 23 in the wake of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s conditional approval on Sept. 30 of Crestwood’s plans to expand methane storage.

“This civil disobedience campaign was born at the gates of the compressor station site the day after this project received approval,” Steingraber said. “Our intent is to prevent the construction and to attract national attention to reverse that what we think was a wrong decision.”

Crestwood has not begun construction on the propane storage project or the FERC-approved natural gas storage expansion, so protestors are really only interfering with the local salt business, said Bill Gautreaux, the company’s president of liquids and crude.

Cost of protests

While local officials have said they appreciate people’s right to protest, it doesn’t come without cost to Schuyler County.

Timothy O’Hearn, Schuyler County administrator, said he asked county Sheriff Bill Yessman Jr. to track the county’s expenses regarding the protests and arrests. Though he does not have a cumulative total, he is able to speak to individual protest events:

The county’s law enforcement cost ranges from $500 to $1,000 per event, depending on the size of the group and number of arrests made. That does not include the cost of state police, village police or other law enforcement agencies that have also been involved.

The county spends $400 on average for each court night to staff the court with deputies.

“We don’t have an abundance of staff, so bringing people in for court is overtime,” O’Hearn said.

When it comes to jail time, female inmates cost the county more because they have to boarded in other jails and that also involves transportation costs. On average, the cost for both male and female prisoners is $100 per day, per person.

“None of this is a budgeted expense, so it is something the sheriff and the taxpayers are having to absorb,” he said.

The protests are affecting more than Schuyler County, Yessman said, noting assistance was needed from Yates County during one protest.

“I think the only thing that would make this go away at this point is if Crestwood packed up and left, which isn’t going to happen,” Yessman said when asked if there was any way this situation could be resolved.

“These people are really passionate about their cause, and I don’t find fault with that. Everybody has a cause out there in one way or another,” he said. “But I don’t see the civil disobedience advancing their cause any.”

Varied motivation

The protesters don’t represent a single demographic, Steingraber said.

“Different people who are participating are motivated very differently,” she said. “Many people are animated by the assault on their source of drinking water and are interested in protecting the lake.”

Others are angry because they see the project as part of a climate emergency and want to shut the door to dirty energy, Steingraber said. “They see this as a step in the wrong direction.”

For some professional musicians, Seneca Lake and the Finger Lakes region is a beautiful place that inspires them, she said. “It feels like such a transgression to build out something ugly and primitive and brutal on our shores.”

She has also heard teachers talk about the threat to children posed by the gas storage facility, such as tanker trucks filled with hazardous materials on the road when teenagers are learning to drive. Others complained about air pollution from the flare stacks and methane leaks that would increase childhood asthma, she said.

Many grandparents are motivated by their obligation to protect the lake and the region for future generations, while younger protesters in their late teens feel strongly that all the risks of the project are going to accrue to them, Steingraber said.

Many who have been arrested have been winery or bed-and-breakfast owners who see the wineries as the source of the region’s economic sustainability, she said. Fewer people will be attracted to a cottage on the lake if the area is heavily industrialized, with flare stacks, the noise of compressor stations and security lights along the banks, she said.

Scott Signori, owner and executive chef of the Stonecat Café in Hector, said his livelihood is tied into the tourist industry, the wine trail and this region being a beautiful area to vacation. Storing liquid propane under pressure right on the lake is just an awful idea, he said.

“If Crestwood becomes what, in their own words, would be the Northeast hub for propane storage, to me, that’s a conflict of interest. You can’t have it be a beautiful tourist area and have thousands of trucks coming in and using it as a gas station,” said Signori, who was among protesters arrested Dec. 1.

“There are also safety concerns about the water supply. The restaurant gets its water from the lake, as do most of the wineries, and the storage facility is right on the lake,” he said. “Nobody has even guaranteed the safety of it. To me, it’s just absurd for them to do it without knowing that it’s safe. It’s on a fault line. It’s right on the lake.”

But Jim Franzese, owner of Longhouse Lodge Motel and Manor in Watkins Glen, doesn’t see a problem and considers it all a matter of common sense.

“We’ve been storing gas in salt mines for years and years and years, right up the street. To me, it’s a non-issue. I mean, the gas came out of the ground. We’re just putting it back in the ground. What’s the big deal?” he said. “It doesn’t make any sense. All these people and these predictions about all these catastrophes are so unfounded and untrue. It’s just crazy.”

FERC has said the self-sealing nature of the salt formation and the several hundred meters of rock above the caverns ensures no leakage, and that the walls of a salt cavern also have the structural strength of steel, according to NYPropaneAdvocacy.com, a collaboration between the New York Propane Gas Association and Crestwood.

Environmental review

Meanwhile, the state Department of Environmental Conservation continues its environmental review of the planned LPG facility on a portion of Crestwood’s 576-acre site. A draft permit for the project was issued on Nov. 10.

Public comment will be received on the proposed project at an issues conference scheduled by the DEC for 10 a.m. Feb. 12 and, if necessary, Feb. 13 at the Horseheads Holiday Inn Express, 2666 Corning Road. The objective of the conference is to determine if there are any significant and substantive issues that would require an adjudicatory hearing.

We Are Seneca Lake is focusing on the methane storage increase approved by the federal agency, Steingraber said. They oppose all gas storage but feel they still have redress of grievance through lawful channels for the LPG project, especially with the special issues conference, she said.

Another group, Gas Free Seneca, had been fighting both the methane and LPG storage issues but is now focused on LPG, co-founder Joseph Campbell said.

“We kind of exhausted our legal recourse with the natural gas storage expansion, so now we have to shift focus to the LPG,” he said. “It’s a much larger footprint, much more invasive and much more dangerous, really. We have a shot at stopping it.”

Accompanied by business owners and local elected representatives, Gas Free Seneca went to Albany last summer and met with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s staff, Campbell said. “We must have made an impression on somebody because they’re scheduling the issues conference now,” he said.

Dennis Fagan, R-Tyrone, chairman of the Schuyler County Legislature, has been criticized for the legislature’s vote in June to support Crestwood Midstream’s LPG storage facility plans. He also points to next month’s issues conference.

“I’m sure that the experts from both sides will be providing input to the state,” he said. “Let the decisions be made based on science, as opposed to subjective feelings.”

Of course, that will depend on whose science is believed.

Don Siegel, a Syracuse University professor and hydrogeologist/geochemist, said the Seneca Lake storage site has unique geologic attributes that protect the environment.

“I can think of no better geological environment in New York state to store liquid gas than salt caverns filled with brine,” he wrote in a March 12, 2013, letter to DEC Commissioner Joseph Martens. “Indeed, if ‘proof is in the pudding,’ brine-filled salt caves near Seneca Lake already have been used to store liquid gas for decades and have had no problems.”

The engineering design of the brine pits is more than sound, and existing LPG facilities in salt in the Southern Tier that have less engineered controls than the one proposed at Seneca Lake do not leak after years of use, Siegel wrote.

“There are many environmental problems people should be concerned about, but I see no plausible scientific or engineering reason why this proposed LPG storage facility should be one of them,” he said.

But Dr. Rob Mackenzie, of Hector, retired president and CEO of Cayuga Medical Center, sees it differently. Speaking as a private citizen, he cited his training and experience in health safety work in discussing his findings to quantify the safety risk of gas storage.

He found the risk over 25 years is about 35 percent for an extremely serious or catastrophic salt cavern facility disaster, such as fire with explosion, deaths with multiple injuries, temporary or permanent evacuation and major property loss. The riskiest caverns are older ones with geology like those in Schuyler County, he said.

Regarding the hazards of transporting liquefied petroleum gas, MacKenzie said he found the overall risk over 25 years to be 42 percent, he said.

“The only way to significantly reduce these risks is to not store volatile fuels in Schuyler County’s salt caverns,” he said earlier.

Since the 1980s, the number of salt cavern storage sites developed in the United States has grown steadily, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. Most salt cavern storage facilities were developed in salt dome formations located in Gulf Coast states.

In 2012, there were 26 natural underground gas storage facilities and three LPG storage facilities in New York state, concentrated in the central and western regions near both gas production fields and gas transmission facilities, the DEC said.

“The Northeast propane market lacks adequate infrastructure to serve consumers during peak winter demand, and it’s unnecessarily costing New Yorkers tens of millions of dollars,” Crestwood’s Gautreaux said in an email. “New York households paid more than $100 million of higher costs last winter that could have been avoided if our Finger Lakes storage facility had been in operation. It offers a safe, cost-effective solution to a problem that has plagued New Yorkers far too often.”

Higher costs resulting from propane shortages and the higher cost of rail and truck transport could be averted with the Seneca Lake facility, and savings from lower costs would be passed on to consumers, according to NYPropaneAdvocacy.com.

FERC has repeatedly approved natural gas storage projects using salt caverns in the same formation as US Salt’s caverns at Seneca Lake, NYPropaneAdvocacy.com says.

Also, propane and natural gas have been stored safely in US Salt’s caverns for about 20 years, and propane has been stored underground without incident in Steuben and Cortland counties since the 1950s, the site says.

Constituents split

State Sen. Tom O’Mara, R-Big Flats, said he has heard both sides of the LPG issue from constituents.

“I support the project if it can be done safely, based on DEC’s review,” he said. “This process has been going on for four years now. I’m not supplanting my decision-making for DEC’s. It’s up to them to determine the environmental and safety aspects of this.”

Having LPG storage in the region will save money for propane users, O’Mara said.

“If you have a closer delivery point to serve the region, you’re going to save on transportation cost. Just having that reserve helps the fluctuations in price. I believe very strongly in diversifying our energy portfolio and having things built in to avoid spiked prices. We certainly saw the spike in prices for LPG least year,” he said.

“The arguments are ‘it isn’t going to create any jobs,’ but it is going to create a great deal of tax base, which all of our local governments will find great assistance from in that area in helping with the property tax base,” O’Mara said, noting the New York Farm Bureau recently came out in favor of the LPG project.

In a Jan. 6 letter, Dean Norton, farm bureau president, notified Martens of the organization’s support following a majority vote at its annual state meeting last month. The proposed facility aligns with the group’s interests, he said.

“It will help lower propane costs for our members, help avoid temporary shortages from arising during the winter months and strengthen our communities by creating jobs and growing the tax base for a county that is in significant need of additional funds for schools, roads and community services,” he wrote.

Palmesano said has met with people at town meetings and at his office who have expressed opposition to the project. He has contacted the DEC and relayed the concerns to make sure they are addressed in the evaluation and risk analysis, he said.

“It’s certainly a very hot-button issue. It’s a very emotional issue, and I think part of the frustration probably on both sides is that it has taken so long to get to a decision on this,” he said. “They’re going to have to address this issue sooner or later.”

Palmesano said he understands the arguments and that questions are being raised.

“Certainly, we know what we went through with the propane shortage from last year,” he said.

“I know there are concerns being raised about truck traffic, although I think a lot of those trucks would be done more in the off-season, in the winter season, when the need for propane is greater, where they do more of their regional deliveries using trains and the pipeline,” he said.

Officials see the standoff over Crestwood’s plans continuing for the foreseeable future.

“Until an actual decision is made, I don’t see anything changing,” O’Hearn said. “It’s something we’re going to have to deal with — that we are dealing with, obviously.”

Follow Ray Finger on Twitter @SGRayFinger.

LPG issues conference

Supporters and opponents will soon have their say on a proposed liquefied petroleum gas facility at Crestwood Midstream Partners in the Schuyler County Town of Reading.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation, which issued a draft permit for the project, has scheduled an issues conference for 10 a.m. Feb. 12 and, if necessary, Feb. 13 at the Horseheads Holiday Inn Express, 2666 Corning Road. The objective of the issues conference is to determine if there are any significant and substantive issues that would require an adjudicatory hearing.

The deadline for individuals or groups to file to participate in the issues conference has already passed.

Supporters, opponents speak out

Supporters and opponents of a proposed liquefied petroleum gas facility at Crestwood Midstream Partners

in the Town of Reading have posted information online about their respective positions.

A civil disobedience campaign, We Are Seneca Lake, continues in opposition to the Federal Energy

Regulatory Commission’s conditional approval on Sept. 30 of Crestwood’s plans to expand methane storage in salt caverns at Seneca Lake.

