Top Banner

Click here to load reader

of 30

Crude Oil on the Move Down the Hudson River Valley Pipelines – Virtual and Real Tuxedo Town Board August 10, 2015 Kate Hudson, Director, Cross Watershed.

Dec 24, 2015

Download

Documents

Prudence Powers
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
  • Slide 1
  • Crude Oil on the Move Down the Hudson River Valley Pipelines Virtual and Real Tuxedo Town Board August 10, 2015 Kate Hudson, Director, Cross Watershed Initiatives
  • Slide 2
  • Crude Oil on the Move Risks for Hudson River Communities 1.Crude Oil on the move: Where is it coming from, how is it shipped, what are the risks? 2.Proposed Pilgrim Pipelines: a new risk 3. Are pipelines safer? Why not? 4. Pipeline impacts and costs 5. Pipeline benefits? 6. What actions can be taken and why now
  • Slide 3
  • Crude Oil = Unrefined Petroleum Before 2012, little or no crude oil was sent through the Hudson Valley Tar Sands Crude Photo: Ben Garvin Bakken Crude
  • Slide 4
  • Bakken-to-East Coast Virtual Pipeline Route Crude Oil Trains, Barges and Ships As industry has extracted more oil, it has employed a virtual pipeline of trains, barges, and ships to get Bakken crude from North Dakota and Canada to coastal refineries.
  • Slide 5
  • More Oil = More Oil Transport Unit trains carry 80-120 tank cars, each with 30,000 gal. capacity A 4000% increase in crude transport in 7 years 2008: 9,500 tank carloads of crude by rail 2013: 400,000 tank carloads of crude by rail 2014: 493,126 tank cars of crude oil
  • Slide 6
  • Current Crude Oil Transport in the Hudson Valley Up to 5 billion gallons shipped Per Year (more than 10 million gallons per day)
  • Slide 7
  • Crude Oil Transport Risks Train derailment of Bakken crude oil Could lead to devastating explosions and fire and/or discharges of oil to adjacent waterways, including the Hudson River or its tributaries. On-Water Spill of Bakken crude oil Federal spill responders have said that the best case spill response would only recover 20-25% of the oil. On-Water Spill of Tar Sands crude oil Federal spill responders have said the best case spill response for heavy, sinking oil would be 5% recovery. Pipeline Spill of crude oil Frequency and spill quantities much greater than other forms of transport.
  • Slide 8
  • Proposed Pilgrim Pipelines
  • Slide 9
  • Pilgrim Pipelines Basics Two parallel pipelines are proposed to run from Albany, NY for 178 miles, more or less parallel to the NYS Thruway, from Albany, connecting to distribution points along the way, before turning east at I-287 to reach the Phillips 66 Bayway refinery in Linden NJ. The two lines proposed are an 18 inch line would transport crude oil south and a 16 inch line refined products (aviation fuel, gasoline, heating oil) north. In Orange County, laterals would run to the Roseton tank farms and through New Windsor and the City of Newburgh to tank farms on the Hudson River.
  • Slide 10
  • Pilgrim Pipelines Basics In Ulster County, the pipeline path would run through the towns of Esopus, Lloyd, New Paltz, Plattekill, Rosendale, Saugerties and Ulster, and the City of Kingston. Other affected counties in NYS include Albany, Greene and Rockland. Pilgrim Pipeline Holdings, formed specifically for this project, is a Connecticut-based affiliate of Petroleum Solutions Management LLC, based in Winter Haven, Florida.
  • Slide 11
  • Pilgrim Pipelines: The Siting Process No federal agency with overarching authority to permit oil pipelines as FERC does with gas pipelines. Thus, no opportunity for public input until permit applications filed. Out of state, private oil pipeline companies like Pilgrim do not have power of eminent domain. They cannot take private property from homeowners who refuse to grant access/easement. Access to Thruway right-of-way will be difficult, due to cost, permitting restrictions and notoriously tough approval process. But a pipeline corporation could be formed by Pilgrim under NYS Transportation Corporation Law that would have the power to condemn in order to construct and operate a petroleum pipeline for public use.
  • Slide 12
  • Pilgrim Pipelines: Permitting Permits Required DEC wetlands, 401 Certification Army Corps 404 dredging, stream crossing, wetland disturbance CZMA Coastal Consistency (Army Corps, DOS) The Permitting Process Need for full EIS under NEPA/SEQRA in all permitting proceedings. Full review would require impact of pipeline transport of oil on climate change/ GHG emissions. Federal permits need for ESA consultation if endangered species or their habitat is affected.
  • Slide 13
  • Pilgrim Pipeline What are the risks for the Town of Tuxedo?
  • Slide 14
  • Are pipelines safer? Spill Risks of Pipelines v. Rail v. Vessel Pipeline spills are inevitable (Forbes, April 2014). