Hello, everybody. I need to get three
important items out there right off.
One. Its been a while since I posted to
this blog. Not that I haven't had anything to say – that will be
the day, eh – but I haven't had the time to devote to research on
the topics I like to write about here in order to have properly
formed opinions littered with facts and common sense. I hope to
change that son.
Two. This should in no way be
considered as a completely journalistic effort. True, it will have
facts. But as my readers (hopefully) recall, this is called Thinking
Out Loud for a reason. It is from my point of view and perspective.
So the facts presented will mostly be commented and side commented
upon.
Three. And this is MOST IMPORTANT to
get out there at the outset so as not to be buried too deep.
ANYONE who has an interest in
commenting on the Milford Compressor Station Upgrade (read
“replacement”, as I will explain later), you need to send that
NOW! And I do mean NOW! The comment period endsw on Tuesday September
2. Which is the day after Labor Day. Which means Monday is shot. And
today is Wednesday. So you have to get it in the mail and
overnighted, priority, next day . . . what ever will get your
comments to the PA Department of Environmental Protection.
Here's the address:
Mark Wejksner, Air Quality Program
Manager
2 Public Square
Wilkes-Barre, PA 18701-1915
Okay. Got that out of the way.
So here's the deal with all of that.
Columbia Gas (NiSource) wants to “upgrade” the compressor station
in Milford. I use the parenthetical upgrade because it is essentially
a whole new compressor station. They are tearing out the old and
putting in the new.
Replacement. Simple enough to call it
what it is.
Anyway, all this has a lot of people
upset over it. There have been protests and letter writing campaigns
and what not. You can't really blame them. This new compressor, if it
uses gas powered units has the potential to spew quite a bit of
toxins and produce a bunch of noise. All of which is not good for an
area that is mostly nature and parks and wildlife, and derives its
economic engine from this fact. Hell, Milford is home to the American
Conservation movement.
So, you can't really blame people for
not wanting this thing to be built where it will negatively impact
the environment, the economy, health, well being . . . all of that.
The area is home to numerous falls and beautiful clean rivers and
streams . . . which took lots of people many years to make happen.
Now here comes this nasty corporate
giant wanting to barge in and do what they want. The President said
they could. In his errant quest to make it look like he is doing
anything about energy independence.
But I digress, the President and his
tyrannical view of his job is not at issue here. SO lets move on.
See, here is the thing. The equipment
there is really old. Goes back to the 50's. And it really doesn't
meet the environmental standards of today – even though the company
has been replacing this part and that valve over the years to keep it
up to snuff. So they really do need to replace it.
Do they need it that much bigger? Well,
eventually, with all the gas being piped through their line and the
Tennessee gas lines . . . probably. And any mention of the fact that
this is coming the fracking of western Pennsylvania just muddies the
issue. There are those that add this into the argument, but they are
wrong to do so. So this will be my only mention of it. Boom! Done.
But Columbia Gas needs to make this a
better compressor that it is.
The gas powered engines are NOT the way
to go, however. And they know this. But their corporate bottom line
dictates that they have to be responsive to the shareholders and do
things as inexpensively as legally possible. Which means not using
electric motors and gas recapture technology. Forget that this is the
Best Management Practice. Forget that this would pay for itself in
just a few years. Forget that it is the BEST for the environment, for
the health, etc, etc of the residents, wildlife, water and fauna in
the area.
These things are not their concern.
Don't get me wrong, the people in the
company may have their own opinions and desires – hell, they mostly
have families and children and care about the environment as much as
the next person. But they have a corporate responsibility.
Now, along comes the Pennsylvania
Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) and their
responsibility to the people. Columbia Gas had to get an air quality
permit from them for this compressor station in order to begin their
work. Part of a multi-step process involving lots of different
governmental agencies.
With the outcry and letter writing,
mostly from the Milford Township Supervisors – the municipality
where the compressor station resides – the PA DEP had a public
hearing. This hearing was held at the Delaware valley High School
last Monday (August 18). It was a chance for local residents to let
the DEP know they should not grant Columbia Gas their permit unless
they use electric motors. (Unbelievably, no one mentioned the
recapture technology at this meeting.) It was a time for the people
who live here and are opposed to having their environment, their
health and their economy impacted by this new compressor to stand up
and be counted. To have their say before the people whose job it is
to listen.
Out of over 50,000 Pike County
residents, 1800 from Milford Township alone, can you guess how many
showed up? Oh come on, you've all been here before in this process
where the people get to have their say. Go ahead. Guess.
I'll give you a hint. There were people
here from all over the county. There were even some from neighboring
states.
Got a guess? No?