Climate Activist Takes a Hike

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Jan 122015
 
By Eric Banford
greenrider
Charles “Greenrider” Chandler, a climate activist, retired engineer and    grandfather from Fort Bragg, Calif., is currently on a 22-day, 220-mile hike around Cayuga and Seneca lakes. He has created a GoFundMe website (www.gofundme.com/silentwinter-hike) to raise money for We Are Seneca Lake (WASL), a group dedicated to preventing the storage of highly pressurized natural gas and liquefied petroleum gases in abandoned salt caverns adjacent to Seneca Lake. Chandler will remain silent during his pilgrimage in solidarity with Itzcuauhtli (“eat-squat-lee”), an 11-year-old boy who went on a silence strike from Oct. 27 to Dec. 10 while demanding that world leaders take action against climate change. Chandler and a group of Great March for Climate Action marchers have been sharing and passing on Itzcuauhtli’s silence continuously since Dec.10, and plan to keep it going until world leaders take action against climate change. “I believe it is my responsibility to defend the rights of future generations to have a viable ecosystem,” says Chandler via email. “I am an Earth protector. I’ll be actively fighting to stop a new wave of extreme fossil fuel projects like fracked gas infrastructure and tar sands crude pipelines, when we should be investing in renewable energy sources. If these projects proceed it will be very bad news for my grandchildren’s generation.”
Chandler was arrested on Dec. 17 when he joined with 27 other Seneca Lake Defenders in a blockade at the entrance to the Crestwood Midstream gas storage facility near Watkins Glen. His hike will conclude on Jan. 21 with the final five mile section from Watkins Glen to the Town of Reading Courthouse for his arraignment. In early 2014 Chandler decided to dedicate himself fully to the climate movement. In April he set off on a solo bicycle journey around America
to fundraise for 350.org and ClimateRide.org. He rode up the Pacific Coast to Port Angeles, Wash., and then across the northern states to Bar Harbor, Maine. He then rode down the Atlantic Coast and timed his arrival at New York City to coincide with the People’s Climate March. Meeting other climate activists has really motivated Chandler to make a
difference. “At the People’s Climate March, 400,000 people made a statement that we require climate action now. During my six weeks of marching on the Great March for Climate Action, I met many people who believe that urgent and massive action is required to minimize further damage to our ecosystem. At the Beyond Extreme Energy Week of Action, about 150 people showed who were willing to get arrested to show how disgusted we are with the actions of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,” he says.
Chandler first learned about the Seneca Lake protests at the Great March for Climate Action. “Faith Meckley, from Geneva, was also a marcher. She told us what was going on with Crestwood in her home region. Five other marchers had come up; they were arrested and three served jail sentences. I am against all fracking and fracked gas infrastruc-
ture projects. I wanted to help WASL and experience incarceration like the other marchers before me,” he says. Chandler has invited anyone interested to join him on his hike, but so far he has had no takers. “Some people are enjoying following my adventure on Facebook. Would you want to go hiking with a guy who can’t speak?” he says.
He’s posting images to Facebook as he travels, documenting intimate details of our region, things you would barely notice if you were driving by them in a car. Toward the end of each day’s hike, he stops at homes asking if he can camp on their property. “I have a card which tells people what I am doing and asks them if they would let me pitch my tent on their yard for one night,” he writes. “So far two of nine people asked let me camp on their property,” he said last week. “Two night  I had to find some other place to camp. On one night, I was offered camping before I asked.”
To communicate, Chandler has laminated cards with sayings on them, such as “I’m sorry to hear that,” “That’s awesome!””That was delicious!” and “I’ll never forget your kindness.” The weather thus far has fluctuated from cold to mild to really cold, with ice, rain and snow. But Chandler has experience camping in all conditions, and is prepared for whatever nature throws his way.“It was cold and it was snowing when I started Dec. 31. On the really cold mornings I like to get up after sunrise. I’ve done a lot of backpacking before, so I’m used to putting up with all kinds of weather,” he says. This walk is giving Chandler a real appreciation for the beauty of the Finger Lakes region. “I love nature. It seems there are many waterfowl such as Canada Geese. On several nights I’ve heard Canada geese honking as they flew by. I’ve seen some raptors and a few ravens. This morning I saw two beautiful foxes running through the woods. They were so beautiful, it looked like they were in love,” he says.  Chandler still welcomes anyone who wants to join him for any portion of his walk. Follow him at Twitter@greenridercc, or search Facebook for Charles Chandler (greenrider). Donations can be made at www.gofundme.com/silentwinterhike.

Neighbors Don’t Let Neighbors Frack

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Dec 192014
 

Neighbors Don’t Let Neighbors Frack

Sunday, 14 December 2014 11:48By Melissa Tuckey, OtherWords | Op-Ed

Extracting natural gas through hydraulic fracturing threatens all that’s good about my upstate New York community.

All my life, I’ve been a good citizen. I vote. I volunteer. I know my neighbors.

Moreover, I take care of my property. I garden. I make jams and jellies to give away for Christmas. In short, I fulfill my obligations as a rural homeowner.

Still, there’s one additional step I’ve taken to be a good neighbor: I’ve signed a pledge to resist fracking in New York State.

I moved with my family to the small city of Ithaca in upstate New York five years ago. We were drawn to the natural beauty here and the innovative local economy, which has one of the fastest growing organic and family farming sectors in the country.

Here in Ithaca, crop mobs — large groups of volunteers — show up at local farms to plant and harvest alongside our hardest working neighbors: the farmers. A network is growing, too, to provide low-income residents with access to locally grown, healthy, organic produce.

We’re on the cutting edge of a new economy: one that uses renewable energy, leaves a small carbon footprint, and invests in local businesses. This emerging economy is more livable and prosperous than older models, which are failing everywhere.

Fracking threatens all of this.

Fracking, or “hydraulic fracturing,” is a controversial method used in drilling for oil and gas. It turns rural communities into industrial zones, complete with all the problems that come with heavy industry: blazing flares, loud noise, light pollution, heavy truck traffic, and air and water contamination.

Although you might not choose to buy property next to an industrial waste site, if your neighbor wants to frack, you’re out of luck.

Residents living near fracking sites complain of a wide range health problems related to pollution of their property — from nosebleeds to asthma, cancer, and kidney disease.

To make matters worse, gas companies and lawmakers have teamed up in states like Pennsylvania to pass gag rules that block doctors and nurses from discussing the health effects of fracking-related chemical exposures with their patients.

A recent study published in the peer-reviewed Environmental Health journal shows that not only does fracking pollute water sources — more than 687 million gallons of fracking waste laden with radioactive materials and heavy metals were injected in deep wells in Ohio alone last year — it also threatens our air quality.

The study of six communities in Arkansas, Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Wyoming found high levels of air pollution at multiple fracking and oil production and storage sites. More than one third of study air samples contained concentrations of dangerous chemicals exceeding federal standards for health and safety.

Among the chemicals that most often exceeded limits, the study found formaldehyde, a known human carcinogen, and hydrogen sulfide, a potent nerve and organ toxin that smells like rotten eggs. In Wyoming, the air sample contained hydrogen sulfide in concentrations ranging from twice to 660 times the level classified by the EPA as immediately dangerous to human life.

These facilities are located near schools, farms, and homes. Our regulatory system is failing these families while increasing profits for the fossil-fuel and chemical industries.

This is why a dear neighbor of mine recently spent the night in jail, and why 83 people in recent weeks — including the baker who makes our bread each week, and the owner of my favorite restaurant — have peacefully blocked the entrance at a proposed gas storage site beneath Seneca Lake.

And it’s why I’ve joined thousands of New Yorkers in signing a pledge to resist fracking. Because if we poison this land, we’ll never get it back.

This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.

MELISSA TUCKEY

Melissa Tuckey is an award winning poet and author of the book Tenuous Chapel. She’s a co-founder of the national poetry organization Split This Rock. You can read more of her writings at www.melissatuckey.net. New Yorkers can sign the anti-fracking pledge atwww.dontfrackny.org/pledge.

 Posted by at 6:06 pm

In NY Tourist Haven, Arrests Continue at Methane Storage Project

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Dec 052014
 

In NY Tourist Haven, Arrests Continue at Methane Storage Project

Seneca Lake area residents are alarmed over storing methane and LP gas in underground caverns, and are risking arrest in protests.

Dec 5, 2014

Protest at the gates of Crestwood’s Arlington methane storage facility in the Seneca Lake of New York in October 2014. Credit: Wendy Lynne Lee

Nine people were arrested Thursday near Seneca Lake, N.Y., for blockading the entrances of an energy facility owned byCrestwood Midstream Partners LP, which received federal approval this fall to expand its methane storage operations there.

Since protests began on Oct. 23, the earliest possible day the company could have kicked off construction, 92 people have been arrested. Many are from the local activist group We Are Seneca Lake.

Crestwood, a Texas-based company, received approval in late September from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to expand its Arlington Storage facility, which uses underground salt caverns to hold purified methane, a byproduct of fracking. Construction has not yet begun.

The company also has a pending application to store liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which is mostly propane, on the same approximately 600-acre property, in existing underground salt caverns. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation will conduct a hearing to determine the fate of this second project in February 2015.

 

 

 

 

Crestwood's Arlington methane storage facility/Credit: Wendy Lynne Lee

Crestwood’s Arlington methane storage facility/Credit: Wendy Lynne Lee

According to a statement emailed to InsideClimate News by a Crestwood spokesman, “The Northeast LPG market lacks adequate pipeline infrastructure to serve propane consumers during peak winter demand. Our LPG storage project offers a safe, cost-effective market solution to this constraint that’s less environmentally invasive than building new pipeline. We are committed to this shovel-ready storage project, just as we are committed to the safety of our employees and contractors and their ability to access” the Seneca Lake region.

Protesters are concerned about the potential for explosions at both the approved and the pending storage projects. Both methane and LPG can be highly explosive. There’s also fear of potential leaks from the salt caverns into nearby Seneca Lake, one of the region’s glacial Finger Lakes, and the surrounding area, a local vineyard and tourism hot spot.

“If something happens, we can’t just pull our vineyards and move,” said Paula Fitzsimmons, a physician’s assistant turned local activist with We Are Seneca Lake; she was arrested earlier this week. Fitzimmons and her husband, who was also recently arrested, own a vineyard in the region.

Faith Meckley, another protester, told InsideClimate News, “We absolutely believe—and we know—[this facility] puts our lake at danger.”

Meckley added that many opponents are also against this facility’s expansion to store more purified methane because of the possible effect on climate change. Fracking is the controversial process of pumping chemicals, sand and water underground to crack open bedrock to extract fossil fuel reserves. Both drilling for and subsequently transporting methane, a potent greenhouse gas, result in emissions that could worsen to climate change.

Protest at the Arlington facility/Credit: Wendy Lynne Lee

Protest at the Arlington facility/Credit: Wendy Lynne Lee

In addition to the nine people arrested Thursday, 10 more were arrested earlier in the week. On Wednesday, Dec. 3, an arraignment was held for 20 protesters arrested in previous weeks. Fourteen paid a fine. The remaining six people refused and were jailed. The jail time for four of them will extend for 15 days.

 Posted by at 5:46 pm

Marcellus Watch: LPG storage plan needs to stand trial

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Dec 052014
 

Marcellus Watch: LPG storage plan needs to stand trial

 Mantius

  • By Peter Mantius
    Posted Nov. 17, 2014 @ 12:11 pmCorning, N.Y.After five years of secrecy and deception, it’s time to throw the bright light of day on a proposal to store liquid petroleum gas, or LPG, in abandoned unlined salt caverns next to Seneca Lake.Long overdue sunlight must finally be allowed to shine on the caverns’ history. To do that, the state Department of Environmental Conservation — with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s guidance — will need to order Crestwood Midstream’s proposal to stand trial.Earlier this month, the DEC issued draft conditions for the LPG storage permit in advance of an “issues conference” scheduled for Feb. 12.

    At that hearing, a DEC administrative law judge will determine whether unresolved questions need to be aired in a trial setting with sworn testimony, independent expert witnesses and witness cross-exams.

    Expect Crestwood to try to convince Cuomo to let it off the hook.

    Crestwood knows it must avoid sworn testimony. Throughout its long campaign for permits, it has repeatedly hidden damning evidence from both the public and the regulators.

    Even so, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved in October an expansion of Crestwood’s natural gas storage operations next to Seneca, and that work is now proceeding. But the DEC has jurisdiction over the LPG project, the larger and more dangerous of the two.

    Crestwood’s plan is to turn a profit by stuffing natural gas and LPG from Marcellus Shale fracking operations in Pennsylvania into the cheapest, riskiest type of underground storage facility in the industry — salt caverns.

    The Seneca caverns are deeply flawed, bounded by layers of salt and brittle shale rock. They are subject to collapse and leakage, and the residents who live next to them face the statistically significant prospect of a catastrophic accident or a forced evacuation.

