Seneca Lake near Watkins Glen is naturally beautiful

From an Article by Jessica A. Knoblauch, Earthjustice.org, July 27, 2018

“Do you still have that bottle of champagne? Well, get ready to put it on ice!”

After almost a decade of fighting a dangerous proposal to fill two underground salt caverns with explosive liquid petroleum gas (propane and butane) in upstate New York, Joseph Campbell and Yvonne Taylor knew it was time to celebrate when they first heard those words from Earthjustice attorney Deborah Goldberg earlier this month.

Goldberg went on to explain that the state Department of Environmental Conservation had denied a permit for the gas storage project. The agency cited concerns about cavern stability and risks to community character and the agriculture-based, tourism economy of the Finger Lakes region.

Campbell and Taylor were overjoyed — and stunned. After all, when they first took on this battle against a multi-billion dollar company in 2010, they were told they couldn’t stop plans to build a dirty energy behemoth in their backyard. But Campbell and Taylor went for it anyway, spending almost every day, including most holidays, weekends and birthdays, organizing their neighbors against the proposal.

The surprise victory is just the latest bright spot in a series of efforts led by activists in the region to keep dirty fossil fuel projects out of New York State. Finger Lakes advocates were at the core of the campaign for local fracking bans, which set the stage for the state’s historic decision to ban fracking in 2014. The permit denial is also a huge win for the coalition of residents, local elected officials, and business owners who have long fought to protect the iconic Finger Lakes region.

Each year, millions of tourists flock to the Finger Lakes to enjoy the region’s bounty of vineyards, wineries and bed and breakfasts, among other things.

It’s a world-class tourist destination. But it’s also home for people like Campbell and Taylor — partners in life and in protest. They both grew up near Seneca Lake, one of the 11 lakes left behind by glaciers that traveled through the region millions of years ago. Today, they live together in their “dream home” on property near the lake that’s been in Taylor’s family for generations.

“Seneca Lake is in my blood and bones. I drink it. I have swam, water skied, kayaked, motor boated and sailed on this lake my entire life,” says Taylor. “When I’m home, I’m always looking out the window at this gorgeous lake. It’s been the only constant I have ever had.”

In 2008, that stability was shattered after the two learned an out-of-state gas storage company planned to store millions of gallons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) — also called “propane” — in abandoned salt caverns under the shores of Seneca Lake. They started organizing opposition to the proposal. Soon after, Gas Free Seneca was born.

“After a lot of soul searching, we decided we weren’t gonna let this slip,” says Campbell, adding that the first public forum they held on the issue packed the auditorium with more than 800 people.

But Taylor and Campbell knew that a “bunch of rag-tag environmental activists” weren’t going to stop this project alone. They needed to get local business owners on their side. At first, that wasn’t easy.

“But once they realized this gas proposal was a threat to their livelihood, they started getting involved,” says Campbell. Photo in Article: Yvonne Taylor (left) and Joseph Campbell (right) of Gas Free Seneca.

The couple also knew that they couldn’t win without a top-notch legal team. They contacted Earthjustice with a list of concerns about the proposal that ran about as deep as the lake itself.

For starters, the unlined salt caverns along Seneca Lake were never engineered for storage once their salt was mined, yet the gas company proposed storing up to 40 million barrels of explosive propane in a manner that has caused injuries and deaths, large fires, evacuations and major property loss in other places. A 2004 analysis found that between 1974 and 2004, there were ten catastrophic accidents involving underground storage sites for gas, all of them occurring in salt caverns.

Even if no major accidents occurred, the company’s proposal to build an industrialized storage facility in a rural area threatened to permanently alter the region’s bucolic character. That may sound like an innocuous side effect — until you ask yourself whether anyone wants to sip a pricey glass of Finger Lakes bubbly within view of LPG pumps and other ugly equipment. Finger Lakes’ tourism industry currently brings 60,000 jobs to the region. Crestwood’s offer for permanent jobs? Three to five.

In May 2013, Earthjustice sent a letter to New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) on behalf of Gas Free Seneca, demanding that state officials scrutinize the combined environmental and community impacts of the LPG project and the then-proposed expansion of a gas storage facility. At the same time, Earthjustice worked alongside Gas Free Seneca to ensure that the issue received the national attention that it deserved. After all, projects like these threaten to lock the U.S. into continued extraction and use of dirty fossil fuels and discourage the growth of renewable energy.

“From the very beginning, we knew they weren’t your average environmental attorneys,” says Taylor. “Not only did they give tremendous legal advice, Deborah [Goldberg] and Moneen [Nasmith] gave us guidance on messaging that was critical in convincing the public and eventually state leaders to speak out against the proposal.”

“They were a force to be reckoned with,” she adds. In the end, more than 450 Seneca Lake property owners, 500 local and regional businesses on the Gas Free Seneca and Finger Lakes Wine Business coalitions, hundreds of local wineries and vineyard owners, and 32 municipalities representing 1.2 million New Yorkers opposed the proposal.

Now, with the state regulators’ decision to deny the permit, the project cannot go forward. “Undaunted by an out-of-state energy company, the people of the Finger Lakes stood up to protect everything they hold dear,” says Goldberg. “Today, they won.”

But local fracktivists like Taylor and Campbell aren’t stopping yet. Building on this latest victory, as well as another victory in 2016 to stop a coal and gas plant repowering proposal, fracktivists like Taylor and Campbell are now pivoting toward fighting a waste-to-energy trash incinerator in the region. These local fights and victories are critical in maintaining momentum for clean energy and against fossil fuels at a time when the Trump administration is doubling down on dirty energy. (Earthjustice attorneys are active on the health, climate, and environmental justice aspects of the incinerator project.)

“Talk about a bad idea for the climate,” says Taylor of the incinerator proposal, adding that it would emit a million tons of carbon dioxide per year. “It’s not gas industry infrastructure, but it’s equally as damaging to the environment and to our way of life in the Finger Lakes.”

So stay tuned. With their track record, that could very well be their

Over 5 years of protests and legal activities were involved

No LPG Storage Under Seneca Lake, Watkins Glen, NY

Crestwood backs out of natural gas storage plan — Withdrawal does not include liquid propane storage

From an Article by David L. Shaw, Finger Lakes Times, May 11, 2017

READING — Arlington Storage Company, a subsidiary of Crestwood Midstream, has abandoned its plan to expand natural gas storage in unlined salt caverns on the west shore of Seneca Lake in Schuyler County.

The dropping of the plan was including in Arlington’s bi-weekly environmental compliance report filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in Washington.

“Despite its best efforts, Arlington Storage Company has not been successful in securing long-term contractual commitments from customers that would support completion of the Gallery 2 Expansion Project,” the company said in its statement with FERC.

“While demand for high deliverability natural gas storage services remains robust in New York, bids for firm storage capacity which Arlington has received from time to time are not adequate to support the investment required to bring the project to completion,” it stated.

“Accordingly, Arlington has discontinued efforts to complete the Gallery 2 Expansion Project.”

The news was well received by opponents of the project, such as Gas Free Seneca. “This is a victory for the people of the region who have fought for years to protect Seneca Lake and the Finger Lakes from industrialized gas storage,” said Yvonne Taylor, vice president of Gas Free Seneca.

“This ill-conceived plan has cast a shadow on the region’s burgeoning tourism industry from the start and today we celebrate our victory against Goliath,” Taylor said in a press release.

Deborah Goldberg, an attorney with Earthjustice, has been representing Gas Free Seneca in its fight.

She said she will ask FERC to rescind its 2014 project approval. “The admitted failure to secure customers establishes that there is no need for Arlington to expand,” Goldberg said.

Joseph Campbell, president of Gas Free Seneca, said Crestwood ”should see the writing on the wall” and withdraw its pending application to store liquid propane in salt caverns as well as the natural gas storage plan.

Crestwood owns a 576-acre site on Route 14 a few miles north of Watkins Glen.

In August 2010, FERC authorized Arlington to acquire a depleted natural gas production field in Reading and develop it for operation as the Seneca Lake Storage Project.

The facility is connected to two interstate gas pipelines.

On May 15, 2014, FERC gave Arlington the go-ahead to expand the project by connecting two interconnected salt caverns previously used for LPG storage, increasing the facility’s capacity from 1.45 to 2 billion cubic feet.

That order require the expansion to be constructed and put in service by May 15, 2016.

In January 2016, Arlington requested a two-year extension. They told FERC it has not proceeded because the state Department of Environmental Conservation had not acted on its application for an underground storage permit. When filing for an extension, Arlington officials noted the DEC cannot issue the permit until it has received a report from the state geologist.

The state had no one in that position at the time.

Gas Free Seneca appealed the May 16, 2016 decision by FERC to allow the two year extension.

Some 13 Arrested at Crestwood Blockade While Reading Pope Francis’ Encyclical on Climate Change

From a Report by Sandra Steingraber, EcoWatch, August 4, 2015

Early this morning, in a peaceful civil disobedience action against gas storage in Seneca Lake salt caverns, which took place the day after President Obama announced the Clean Power Plan to move the nation away from fossil fuels, 13 people from six New York counties were arrested while reading verses from Pope Francis’ recent encyclical letter on climate change.

Just after dawn, the 13 formed a human blockade at the north and south entrances of Crestwood Midstream’s gas storage facility on Route 14, preventing all traffic from entering or leaving and began their reading. Joining the pontifical read-aloud was the Rev. John D. Elder, former pastor of the historic First Church in Oberlin, Ohio and present part-time resident of Schuyler County. Rev. Elder was not arrested.

Large trucks attempting to leave the facility were blocked at both the north and south gates of the Crestwood property shortly after 7 a.m.

The words on the banners carried by today’s protesters—“Love the Common Good,” “And Care for This World”—were lines from the prayer that closes the encyclical.

Large trucks attempting to leave the facility were blocked at both the north and south gates of the Crestwood property shortly after 7 a.m. Schuyler County deputies arrested the blockaders at about 7:30 a.m. The 13 were taken into custody, charged with both trespassing and disorderly conduct and released. None of the 13 blockaders this morning had been previously arrested as part of the We Are Seneca Lake movement, which opposes Crestwood’s plans for methane and LPG storage in lakeside salt caverns.

Two other individuals on the media team were inadvertently arrested and charged with trespassing (one was the videographer and the other one was me).

Dan Taylor, 64, of Oxford in Chenango County said, “Yesterday, President Obama released the Clean Power Plan and put the nation on the path to renewable energy. Today, we are standing at the gates of dirty energy to say that Crestwood’s plan for the Finger Lakes is not a clean power plan. I am here to help impede the build-out of fossil fuel infrastructure.”

This morning’s recitation continued the read-aloud from the Pontifical document, Laudato Si! On Care for Our Common Home, that began during a blockade on June 30 and that continued during blockades on July 7 and July 20. All together, 44 people have been arrested as part of encyclical-themed blockades at Crestwood.

One of today’s arrestees, Faith Muirhead, 45, of Beaver Dams in Steuben County, grew up in the town of Reading near the salt caverns. She said, “We are all of us stewards of the earth. I am a native of Reading and know that this area and Seneca Lake are gifts to be cherished and protected. I feel a responsibility to do what I can to protect these waters and this land. So I pray, I walk, I send letters, I call my state representatives and today, I stand at the gates of Crestwood to demonstrate my resolve. I am a teacher and a teacher of teachers. Today, I teach by putting my freedom in jeopardy in order to bring attention to the potential risks inherent in Crestwood’s plans.”

The total number of civil disobedience arrests in the eight-month-old campaign against gas storage now stands at 332.

Crestwood’s methane gas storage expansion project was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last October in the face of broad public opposition and unresolved questions about geological instabilities, fault lines and possible salinization of Seneca Lake, which serves as a source of drinking water for 100,000 people.

Clean Power Plan Paves Way Toward a Carbon-Free Economy

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

High Risk Project Opposed on NY Seneca Lake

Seneca Lake gas storage project: all the risks, none of the rewards

From a Letter by Edgar Brown, Seneca Lake Defenders, South Bristol, NY, May 16, 2015

The New York state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) recently filed a brief as part of an issues conference proceeding to determine if permits should be granted to expand gas storage in crumbling salt caverns along the shores of Seneca Lake. The DEC said that the region has a long history of gas storage without major incident and that opponents have not produced adequate evidence to support their claims that the project should not be permitted.

Seneca Lake is the source of drinking water for 100,000 people, including the cities of Geneva and Watkins Glen. Many studies have been done and information exists that says Seneca Lake is already the saltiest of the Finger Lakes, that a fault line runs right through the proposed storage caverns, and that the shale inter-bedded in those caverns have already produced a massive cavern collapse in the past.

