Re: Gas Storage Beneath Seneca Lake
Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 1:53 pm
Wine, tourism advocates oppose plans to store liquid petroleum gas at Seneca Lake
2 public information meetings scheduled next week
7:16 PM, May. 10, 2011
Written by
G. Jeffrey Aaron
[email protected]
Winery owners and others involved in Seneca Lake's tourism-based businesses are organizing in opposition to the plans by a Missouri-based energy company to establish an underground liquid petroleum gas storage facility in the Town of Reading.
Two public information sessions are scheduled at sites on either side of Seneca Lake -- one on May 17 at Damiani Wine Cellars in Burdett and the second on May 18 at Glenora Wine Cellars in Dundee. Starting times for both are 7 p.m.
"The lake is why we can grow the grapes and the water is why we can brew our beer," said John Rogers, owner of Two Goats Brewery LLC in Burdett. "The water affords us the living we are trying to carve out for ourselves. It's painful that profit motive will dictate the outcome of the lake."
Inergy, based in Kansas City, Mo., is looking to operate a storage facility for propane and butane on a 576-acre site on the western side of Seneca Lake. The fuels would be stored in depleted underground salt caverns. Also included in the $40 million project are truck and railroad loading stations to transport the fuel and a 14-acre retention pond for brine -- used in the underground storage process of the two fuels -- near the intersection of Routes 14 and 14A.
Inergy submitted an environmental impact statement in mid-March to New York's Department of Environmental Conservation. The agency has requested additional information, which the company is in the process of providing, company spokeswoman Debbie Hagen said in an e-mail.
"The company looks forward to securing the necessary approval and moving forward with the project in the very near future," Hagen's e-mail read.
Lou Damiani, co-owner of the Burdett winery, is circulating petitions against the project. Heading the list of his concerns, which are shared by other project opponents, are the project's potential damage to the environment, disrupting of the natural beauty of the lakeside areas and harming the wineries that have sprung up throughout the region and are a major tourist draw.
"We've watched the industry come a long way in the last couple of decades and we are right on the verge of becoming a world-class destination where we can become known as a world-class wine region," Damiani said. "We're already known as the No. 1 lake tourist spot in the world and we need to protect the industry."
Meanwhile, Jeremy Alderson, of Hector, operates a nonprofit business in Schuyler County and guest cottage that is rented to tourists and writers or musicians seeking a work retreat.
"I suspect you will not find any artists whose imagination is aided by thoughts of the good profits that Intergy will be making," Alderson said in an e-mail.
"On the other hand, there are undoubtedly many others like my wife and myself who are somewhat put off by visualizing the pollution and deterioration of our beautiful area, the loss of our wonderful way of life, and the possibility of getting blown to bits in a natural gas explosion."
Inergy, which owns the U.S. Salt facility outside Watkins Glen, says the plan is safe. In a written statement, the company said the project is an "environmental friendly manner in which to re-utilize solution mined caverns" that have "been a part of the Watkins Glen community for over 100 years."
The company also said TEPPCO and NYSEG have stored gas near their proposed location here the same way for several years.
Representatives of both sides of the issue held public information sessions on the proposal last month. Hagen said about 200 people attended a company-sponsored event, held at the Watkins Glen Community Center. Following a presentation by Inergy's Midstream Senior Vice President Bill Moler, and remarks by National Propane Gas Association President Roland Penta, those who attended were given the opportunity to visit with engineers and safety experts.
Another session, sponsored by GasFree Seneca Group, was held on the following night at Watkins Glen High School and attended by Rogers.
"I was happy to see there was a collection of folks that were willing to speak their mind," he said. "But it didn't seem like we were getting the full story because 90 percent of us, I felt, were all on the same page. To have a true debate, you need to have both sides represented and we didn't get the other side."
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