    The company has repeatedly attempted to conceal that danger from the people it would put at risk. The DEC has enabled that irresponsible behavior out of fear that transparency invites controversy.

    In late 2011, the agency held two public hearings on the LPG project in a Watkins Glen school auditorium.

    But they were largely for show because the DEC was withholding key information from the hundreds who showed up. The DEC still keeps key parts of the company’s “reservoir suitability report” under lock and key. And while the state geologist must by law sign off on the integrity of caverns used for hydrocarbon storage, his reports — if they exist — aren’t public record.

    Formal requests under the Freedom of Information Law were needed to pry lose bits of truth. They revealed letters that showed that the company’s own engineer had concluded in 2001 that the cavern now slated to hold liquid butane was “unusable for storage” after its roof had collapsed, leaving a giant rubble pile. He urged his boss to order the cavern plugged and abandoned. His boss agreed. So did the DEC. The cavern was plugged and abandoned.

    Years later, the company redrilled the rejected cavern in response to the Marcellus Shale boom.

    When the well’s history leaked to the public, Crestwood rushed to patch the problem by prompting the company engineer to deny the roof collapse. He did, and the company now insists the collapse never happened, despite company documents showing a 200-foot rubble pile on the cavern’s floor.

    Other discrepancies raise doubts about the safety of the cavern set to hold liquid propane. The company even denied to FERC that it knew about a gigantic roof collapse in the cavern just approved for gas storage.

    Crestwood must not be allowed to wiggle out of providing sworn testimony. If Cuomo lets it skip out, his permit process is a sham.

    • Peter Mantius is a freelance journalist from Schuyler County who follows shale gas drilling issues. He is a former reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and former editor of two business weeklies in the Northeast.


Upstate New Yorkers fear gas caves could blow wine, tourism industries

Activists fight expansion of energy storage facility they say poses safety, environmental and economic threat

In Watkins Glenn — an idyllic part of upstate New York best known for its Finger Lakes, fall foliage and wine — activists worry it could soon be known for something less appealing: industrial disaster.

Protesters in the area are engaging in civil disobedience to stop the expansion of a gas storagefacility that stores fracked gas from Pennsylvania in old mined-out salt caves, claiming it presents a safety risk to local residents, an environmental danger to the Finger Lakes region and an economic threat to the area’s wine and tourism industries.

“We do not want the crown jewel of the Finger Lakes and the font of the wine industry turned into a massive gas station for the fracking industry,” said Sandra Steingraber, a prominent anti-hydraulic-fracturing activist and environmental studies professor at Ithaca College who was one of about a dozen protesters who have been arrested several times during continued protests, most recently on Nov. 3, for blocking the entrance to the storage facility.

The controversy over the facility, owned by Houston-based energy company Crestwood Midstream Partners, was brewing for years but came to a head this summer after the legislature of Schuyler County, where the facility is, voted in favor of the proposed expansion, triggering protests that brought out hundreds.

The facility is made up of dozens of old salt deposits that were mined out over the last century, creating naturally sealed caverns that can be used to store liquids or pressurized gas. The caverns are conveniently located a few hundred miles from the booming natural gas fields of the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and close to two gas pipeline routes. But they’re also right next to Seneca Lake, the largest of New York’s Finger Lakes, and one of its most environmentally compromised, thanks to years of leaching pesticides and fertilizers from surrounding farms.

Activists say pressurizing the old salt caverns could cause salt and gas to seep into the lake and pollute the ground, affecting the region’s wine industry. And they point out several catastrophic underground gas and oil storage accidents, including some that have been deadly.

In one incident near Houston in 1992, a salt cavern was overfilled, causing flammable liquid to leak and explode, causing one death and dozens of injuries. Two people were killed in a salt dome explosion in Texas in 1985.

Still, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the presidentially appointed panel that oversees most natural gas infrastructure in the United States, gave the Crestwood Midstream expansion plans the go-ahead last month. To the company’s supporters, that showed the plans were safe. To the company’s detractors, it confirmed that the FERC nearly always sides with industry despite local concerns.

“FERC works with the gas company,” said Joseph Campbell, a co-founder of protest group Gas Free Seneca. “They just rubber-stamp these things. We’re calling on our federal representatives to step in and hold FERC accountable.”

But so far, protesters say calls to representatives have proved fruitless. Sen. Charles Schumer has not responded to protesters’ concerns and did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

‘We do not want the crown jewel of the Finger Lakes and the font of the wine industry turned into a massive gas station for the fracking industry.’

Sandra Steingraber

environmental studies professor, Ithaca College

The FERC has developed a reputation for siding with industry. The agency has received 803 applications for natural gas infrastructure since 2006. It has approved 451 of them, and 98 are pending review. According to the FERC, 258 have been denied or withdrawn, but the agency could not provide a breakdown of how many were denied, as opposed to voluntarily withdrawn by companies. Some have speculated that the FERC has denied nearly none of them. FERC spokeswoman Tamara Young-Allen said the commission has rejected only two applications since 2011.

“Unless we have some intervention from people in power to intercede on behalf of their constituents, we’re going to be taking all this risk while Crestwood takes the profits back to Texas,” Campbell said.

Crestwood wouldn’t comment for this story, except in an email from a spokesman who would not allow his name to be used. That email addressed why Crestwood called the police on protesters last week but not the protesters’ concerns about the facility.

“We have respected the protesters’ rights to oppose our growth projects, but our employees and contractors depend on having access to our existing operations at the U.S. Salt complex,” the statement read.

Crestwood’s official plans are to expand its current natural gas storage capacity by a third, from 1.5 billion cubic feet to 2 billion cubic feet. It also wants to add 2.1 million barrels of liquid gas storage capacity for propane and butane at the facility, a project that received a preliminary permit from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation last week, though that permit is still subject to public input and could be changed.

The department said in a statement that Crestwood’s permit application is pending as the state gathers public comments, but the protesters contend that the state has also proved its allegiance to industry. An investigation by news outlet Capital New York last month found that a fracking study performed at the request of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration was edited to downplay risks associated with natural gas storage before it was made public.

Activists say Crestwood has much larger expansion plans than what it is permitted for, pointing that in several interviews and statements, company officials have spoken of expanding the facility to 10 billion cubic feet of storage — five times what their current permit allows. Crestwood would not comment on this disparity.