Some people have the count as low as
141, others as high as near 200. And of those present, 40 people
spoke. Even though at the end, the DEP media rep, Colleen Connolly
asked if anyone else not on the list wanted to speak. Two of those 40
were of the last minute variety.
But that is it.
The people opposed to having the
negative impacts this new compressor represented are all hoping that
the quality of the content of the speakers will outweigh the quantity
in the eyes of the DEP.
And there was definitely quality to
those who argued against the compressor and called for electric
motors.
There were those, like Linda Klee who
has asthma and Ruby Willis who is recovering from a traumatic brain
injury, that spoke about the negative impact to health the gas
powered engines represented. People who already suffer from one
illness to another would be exposed to even higher levels of toxins.
Within current DEP guidelines. But not future ones. And not the
desired levels of residents, for whom any emissions will effect them.
There were those from local government
and activists who cited various legal reasons that DEP should deny
the application. Such as Kevin Stroyan of the Milford Township
Planning Commission, Don Quick and Gary Clark, Supervisors with
Milford Township and Anthony Magnotta, the Milford Township
Solicitor. They called on the DEP to force Columbia Gas to use
electric motors. They strongly requested Columbia Gas / NiSource come
in for a conditional use hearing. They reminded the gas company of
their own words at the beginning of the meeting saying they intended
to adhere to all state, federal and LOCAL ordinances. They demanded
the company be the “good neighbors” they insisted they were and
have been in the past.
There were those who spoke to the issue
of the economic destruction this compressor could wreck upon the
area. People such as Nancy Shandley who said that “Milford's
economic growth and survival depends on tourism.” She said further
that people come up here to get away from the crowds and pollution
and noise, and breath in the clean air. But what she and visitors
don't want is to “breath in toxic air . . . drink contaminated
water . . . or worry in fear of possible explosions.”
“I find it ironic,” Shandley
concluded. “That the birthplace of the conservation and forestry
movement is sitting precariously and in danger of the very thing it
stands for – preserving the natural and pristine environment.”
Then there were those that reminded,
both in word and action, who the gas company and the DEP are up
against on this issue. Spoken with great alacrity and passion was
Sean Strub, owner of a local hotel and someone I don't always see eye
to eye with.
Strub reminded the people from Columbia
Gas / Ni Source that the people here were the same people who have
fought, and won, on environmental issues in the past.
“This is the community,” Strub said
forcefully. “that a century ago provided the leadership to fight
the timber trusts and railroad trust that led to anti-trust actions,
that led to protection of our forest . . . this bis the community
that half a century ago took on the Army Corp of Engineers – had
one of the first mass acts of civil disobedience protest in the
environmental issue stopping the Tocks Island Dam project . . . this
is the community that did that!” He ended up saying that this is
the community that twenty five years ago stopped real estate
interests from building a shopping mall and degrading the Sawkill.
So, bottom line, the next step is up to
the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. They will a)
approve the permit as it stands, b) deny the permit as it stands, c)
decide to have a full hearing on the matter or d) approve the permit
conditional – with that condition being electric motors.
My thought is that DEP will want to
just go ahead and approve the permit, because that would be the
easiest thing for them to do. No harm, no foul, is how they will look
at it. Hell, the residents couldn't even show up in any number that
would represent a majority of the voting public. Its this apathy
among people who live here that will be the downfall of this drive to
protect the environment.
But there is also a chance that DEP
will look at this as an embarrassing moment, because they will be
called out onto the mat for approving something that will indeed harm
the environment. Which means they would go through the process of
holding a full hearing. This will only be the case if there is enough
public outcry to embarrass them into this.
Less likely is that they will either
deny the permit or allow it with the condition of using electric
motors.
But you have to remember that no matter
what their mission is, they are a government agency, an agency that
sits under the leadership of a man who has one of the most atrocious
environmental records of any Governor in recent memory. And they not
only don't have a lot of sympathy for the public, they have even less
for a public how is obviously apathetic.
And to tell the truth, aside from the
people who protest these things on a regular basis, the majority of
the community are lazy and apathetic and – unfortunately for the
rest of – don't really care about anything but themselves. And in
the end, they will be the ones who cry “why wasn't anything done
about this” when their property values drop, the wildlife dies off,
the trees turn gray and the ir children get sick.
It is a typical response for Americans
these days. They either listen to an espouse the ideologies of the
far left or right but do nothing of consequences, or they simply
blame everyone else for their troubles.
Agree with me or not, it really doesn't
matter to me. Go out and look at all the facts, make your own
decisions on the facts or merits of the case. Don't listen to me.
This is just me, thinking Out Loud.
Have a great day.
Charles