The expanded storage projects for methane, butane, and propane from other Marcellus shale states are not on the same scale as gas storage in the past and the increased amount of pressurized storage cannot be compared with methods and amounts in the past.

These projects are not consistent with the natural character of the Finger Lakes and the region’s growing wine and tourism industry.

There are 327 members in Gas Free Seneca’s wine and business coalition opposed to gas storage, as well as 24 municipalities, including some in Monroe County, that have issued resolutions in opposition.

The DEC does not have the best interests of its Finger Lakes constituents in mind. The DEC seems to be in collusion with Houston-based Crestwood Midstream, which wants to turn Seneca Lake into, in its own words, “the gas storage and transportation hub of the Northeast.” Finger Lakes residents will assume all of the risk and none of the reward as gas is shipped out to the most lucrative markets.

I would like New York State and the DEC to use the same health and science standards used to ban fracking to examine the impact of the massive gas infrastructure build-out currently happening across the state.

If you love the Finger Lakes region and want to see it preserved from the fossil fuel industry greed, please write or call Gov. Andrew Cuomo and all the other elected officials.

See also: We Are Seneca Lake

Methane Geyser Capped  — Flammable gas had spewed from gas well  10 days

Santa, Mrs. Claus and 7 Elves arrested at Seneca Lake in NY State

From an Article by Casey Junkins, Wheeling Intelligencer, December 24, 2014

Sardis, OH — After 10 days of being displaced, people living near Magnum Hunter’s Stalder well pad can spend Christmas at home as workers capped the huge well that had been spouting methane into the air since December 13th.

Now, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Agency will work with the company to determine the cause of the blowout at the Triad Hunter Stalder well, which led an undetermined amount of methane to escape into the atmosphere. Triad Hunter is the local operating subsidiary of Houston, Texas-based Magnum Hunter.

“ODNR will do a full investigation to determine the cause and ensure proper mechanical integrity of the well before the company can move forward with operations,” Bethany McCorkle, spokeswoman for the natural resources department, said.

Magnum Hunter officials said Tuesday they do not believe the well blowout caused environmental damage because 97 percent of the gas released was methane. They also indicate the company plans to have all wells on the Stalder pad sending natural gas to market next month.

Monroe County Emergency Management Director Phillip Keevert said during the first several days of the ordeal, the damaged wellhead led the escaping gas to remain close to the ground, which he said created a more dangerous situation. Once Wild Well Control employees removed the old wellhead, the methane shot directly upward, similar to hot water spewing from a geyser. Keevert said this was not as dangerous to the residents, so he reduced the evacuation area to three-quarters of a mile Saturday.

As those affected can now celebrate the holidays at home and emergency responders can finally get a break, environmental regulators and company officials must determine what went wrong with the well that has a vertical shaft about two miles deep and a horizontal leg about one mile long.

According to Magnum, company and contract employees had to excavate the area around the wellhead while continuously spraying fresh water on the escaping gas to reduce the risk of ignition. After arriving from Texas, workers with Wild Well Control began the relatively slow process of replacing the entire wellhead assembly.

Magnum officials also said they maintain “customary control of well insurance coverage,” which they believe will cover all losses.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Let me begin by wishing you all Happy Holidays from Western Penna. !

Many of you have been following the ongoing story of EQT’s fracking on Trax Farms (now being called ‘Frax Farms’) and the serious issues being faced by neighbors living close by. It’s kind of like the movie Groundhog Day but this is no comedy for them or their families.

Last night’s supervisor’s meeting brought about the latest update to their story, with discussions about excessive fracking noise, township decibel limits, rotten egg odors, and vibrations. Two policemen were posted at the full house meeting.

Apparently someone complained from a past meeting of whether someone is allowed to record a public meeting or not. As you will see in this video, it is the chairman’s impression after consulting legal counsel that someone openly recording for all to see is A-OK, but it is illegal for someone to record a meeting without announcing they are doing so first. The solicitor later comments that he did not know of any restrictions on recording a public meeting.

You will also get to hear from the individuals living on Cardox Road and beyond, including Gary Baumgardner whose family was supported by the recent petition for EQT to stop fracking on Christmas Day so his grandbaby could visit for dinner. One lady, who lives several miles away, commented that she can hear the noise with her windows closed.