Underground oil and gas storage accidents are rare but can be catastrophic. Data on salt cavern storage is sparse, but one report commissioned by the British government in 2008 found that salt cavern facilities worldwide have collapsed or been breached 27 times since they began being used to store oil and gas in the 1940s. According to nonprofit investigative news outlet DC Bureau, salt caverns represent 7 percent of the U.S.’s approximately 400 underground gas storage sites. All eight deadly cavern disasters have occurred in the U.S., according to the British report. In those disasters, the contents of the caverns caught fire, causing explosions.

Nonlethal accidents have nonetheless created major headaches and environmental disasters. Perhaps the most infamous is the Bayou Corne sinkhole in rural Louisiana. There, a salt cavern collapsed in 2012, creating a 750-foot-deep hole that spans 30 acres and is filled with a toxic brew of oil, chemicals and water. It is still growing. Louisiana has urged the 350 residents of the area to move, and many are involved in a class-action suit against Texas Brine, the company that owned the caverns.

Bayou Corne represents the worst-case scenario for residents near Seneca Lake, but residents worry that less dramatic but nonetheless troubling hardships could stem from the expansion of the facility.

Seneca Lake is already several times saltier than other Finger Lakes, and research from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in 1995 points to salt-related industries as the probable cause.

“If you salt up a river or put methane in a river, you can clear that in a matter of days or weeks, but you can’t do that with a lake,” Steingraber said. “Pushing more salt and brine into the lake would be catastrophic.”

That’s particularly worrisome for the area’s vineyards, which rely on the groundwater around Seneca Lake for their grapes and the pristine nature of the region for tourism.

“The local wine industry is an agritourism-based industry,” said Justin Boyette, owner of Hector Wine Co., across the lake from the Crestwood facility. “I don’t want people to look up ‘Finger Lakes’ online and the first thing they come up with to be about a disaster.”


 

 Posted by at 5:29 pm

Upstate New Yorkers fear gas caves could blow wine, tourism industries

 Media  Comments Off on Upstate New Yorkers fear gas caves could blow wine, tourism industries
Dec 052014
 

Upstate New Yorkers fear gas caves could blow wine, tourism industries

Activists fight expansion of energy storage facility they say poses safety, environmental and economic threat

In Watkins Glenn — an idyllic part of upstate New York best known for its Finger Lakes, fall foliage and wine — activists worry it could soon be known for something less appealing: industrial disaster.

Protesters in the area are engaging in civil disobedience to stop the expansion of a gas storagefacility that stores fracked gas from Pennsylvania in old mined-out salt caves, claiming it presents a safety risk to local residents, an environmental danger to the Finger Lakes region and an economic threat to the area’s wine and tourism industries.

“We do not want the crown jewel of the Finger Lakes and the font of the wine industry turned into a massive gas station for the fracking industry,” said Sandra Steingraber, a prominent anti-hydraulic-fracturing activist and environmental studies professor at Ithaca College who was one of about a dozen protesters who have been arrested several times during continued protests, most recently on Nov. 3, for blocking the entrance to the storage facility.

The controversy over the facility, owned by Houston-based energy company Crestwood Midstream Partners, was brewing for years but came to a head this summer after the legislature of Schuyler County, where the facility is, voted in favor of the proposed expansion, triggering protests that brought out hundreds.

The facility is made up of dozens of old salt deposits that were mined out over the last century, creating naturally sealed caverns that can be used to store liquids or pressurized gas. The caverns are conveniently located a few hundred miles from the booming natural gas fields of the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and close to two gas pipeline routes. But they’re also right next to Seneca Lake, the largest of New York’s Finger Lakes, and one of its most environmentally compromised, thanks to years of leaching pesticides and fertilizers from surrounding farms.

Activists say pressurizing the old salt caverns could cause salt and gas to seep into the lake and pollute the ground, affecting the region’s wine industry. And they point out several catastrophic underground gas and oil storage accidents, including some that have been deadly.

In one incident near Houston in 1992, a salt cavern was overfilled, causing flammable liquid to leak and explode, causing one death and dozens of injuries. Two people were killed in a salt dome explosion in Texas in 1985.

Still, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the presidentially appointed panel that oversees most natural gas infrastructure in the United States, gave the Crestwood Midstream expansion plans the go-ahead last month. To the company’s supporters, that showed the plans were safe. To the company’s detractors, it confirmed that the FERC nearly always sides with industry despite local concerns.

“FERC works with the gas company,” said Joseph Campbell, a co-founder of protest group Gas Free Seneca. “They just rubber-stamp these things. We’re calling on our federal representatives to step in and hold FERC accountable.”

But so far, protesters say calls to representatives have proved fruitless. Sen. Charles Schumer has not responded to protesters’ concerns and did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

‘We do not want the crown jewel of the Finger Lakes and the font of the wine industry turned into a massive gas station for the fracking industry.’

Sandra Steingraber

environmental studies professor, Ithaca College

The FERC has developed a reputation for siding with industry. The agency has received 803 applications for natural gas infrastructure since 2006. It has approved 451 of them, and 98 are pending review. According to the FERC, 258 have been denied or withdrawn, but the agency could not provide a breakdown of how many were denied, as opposed to voluntarily withdrawn by companies. Some have speculated that the FERC has denied nearly none of them. FERC spokeswoman Tamara Young-Allen said the commission has rejected only two applications since 2011.

“Unless we have some intervention from people in power to intercede on behalf of their constituents, we’re going to be taking all this risk while Crestwood takes the profits back to Texas,” Campbell said.

Crestwood wouldn’t comment for this story, except in an email from a spokesman who would not allow his name to be used. That email addressed why Crestwood called the police on protesters last week but not the protesters’ concerns about the facility.

“We have respected the protesters’ rights to oppose our growth projects, but our employees and contractors depend on having access to our existing operations at the U.S. Salt complex,” the statement read.

Crestwood’s official plans are to expand its current natural gas storage capacity by a third, from 1.5 billion cubic feet to 2 billion cubic feet. It also wants to add 2.1 million barrels of liquid gas storage capacity for propane and butane at the facility, a project that received a preliminary permit from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation last week, though that permit is still subject to public input and could be changed.

