Gas Stash
by Brett Wood
and Matt Bedient
The Finger Lakes Region is one of the most magnificent parts of New York. Seneca Lake, is facing a huge environmental issue in the sense that a company, Crestwood Midstream, is trying to store liquefied butane, petroleum, and propane inside 60 year old salt storage caverns. This is occurring in a sparsely populated area in the town of Reading, near the south end of the lake, just north of Watkins Glen. Known for one of the best State Parks in New York, Watkins Glen and other towns could severely be affected in several ways. The people of these communities are working together to raise awareness and things have been getting interesting.
One cavern in question, scheduled to be filled with 600,000 barrels of butane, was deemed unstable after an earthquake collapsed its roof. It was filled and abandoned in 2003. Gas storage facilities, historically, don’t have the best reputation. Salt facilities are notorious for failure; since 1972, eleven facilities have documented “instances of catastrophic failure”. Clearly there are better options than storing these gasses in old salt caverns.
Air, water, soil, and noise pollution are the main concerns with the proposed LPG storage plan. Gas leaks and compromised brine ponds on the steep slopes of Seneca Lake would devastate the area’s soil and water quality. Seneca Lake is a Class AA freshwater source, and provides a potable water supply for over 100,000 people. Contamination of any kind would be a long and expensive process, with no guarantees that it would ever be restored to the quality it is right now. Surrounding locals will have to deal with a serious amount of noise coming from the 24/7 operation of semi-trucks and rail cars which will be responsible for transporting the gasses throughout the state. The facility is capable of unloading four semi-trucks per hour along with loading and unloading 24 rail cars in 12 hours. With all of these operations together, there will be a significant increase in traffic which will kill the vibe of the Finger Lakes Region.
The local wine industry may be impacted as well. These gasses have the potential to make their way into groundwater, which could end up in the local wine. With all the massive trucks and extra traffic along Route 14, where the caverns exist, the noise and industrialization of the area may hurt the amount of tourism to the area. With a lack of tourists, the wine industry, which is a contributor of over four billion dollars to the state’s economy, could be in jeopardy. The beautiful scenery of original landscapes would turn into an industrial zone, undesirable to anyone. Real-estate value of the area would depreciate if this were to occur. “If something happens, we can’t just pull our vineyards and move” says Paula Fitzsimmons, an activist for the local We Are Seneca Lake group.
Overall, the liquid propane gas storage facility just isn’t right for Seneca Lake. The local economy thrives by producing some of the best wines and foods to people in the immediate area and around the world. To risk harming such a massive freshwater source, and potentially smothering the income provided by tourism just doesn’t make sense. Crestwood should reconsider the location of their storage site to a place where it has much less of a chance to contaminate such a massive freshwater source. It should also be done somewhere that it will not affect the well-being of local businesses that bring so much to the local and state economy.
[Photo Credit, KayYen, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0]
One cavern in question, scheduled to be filled with 600,000 barrels of butane, was deemed unstable after an earthquake collapsed its roof. It was filled and abandoned in 2003. Gas storage facilities, historically, don’t have the best reputation. Salt facilities are notorious for failure; since 1972, eleven facilities have documented “instances of catastrophic failure”. Clearly there are better options than storing these gasses in old salt caverns.
Air, water, soil, and noise pollution are the main concerns with the proposed LPG storage plan. Gas leaks and compromised brine ponds on the steep slopes of Seneca Lake would devastate the area’s soil and water quality. Seneca Lake is a Class AA freshwater source, and provides a potable water supply for over 100,000 people. Contamination of any kind would be a long and expensive process, with no guarantees that it would ever be restored to the quality it is right now. Surrounding locals will have to deal with a serious amount of noise coming from the 24/7 operation of semi-trucks and rail cars which will be responsible for transporting the gasses throughout the state. The facility is capable of unloading four semi-trucks per hour along with loading and unloading 24 rail cars in 12 hours. With all of these operations together, there will be a significant increase in traffic which will kill the vibe of the Finger Lakes Region.
The local wine industry may be impacted as well. These gasses have the potential to make their way into groundwater, which could end up in the local wine. With all the massive trucks and extra traffic along Route 14, where the caverns exist, the noise and industrialization of the area may hurt the amount of tourism to the area. With a lack of tourists, the wine industry, which is a contributor of over four billion dollars to the state’s economy, could be in jeopardy. The beautiful scenery of original landscapes would turn into an industrial zone, undesirable to anyone. Real-estate value of the area would depreciate if this were to occur. “If something happens, we can’t just pull our vineyards and move” says Paula Fitzsimmons, an activist for the local We Are Seneca Lake group.
Overall, the liquid propane gas storage facility just isn’t right for Seneca Lake. The local economy thrives by producing some of the best wines and foods to people in the immediate area and around the world. To risk harming such a massive freshwater source, and potentially smothering the income provided by tourism just doesn’t make sense. Crestwood should reconsider the location of their storage site to a place where it has much less of a chance to contaminate such a massive freshwater source. It should also be done somewhere that it will not affect the well-being of local businesses that bring so much to the local and state economy.
[Photo Credit, KayYen, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0]