The township is now ready to take more serious action, as they discuss further here:

http://youtu.be/XKxvmHOFi8E

Bob Donnan, Peters Township (McMurray), Washington County, PA

Seneca Lake is largest Finger Lake

Pledge to Protect Seneca Lake – “We Are Seneca Lake”

UPDATE: This cold morning, Wednesday, Nov. 19, we are having an extremely successful blockade. Now in their fifth hour today, 12 Seneca Lake Defenders are continuing our blockade of Crestwood. 7 are at the north gate, 5 at the south gate.  Yesterday, Tuesday, there were eight (8) arrested here.  Ten (10) arrested on Monday!

PLEDGE TO PROTECT SENECA LAKE (Largest Finger Lake)

Because I know–

• that Seneca Lake is the largest body of fresh water wholly contained within the New York State, creates a climate perfectly suited for the growing of wine grapes, is a world-class tourist destination and serves as a source of drinking water for 100,000 people;

• that Houston-based Crestwood Midstream plans to store highly pressurized natural gas (methane) and liquefied petroleum gases (butane and propane, also known as LPG) in abandoned salt caverns near the lake;

• that old, unlined salt caverns are dangerous vessels for the storage of flammable gases (as was illustrated in Hutchinson, Kansas when salt cavern-stored natural gas leaked through subterranean fissures and fractures and caused deadly explosions seven miles away) and can also be structurally unstable (as was illustrated by the 1994 collapse of a salt cavern in Livingston County, New York, in a calamity that created sinkholes, methane-contaminated basements, and a permanently poisoned drinking water aquifer );

• that Seneca Lake caverns are vulnerable to roof collapses that could allow pressurized gases to escape, as is evidenced by the 400,000-ton roof collapse that has already occurred in a Seneca Lake salt cavern now slated by Crestwood for natural gas storage;

• that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, over the strenuous objections of citizens and independent geologists, nevertheless approved Crestwood’s natural gas storage expansion plan in May 2014;

• that on August 11, 2014, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) called a temporary halt to Crestwood’s plans to stockpile LPG in the Seneca Lake salt caverns by announcing a special Issues Conference to investigate ongoing health, safety, and environmental concerns of lakeside gas storage here;

• that one day later, on August 12, Crestwood outrageously announced a plan to commence construction of a compressor station to pressurize natural gas for underground storage in salt caverns ;

• that dozens of winery and business owners from the Finger Lakes region have traveled to Albany to urge Governor Cuomo to express opposition to BOTH natural gas and LPG storage on the grounds that they are an industrial menace to the tourism and wine industry;

• that, dozens of Schuyler County health care professionals have called for a halt to BOTH natural gas and LPG storage in these salt caverns on the grounds that they raise unacceptable risks of catastrophic accidents, injuries; and contaminated water and air.

• that it is a cynical shell game to move forward with the storage of one type of pressurized gas even while DEC has issued a cease and desist order on the storage of another type.

• that Crestwood is a dangerous intruder in our community, willing to flout the will of residents in flagrant disregard for our security and wellbeing, in order to build out the infrastructure for fracking;

Hence, I pledge–

to join with others in this region and elsewhere to engage in peaceful, nonviolent acts of protest, up to and including civil disobedience, until additional storage of LPG and methane in Seneca Lake salt caverns is halted.

I make this pledge to ensure the protection of Seneca Lake, which nourishes the vitality and enjoyment of the communities surrounding it; to prevent the destruction and poisoning of water, air, and food systems on which safety, health, and economic prosperity of our communities–and those of future generations—all depend. My abiding concern for the health and safety of my community compels me to take this action.

See also: “We Are Seneca Lake” and FrackCheckWV

Protest of Plans for Unsafe Storage of Natural Gas under Seneca Lake

Some 10 Arrested as Human Blockade Continues Protesting Methane Gas Storage Facility on Seneca Lake in NY State

From an Article by Stefanie Spear, EcoWatch.com, October 29, 2014

UPDATE: Ten people were arrested on October 29th blockading the two gates at Crestwood, on Seneca Lake. Seven were arrested at the north gate, blockading a truck, and charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing. Three were arrested at the south gate and charged with trespassing. All have been released and have a November 5th court date.

After blockading the gates of Texas-based Crestwood methane gas storage facility on the shore of New York’s Seneca Lake for two days last week, including a rally with more than 200 people, the human blockade continues.