The department said in a statement that Crestwood’s permit application is pending as the state gathers public comments, but the protesters contend that the state has also proved its allegiance to industry. An investigation by news outlet Capital New York last month found that a fracking study performed at the request of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration was edited to downplay risks associated with natural gas storage before it was made public.

Activists say Crestwood has much larger expansion plans than what it is permitted for, pointing that in several interviews and statements, company officials have spoken of expanding the facility to 10 billion cubic feet of storage — five times what their current permit allows. Crestwood would not comment on this disparity.

Underground oil and gas storage accidents are rare but can be catastrophic. Data on salt cavern storage is sparse, but one report commissioned by the British government in 2008 found that salt cavern facilities worldwide have collapsed or been breached 27 times since they began being used to store oil and gas in the 1940s. According to nonprofit investigative news outlet DC Bureau, salt caverns represent 7 percent of the U.S.’s approximately 400 underground gas storage sites. All eight deadly cavern disasters have occurred in the U.S., according to the British report. In those disasters, the contents of the caverns caught fire, causing explosions.

Nonlethal accidents have nonetheless created major headaches and environmental disasters. Perhaps the most infamous is the Bayou Corne sinkhole in rural Louisiana. There, a salt cavern collapsed in 2012, creating a 750-foot-deep hole that spans 30 acres and is filled with a toxic brew of oil, chemicals and water. It is still growing. Louisiana has urged the 350 residents of the area to move, and many are involved in a class-action suit against Texas Brine, the company that owned the caverns.

Bayou Corne represents the worst-case scenario for residents near Seneca Lake, but residents worry that less dramatic but nonetheless troubling hardships could stem from the expansion of the facility.

Seneca Lake is already several times saltier than other Finger Lakes, and research from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in 1995 points to salt-related industries as the probable cause.

“If you salt up a river or put methane in a river, you can clear that in a matter of days or weeks, but you can’t do that with a lake,” Steingraber said. “Pushing more salt and brine into the lake would be catastrophic.”

That’s particularly worrisome for the area’s vineyards, which rely on the groundwater around Seneca Lake for their grapes and the pristine nature of the region for tourism.

“The local wine industry is an agritourism-based industry,” said Justin Boyette, owner of Hector Wine Co., across the lake from the Crestwood facility. “I don’t want people to look up ‘Finger Lakes’ online and the first thing they come up with to be about a disaster.”


 

 Posted by at 5:27 pm

Disaster video in the making? Yes or no, take your pick

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Dec 052014
 

Disaster video in the making? Yes or no, take your pick

Barges and groves of trees being sucked down watery sinkholes. Downtown buildings erupting in geysers of flame that can’t be quenched.

Forget the rhetoric. Just roll the videotape, and you’ll see what some people would have you believe is in store for the southwestern shore of Seneca Lake.

Others say such things could never, ever happen there.

This is the essence of the controversy that’s focused on one company’s proposals to store large quantities of propane, butane and methane in underground facilities along the southwest shore of the largest Finger Lake.

After delays that in one case stretches back five years, the proposals by Houston-based Crestwood Midstream are suddenly advancing through the government approval process.

Federal regulators last month okayed the proposal to expand Crestwood Midstream’s methane (natural gas) storage capacity from 1.45 to 2 billion cubic feet. State regulators on Monday issued a draft permit for the propane and butane storage project. Company officials were quoted expressing relief that their projects had begun to move forward.

This was not welcome news to the residents, business owners and environmental activists who have been protesting the proposals since they came to light. In what was not the first such incident, 10 protesters got themselves arrested blocking trucks at the site two weeks ago.

“People are lining up to get arrested to demonstrate their commitment to preserving the region’s beauty, peace and integrity,” said the Rev. Nancy Kasper of North Rose, Wayne County, one of those busted on Oct. 29. “It really affects every person who lives, works, visits or simply loves the region. It’s going to ruin the nature of the area by industrializing a world-renowned wine industry, agricultural and tourist destination.”

One person pleaded guilty and was jail, and has been the subject of a candlelight vigil. The others are due back in court next week.

The fierce reaction to the proposals stems in part from their location — in the heart of wine and tourist country on the shore of one of the state’s biggest and most beautiful lakes. It also stems from the bedrock opposition that exists among quite a few New Yorkers to anything that has to do with the form of gas and oil extraction known as hydraulic fracturing.

Crestwood Midstream must be wondering where it went wrong. The company has billed the twin projects on its 586-acre site as economically beneficial, safe and no different from the other natural gas and LPG storage facilities that dot upstate New York.

New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation noted three liquid petroleum gas facilities in use as of 2012. They all were located in the south-central part of the state. All three store LPG in salt caverns — giant roomed carved from natural salt deposits by miners.

And at last count New York was home to 24 underground natural gas storage facilities with a combined working capacity of 122 billion cubic feet. That placed New York third among states in number of facilities and ninth in working capacity.(See the data sethere.) All of these storage facilities are in what are called depleted gas fields, meaning the gas is forced into rock formations from which gas was previously removed.

As the map indicates, facilities are scattered throughout the western portion of upstate New York. Several lie near two other Finger Lakes, Honeoye and Keuka.

The expansion approved last month near Seneca Lake increases upstate’s storage capacity only by about one-half of one percent.

But the opponents argue that all underground storage isn’t created equal.

Crestwood’s facilities at Seneca Lake would be located in salt caverns and opponents point out that while salt deposits can be very stable formations, they also can be subject to failure. That’s where the disaster videos come in.

The video that’s linked above depicts an episode in Louisiana in August 2012, when the collapse of a salt cavern in a brine-production mine created a sinkhole that began draining Bayou Corne. Nearby residents were evacuated and remain displaced more than two years later.

Another even more spectacular disaster occurred in the same state in 1980, when an exploratory oil rig on Lake Peigneur in Louisiana accidentally punctured the ceiling of an active salt-mine cavern below, causing the lake to drain into the mine through what has been described as the biggest sinkhole in history.

And then there was the dreadful fires in Hutchinson, Kansas in January 2001. Natural gas being stored in a salt cavern escaped, apparently through a broken pipe, migrated through the rock and emerged miles away to fuel terrible, mysterious fires.

Though the video isn’t quite so jaw-dropping, the ceiling in a chamber of the historic Retsof salt mine in Livingston County collapsed in 1994, creating a sinkhole and other odd geological impacts and led to the abandonment of the mine.

