A proposed gas line, the first supplier branch that would be built into Manhattan in some forty years, has prompted discussion over the energy future of New York City, and the safety of the neighborhoods that it would go through.
Within the past two weeks, computer disks of a dEIS (draft Environmental Impact Statement) of the New Jersey - New York Expansion Project, or "Spectra Pipeline," were sent to people who have at least attempted to qualify as an intervener in the project. The NJ-NY Project is a proposed interstate pipeline that would bring a greater supply of natural gas to New York City; though there is no public voting system for major gas pipelines in the US, interveners are qualified to sue the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). However, all people can submit comments to the FERC within the public commentary period, which ends on Halloween, October 31st.
With less than a month of the public commentary period left, Manhattan's Community Board 2 hosted a public meeting with Spectra Energy, (which proposed the project to the FERC), Con Edison, (which will potentially connect their existing pipeline with the Spectra pipeline), and New York City's DEP (Department of Environmental Protection). While competing with a similar event elsewhere in the City, which regarded hydrofracking for natural gas, some fifty people turned out to the meeting at St. Anthony's Church of Padua in SOHO, including residents of the West Village and surrounding neighborhoods of where Spectra will meet Con Ed, deemed "blast radius" by opponent, "Sane Energy Project," who organized a similar meeting without company reps last summer. A public hearing with FERC will take place in the West Village on October 20th. The environmental response, has been a comparison of the proposed pipeline to the line that exploded in San Bruno, California last year.
The NJ-NY Expansion plan involves 600 feet of pipeline that would come into the Meatpacking District just below the sanitation pier and north of the playground at Hudson River Park, run north under the bike path, then under the West Side Highway and then under Gansevoort Street to conclude where the Whitney Museum is being relocated. The plan is to avoid existing utilities, said Tony Mosd of Spectra. The pipeline, which would extend previously through Linden New Jersey, Staten Island, Bayonne New Jersey, Jersey City and under the Hudson River, would be 30 inches in diameter. They are hoping for permits by the first quarter of 2012, says Gus McLachlan, Environmental Manager of Spectra.
"For us at Spectra Energy, safety is a core value," said Ed Gonzales, Project Director of Spectra. Regarding the material of the pipe, he said, "we're looking for modified, chemical characteristics that make it high strength, very ductal... [or] flexible [pipe] so it could move around... When this pipe is manufactured we don't just let the manufacturer roll it and they do their own internal inspection. We inspect it as well. We send in our own personnel to do a quality insurance and Q/A inspection of that facility." The pipeline is planned to have "a higher strength and wall thickness than required by federal regulations" according to a new video at YesGasPipeline.org, which details the route. Spectra physically pulls apart a test weld of the contractors. Once approved, Spectra "X-rays 100 percent of all the welds," continued Gansalez.
He echoed a safety video, which was removed from the Yes Gas Pipeline site and replaced with other videos. "We will have inspection personnel out there overseeing and monitoring the work. Gus [McLachlan]... will have environmental inspectors out there." To prevent third party damage, he said, "we're gonna utilize what's called a 'controlled density fill,' which is a mixture of sand and cement and we're gonna dye it yellow." Where it will first enter Manhattan, "the pipeline will have a minimum of four feet of cover." In addition a two-foot wide ribbon is place inches below the road with a toll-free number on it. It would be tested with water at six times higher than the pressure it would be with gas, which would would go through at up to 350 psi (pounds per square inch). While the pipeline is in use, Spectra will send a representative to Manhattan to "patrol the right-of-way seven days a week... 365 days a year," he said.
Audience members wanted to know if the pipeline was actually necessary. "Some 90 percent of the electric generation in New York City is gas fired," said Mike Delaney, Director of Energy Regulatory Affairs for NYC's DEP (Department of Environmental Protection). He went on to say that DEP is working with Mayor Bloomberg's Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability known as PlaNYC, to shift the City into natural gas, the "cleanest of the fossil fuels." Though PlaNYC is included as a factor of demand, actual use of electricity he said, has increased after a drop during the Recession. Be it "a growth of electronic devices or through business growth, whatever it might be, we have a growth spurt." Another factor, is a natural gas plant that was built last July in Astoria, Queens.
New York City is "crisscrossed with pipelines," said Delaney. "And we think it's important for reliability purposes, for air quality purposes." Another part of the PlaNYC 2030 "2.0" is to convert building-heating oil from number 6 to number 2 in order to motivate New Yorkers to "migrate" to natural gas. "With some 10 thousand boilers across the City, that's gonna mean heightened demand for gas both here in the Con Edison territory where 75 to 80 percent of those 10 thousand boilers are, but also in the National Grid and Keystone territory out in Brooklyn and Queens... It's one that we all rely on not obviously for just cooking gas oil -it is too- but most importantly for heating and refrigeration."
If only 70 thousand Con Ed customers switched to number 2 heating oil, it would increase the need for natural gas, added John Leo, Public Affairs Manager for Con Edison.
One audience member asked about fault lines in light of the recent earthquake that shook the east coast.
"That type of event will not affect the pipeline," responded Ed Gonzales.
"I have some concerns of the safety history of Spectra," said an audience member. "In June of 2011 this company was cited for 17 inadequacies in its safety management and procedures through its pipeline monitoring, emergency plans and welding procedures... There was an emergency shut down of its... Pennsylvania emergency compressor station, which released 1620 pounds of oil and 6460 pounds of methane onto farmland... It has received the EPA's seventh highest penalty on record for discharging PCBs at 89 sites along a 9 thousand mile pipeline, that it experienced a catastrophic failure of its underground storage reservoir in... Texas, causing two explosions with flames as high as a thousand feet and that two of its gas processing plants remain (or were named) number one and number three polluters in British Columbia... Why will it be different this time?"
"Some of those facilities that you described are not an interstate natural gas pipeline," answered Ed Gonzales. "This pipeline is not going to be carrying fluids... I went through and described the levels of safety and layers of protection that we as a company are permitted to do; FERC in the dEIS has gone through and made their analysis as well and they found the same."
"What is the life expectancy of the pipe?" asked Jennifer Davis of the West Village.
"The life expectancy of this thirty inch natural gas pipeline could be for decades and decades," answered Ed Gonzales.
"I live in that neighborhood," Davis said. "If that pipeline's going to last for decades that could be twenty to thirty years... My concern is what happened in San Bruno, California." (The pipeline in San Bruno lasted about 51 years).
"That pipeline will last, again, as long as the need is there," replied Gonzales. "There are pipelines that were built in 1920s that are still in service." He then mentioned, as he did earlier, robotics that would be periodically run through the pipeline to inspect it.
Catherine Scopic, a local activist of 350.org, standing from the front row facing the audience, asked for a show of hands of people who had seen the film "Gasland," an Oscar nominated documentary about the burgeoning hydrofracking process from shale formations containing natural gas. Almost all or all of the entire audience raised their hands. Almost no one, or no one of the half dozen panel members (Spectra, Con Ed and DEP) raised their hands. This became a big concern towards the end of the meeting because an unidentified factor of the motivation behind new gas trunks may be the increase in supply of natural gas, due to hydrofracking, which is controversial. The film Gasland documents several cases of water contamination where hydrofracking has been happening around the country.
After the meeting, several members of the panel were asked personally if they interpreted Catherine Scopic's hand request as inclusive to them or not: there were mixed answers. Ed Gonzales refused to answer the question, "Have you seen Gasland?" for Examiner.com.
Original title: "Answers for proposed Manhattan gas pipeline safety"
Comments