For the second morning in a row this week, the “We Are Seneca Lake” protesters are blocking the Crestwood gate with protesters expanding the blockade to include a second driveway. With last Friday marking the day that the construction project on this huge gas storage facility was authorized by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to begin, community members, after pursuing every other avenue to stop this project, are participating in ongoing nonviolent civil disobedience as a last resort.

“We are not going away,” said renowned biologist and author Sandra Steingraber, PhD. “The campaign against dangerous gas storage in abandoned salt caverns near our beloved lake will continue with political pressure on our elected officials—who should be protecting our drinking water, our health and our wine, and tourism-based economy—and nonviolent acts of civil disobedience.”

These community protestors are not the only ones against this project. Last week, the Tompkins County legislature approved a resolution that opposes gas storage on the lakeshore, while the Yates County legislature passed a similar resolution the prior week. These counties now join the Board of Supervisors of both Ontario and Seneca counties, which previously passed motions opposing gas storage, along with the Geneva City Council and the Watkins Glen Village Board that oppose this project.

“As a registered nurse, I know that we need clean drinking water, and it’s important to protect people from all of the insidious byproducts of petrochemical companies,” said Coby Schultz a resident of Springwater in Livingston County. “This area is too precious and water is too valuable of resource to exploit so recklessly.”

On Monday, Steingraber joined Thom Hartmann on The Big Picture sharing her reasons why this project must be stopped. Watch here:

Barbara Schiessher of Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association agrees with Steingraber: “The expansion of the Crestwood facility will affect everyone who lives, works or plays on the lake, or consumes agricultural products from the region, including its award winning wines. It will affect the 100,000 residents who get drinking water from the Lake. It increases the likelihood of contamination of our air, soil and water, plus the always present risk of gas leakage, unpredictable explosions and sink holes such as have occurred in a number of salt cavern storage facilities of natural gas and LPG.”

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Some 64 Arrested at Vermont Governor’s Office Demanding End to Gas Pipeline

Source: Rising Tide Vermont, Will Bennington, October 28, 2014

MONTPELIER, Vt. – Sixty-four people were arrested last night, after occupying Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin’s office for over six hours, demanding a ban on new fossil fuel infrastructure and that the governor stop supporting a fracked gas pipeline in the western part of the state.

Half the group occupied the governor’s office, while the other half stayed in the main lobby of the building. 500 people attended a rally outside of the building, supporting the sit-in.

“We are fed up with a broken, unaccountable, and biased process that is ignoring the clear and present danger of expanding fossil fuel infrastructure so that Gaz Metro and International Paper can increase their profit margins,” said Jane Palmer, a landowner in Monkton along the Phase 1 pipeline route. “The Shumlin administration is ignoring the thousands of Vermonters, including impacted landowners and over 500 ratepayers, who know we can’t afford this project.”

Demonstrators from across the state are concerned that the Shumlin administration, including the Public Service Department, are promoting dirty fracked gas as a climate solution, despite the well known climate impacts of extracting and burning fracked gas.

Dr. Maeve McBride, coordinator of 350 Vermont, said, “Today, hundreds of grassroots Vermonters are sitting in to call for a ban on new fossil fuel infrastructure, including Vermont Gas/Gaz-Metro’s proposed fracked gas pipeline, and to demand energy and climate solutions that are transparent, accountable to our communities and put people and the planet first. As the Governor said himself, these solutions need to come from the grassroots, not from the top down.” McBride was among those arrested.

Supporting arguments made before the Public Service Board over the past two years, the demonstration focused on how, despite industry rhetoric, fracked gas may actually be worse for the climate than other fossil fuels.

“The science is clear – whether the goal is avoiding CO2 emissions or sparking a transition to an emissions-free energy system, the fracked gas boom and this pipeline are no substitute for ambitious energy and climate policies, weatherization, efficiency and decreased consumption,” said Dr. Rachel Smolker, a Hinesburg resident. “Once the gas bubble pops, ratepayers are going to be stuck with higher bills, paying the cost of this pipeline for years to come and still struggling to heat their homes.”

After police issued a final dispersal order, sixty-four people stayed in the building. All were removed from the building by Vermont State Police, and cited with criminal trespassing.