Crestwood Midstream, whose officials didn’t return a call for comment for this blog, have argued that the circumstances of those disasters were different, and that the salt caverns they plan to use are solid. Federal regulators clearly agree, and the DEC seems to be trending that way.

But as Peter Mantius of DC Bureau explained, at least one cavern at Seneca Lake has suffered a ceiling collapse, though the feds supposedly paid it no mind. (His has been the best reporting on these projects, by the way, and you can read it all via that link.)

Opponents raise other concerns — brine pumped out of the salt caverns would be stored in surface ponds, creating a potential source of pollutants for the lake. And life near the site would be disrupted by a marked increase in truck and train traffic.

But it’s the videos that allow opponents of the Seneca Lake projects to raise the specter of catastrophe — the waters of Seneca Lake disappearing down a hellish sinkhole or Watkins Glen lying in ashes.

Likely to happen? No. Impossible? Maybe not. Enough to stop the projects? We’ll see


 

 Posted by at 5:26 pm

Airman-turned-activist arrested for ‘civil disobedience’

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Dec 052014
 

Air Force Times

Airman-turned-activist arrested for ‘civil disobedience’

Retired Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Collen Boland will mark Veteran’s Day with a vigil outside Schuyler County Jail in New York tonight.

That’s where a fellow veteran is serving a 15-day sentence for refusing to pay a fine for trespassing — and where she too may end up following a court appearance scheduled for next week.

Boland and Dwain Wilder, a former sailor, were among 10 protesters arrested Oct. 27 for blocking the entrance of an energy company that four days earlier got the green light to expand an existing natural gas storage facility near the largest of New York’s pristine Finger Lakes.

The pair are among hundreds of so-called Seneca Lake Defenders who fear the environmental impacts of the project, which involves storing natural gas in old salt caverns in the area.

Until late last month, Boland, 58, lived a relatively quiet life in Elmira, just north of the Pennsylvania border. She retired from the Air Force in 1995 following what she called a storybook career traveling to parts of the world she hadn’t known existed. She went on to earn a degree in human development from Cornell University and volunteer for a home for abandoned children in Nepal.

“When I retired, I retired,” Boland said. “I didn’t carry my veteranship along with me. I didn’t profit up, ever.”

But on Oct. 27, she donned the U.S. Air Force fleece jacket emblazoned with her name, rank and rows of decorations. She headed out to Crestwood energy company’s Schuyler County entrance and linked arms with fellow protesters. When a tractor trailer approached, the human chain refused to move. Sheriff’s deputies showed up a few minutes later and placed them under arrest.

The whole ordeal was captured on video that has since been uploaded to YouTube.

She wore the jacket for a number of reasons, Boland said in a press conference that followed the group’s arrest and release.

“One is to try to dispel the notion that the only people standing up to protect our water, our air, and our communities are tree-hugging hippies or out of touch dreamers. Don’t get me wrong, I love trees, but I was never quite cool enough to be a hippie —and I’m certainly not dreaming,” she said to a roar of laughter and applause. “I am still serving, still defending. I am defending the natural beauty of the Finger Lakes region that I love against all enemies foreign and domestic. Crestwood is my enemy.”

In an email statement, a Crestwood spokesman said the company respects the rights of protesters who oppose the growth projects. “But our employees and contractors depend on having access to our existing operations at the US Salt complex” where the rally took place.

“Unfortunately, we were required to involve law enforcement after the protests began to raise safety concerns and interfere with the operations of our century-old US Salt plant,” according to the statement.

Boland grew up in Corning, New York, about 20 miles south of the site of the protest. Her older brother went to West Point, and it was on weekend visits with her father that, she said, they saw “lots of precision and shiny things. That attracted me.”

Boland’s family expected her to go to college after high school. When that didn’t work out, she said, “I had to find something to do, and relatively quickly. Being familiar with shiny things and being impressed by that — duty, honor, country — it was an easy path.”

She spent three years active duty Army and one year in the Army Reserves. “Then I switched over to the good life in the Air Force.”

Boland was a career administration specialist. “The military never told me what my next assignment was going to be. I always found my own job,” she said. “I was not going to let the U.S. government tell me where to go, even though I decided to serve my country. I’m going to figure out where I think I can best serve. I was going to take control of my own fate.”

It served her well, she said. Boland worked at the Pentagon and was a staff member for the White House’s National Space Council. She was an administrative assistant for the commander of U.S. Pacific Command, traveling to more than 20 countries by the end of her Air Force career.

“It was very difficult and the stress level was high and we didn’t sleep much. But the opportunity to go out there and meet the people of the world and feel that we’re all in this together — that forms who I am today and what I’m doing today,” Boland said.

Still, she never imagined she’d become an activist — or that she’d one day use her military experience to help bring attention to her cause. (Such a thing is off-limits to active-duty troops.)

It happened a few years ago, Boland said, after she watched the 2010 documentary “Gasland.” The film details the dangers of drilling for natural gas, and the highly contentious process of hydraulic fracturing in particular.

“That was it, once I saw that. The next thing I knew I was up in Albany,” Boland said, lending her voice to a growing cacophony of opposition. “I started saying no and hell no.”

When New York lawmakers passed a two-year moratorium on the process in 2013, she turned her attention south, to just over the border in Pennsylvania.

Infrastructure used to support fracking extends well into New York, she said. “It breaks my heart to see this beautiful region become a storage and fracking hub of the northeast.”

The company she protested against sought — and recently received — approval to expand storage of methane gas in abandoned salt taverns, although it hasn’t yet begun.

Proponents of the project say it is perfectly safe.

Boland believes the science says otherwise.

“Once you know something — even as painful and distressing as it is — you can’t un-know it,” she said. “You get involved in it and you can’t turn it off. It’s most distressing. I can’t walk away from it. So here I am today.”

Boland faces charges of trespassing and disorderly conduct, to which she pleaded guilty to last week. The judge in her case postponed a decision until Nov. 19.

She’ll most likely be ordered to pay a fine — which Boland, like fellow veteran Dwain Wilder — has no plans to do. If it lands her in a jail cell, she said, so be it.

“We have done everything we can to stop this madness. We’ve gone to the legislature, the county, to Albany, to Washington, D.C. We’ve written letters and made public comments to the Environmental Protection Agency. We’ve done everything the system says we have to do to have a voice,” Boland said. “There comes a time when the only thing left is civil disobedience.”

 Posted by at 5:25 pm