Algonquin pipeline expansion focus of community meetings
Residents opposed to the planned expansion of a natural gas pipeline in the region are hosting three community information sessions this month ahead of a public hearing with the federal energy regulator.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, will hold a hearing Sept. 15 in Cortlandt Manor, where members of the public will be allowed to speak for three minutes apiece. Two civic groups said they are hosting the meetings to inform people about the project and help them prepare comments for the FERC hearing.
Courtney Williams is a founding member of Concerned Peekskill Residents, one of the groups hosting the sessions. Williams said the project was frightening for residents.
“If this proceeds, my children will be living and going to school 450 feet from a massive natural gas pipeline,” she said. “A rupture at this proximity would be certain to cause fatalities. How can I raise my kids like this, knowing they are at risk?”
The proposed project would expand Texas-based Spectra Energy Partners L.P.”™s Algonquin Gas Transmission pipeline, which has run through Rockland, Westchester and Putnam counties since 1953. The existing pipes are of a 26-inch diameter, but the expansion would replace the old pipes with a 42-inch diameter pipe.
A group called Stop the Algonquin Pipeline Expansion, or SAPE, was formed to oppose the project, citing concerns that included the pipeline”™s proximity to Indian Point Energy Center”™s nuclear reactors in Buchanan. The group also said the region would act as a highway for the company and that the gas transported through the area would not benefit residents, even perhaps being sold overseas.
Marylee Hanley, Spectra”™s director of stakeholder outreach, said in a phone interview that in the decades the current pipe has been in operation there have been no major safety incidents. FERC will ultimately decide if the pipeline”™s route through Buchanan meets its safety standards, but Hanley noted the existing pipes already run through the Indian Point site.
“Our pipeline has been there long before the other facility was there,” she said. She said Spectra did not have the capabilities or permits to sell its gas overseas and that the Algonquin transported gas for the use of customers along the 1,000 miles of piping from New Jersey to Boston. “The (Algonquin) project is the most immediate solution for the region and would have an immediate impact on prices,” she said, saying the pipeline was expected to be in operation by November 2016.
Hanley added that the company”™s plans maximize the use of rights of way and company-owned land. New compressor stations in the area have come with noise and air-quality concerns from some residents, but Hanley said the new stations would actually reduce the impact on the environment.
The existing pipeline runs 1,127 miles and carries 2.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas mined out of the Marcellus Shale per day. The proposed expansion would build 20.1 miles of new pipeline in Connecticut and New York, including a 0.7 mile crossing of the Hudson River in Rockland County. New compressor stations would be built in the area as well as Connecticut and Rhode Island, according to the company.
Susan Van Dolsen, co-founder of SAPE, said her group”™s main focus is to have regulatory agencies take a closer look at the concerns. Despite the company”™s assurances, she said, there remains expert opinions questioning the safety of the expansion, particularly near Indian Point.
“It”™s just common sense,” she said. “Why just take things at face value when we know from reading things there have been problems elsewhere in the country?”
The community information sessions are scheduled for Sept. 3, 7-10 p.m., at the Centennial Fire House in Peekskill, Sept. 4, 7-10 p.m., at the Lake House in Purdys, and Sept. 13, 1-4 p.m., at Buchanan Family Day at the Pavilion in Buchanan. For more information, visit sape2016.org.