The coalition planning the event is also calling for a blockade at the Vermont Gas Pipeyard in Williston, Vt., this coming Saturday at 9 am.

SENECA LAKE -- The deepest Finger Lake averages 290 feet and is 40 miles long from Watkins Glen up to Geneva, NY

FERC Approves NY Methane Storage Project at Seneca Lake

From a News Article by Peter Mantius, Natural Resources News Service, October 3, 2014

Brushing aside warnings of dangerous geological risk, federal regulators say construction can start immediately on a methane gas storage project next to Seneca Lake that has galvanized opposition from wine and tourism businesses across the Finger Lakes in upstate New York.

The  decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission represents a major breakthrough for Houston-based Crestwood Midstream. The company has been waging a five-year campaign for permission to convert long-abandoned lakeside salt caverns into a regional storage hub for both methane gas and liquid petroleum gas, or LPG, from fracking operations in Pennsylvania.

FERC has jurisdiction over the methane gas storage portion of the project, while the state Department of Environmental Conservation has the final say over the storage of LPG, mostly propane and butane. The company has been trying to persuade both agencies that the old caverns are ideal storage sites for highly-pressurized, volatile hydrocarbons. Scientists who are not paid by the company disagree and have warned of the caverns’ unstable geology.

In May, after 14 months of review, FERC granted conditional approval of Crestwood’s request to expand its existing methane storage into a cavern that has a history of instability. Meanwhile, the NY-DEC has been evaluating the LPG portion of the project since 2009. It announced in August plans to hold an “issues conference” to further weigh the evidence before ruling.

Crestwood’s storage hub would be located in a cluster of several dozen salt caverns on the west shore of Seneca Lake less than three miles north of the village of Watkins Glen, population 1,859. The company continues to mine salt at the site, and it already uses a former salt cavern to store methane gas. FERC has allowed it to expand its working gas capacity from 1.45 billion cubic feet to 2.0 bcf.

Typically, methane gas is transported to the caverns by pipeline, while LPG storage would require truck and rail transport. If Crestwood wins DEC approval, it would store LPG in two other caverns less than a quarter mile away from the compressed methane.

The company has asserted that the history of the storage caverns, including details of their flaws, is a trade secret. And state and federal regulators have complied with the company’s requests to keep most cavern information out of the public eye. But reports dating back decades by engineers employed by the caverns’ owners — tracked down in Internet searches — candidly spell out their defects.

Opponents of Crestwood’s proposed storage hub have expressed alarm over FERC’s brisk dismissal of potential risks, but safety issues are not their only concern. They also fear increased air and noise pollution, a steep increase in LPG truck traffic through the village of Watkins Glen and new LPG rail traffic over a spindly 80-year-old trestle that spans the Watkins Glen gorge, one of the state’s Top 10 tourist destinations.

In March, two internationally renowned vintners who recently purchased 65 acres directly across Seneca Lake from Crestwood’s property wrote Gov. Andrew Cuomo to urge him to block the LPG portion of the plan.

“The potential for accidents, the threat to fresh water quality and the visual impact of a 60-foot flare stack with massive compressors is not compatible with developing the tremendous potential of the region,” wrote Paul Hobbs, owner of the Paul Hobbs Winery in Sonoma County, California, and Johannes Selbach of the Selbach-Oster estate in Germany’s Mosel Valley.

“For the past several years we have explored the vineyards and wineries of the Finger Lakes in search of an ideal parcel for growing world class Riesling,” Hobbs and Selbach wrote the governor. The site chosen on the east side of Seneca Lake just outside Watkins Glen, which features steep slopes, low-PH scale shale and slate soils and a cool growing season, “is unquestionably one of the premier places in the world for high quality winegrowing,” they added.

The Seneca Lake Wine Trail already has about three dozen member wineries. Michael Warren Thomas, who helped recruit Hobbs and Selbach to join them, recently met with a top aide to Cuomo to point out that their arrival could easily stimulate significant new investment in the Finger Lakes wine industry. Already, Thomas noted, Louis Barruol of Chateau St. Cosme and Master Sommelier Christopher Bates have floated the idea of building a visitor center near Watkins Glen in a bid to draw from around the world.

“These are not bulk wine producers,” Thomas said of Hobbs and Selbach. “They are people looking to make the best wine in the world in small quantities. We ought to pay attention when we have the best in the world deciding to make wine in our backyard.”

While Hobbs and Selbach arrived without invitation, hoopla, political backing or government incentives, Crestwood has been backed — both overtly and quietly — by a coalition of politicians

More than 400 people participated in a mass protest at a legislative hearing.

FERC’s decision to grant a green light for construction on the methane storage cavern preceded any public announcements of approval from the state. By law, the DEC must agree to modify Crestwood’s current underground storage permit for methane gas, and the state geologist must certify that the storage cavern is safe. However, as a practical matter, the state does not have the legal authority to block the methane storage project, if legal precedents involving federal-state jurisdiction are any gauge.

The best the public can hope for in the future is diligent monitoring of the methane storage facility for leaks and roof and wall collapses, said H.C. Clark, a Houston geologist who has sharply criticized FERC’s analysis of the cavern.

Clark pointed out in January that FERC had neglected to assess the safety implications of a massive roof collapse in the cavern. He learned about the event in a detailed report written in the late 1960s by Charles Jacoby, an engineer who worked for the cavern’s owner at the time.

During its analysis of the project, FERC had pointedly asked Crestwood if it knew of any cavern roof or wall collapses anywhere within its Seneca Lake cavern field. The company issued a qualified denial. If fact, a 400,000-ton chunk of rock — roughly the size of an aircraft carrier — had given way in the very cavern that the company proposed to use for methane storage.

After Clark disclosed the roof collapse to the public and DCBureau.org and other media outlets publicized it, FERC addressed the issue. It attributed the roof collapse to the fact that LPG and brine had been cycled in and out of the cavern at the time, eating away at its salt walls and weakening its structure. LPG has not been stored in the cavern since 1984, and it is now mostly filled with brine.

In its May 15 order conditionally approving the reopening of the cavern for methane storage, FERC concluded that after all brine has been removed and methane gas is added, “dissolution of the salt in the gallery will not occur.”

But Clark, who holds a Ph.D. in geophysics from Stanford and taught the subject for many years at Rice University, said in an interview October 1 that it would be “absurd” for FERC to imply that removing brine from the cavern removes all risk of further collapse. “This is an old — ancient by now — cavern sitting there with a broad, flat rock top, which is not what salt cavern folks want to hear,” he added. “The compressed natural gas will work its way up through any kind of abnormality.”

In August, Dr. Rob Mackenzie, a retired CEO of the Cayuga Medical Center, a hospital about 20 miles east of Watkins Glen, sought to quantify the safety risk of Crestwood’s methane gas storage operation to Schuyler County residents. An experienced risk analyst, Mackenzie prepared a formal quantitative risk analysis of the Crestwood methane gas proposal.

Mackenzie analyzed accident events — major fires, explosions, collapses, catastrophic loss of product, evacuations — at salt cavern storage facilities in the United States dating back to 1972. He concluded that the risk of an “extremely serious” salt cavern event within Schuyler County over the next 25 years is more than 35%.

Citing data from the Energy Information Administration, Mackenzie noted that in 2012 there were 414 underground gas storage facilities in the United States, including 40 in salt caverns. Aquifers and depleted oil and gas reservoirs are much more commonly used for hydrocarbon storage, and they have dramatically better safety records than salt caverns. “Worldwide, the percentage of incidents involving casualties at salt cavern facilities as a percentage of facilities in operation in 2005 was 13.6%, compared to 0.63% for depleted reservoirs and 2.5% for aquifers,” Mackenzie reported, citing a 2008 study by British health officials.

Between 1972 and 2012, there have been 18 “serious or extremely serious incidents” at U.S. salt cavern storage facilities, Mackenzie wrote, citing EIA data. “With the average number of (salt cavern) facilities in operation through most of the last two decades at close to 30, the U.S. incidence is about 60% (compared to 40% worldwide), and the frequency is about 1.4% per year,” he said. “Most other regulated industry sub-segments with a persistent serious to extremely serious facility incident rate of over 30% would be shut down or else voluntarily discontinued, except in wartime.”

Mackenzie also found that nine of the 18 salt cavern incidents involved large fires and/or explosions; six involved loss of life or serious injury; eight involved evacuations of between 30 and 2,000 residents; and 13 involved extremely serious property losses.

FERC, the regulatory agency, saw no need to further question the suitability of Crestwood’s salt cavern storage.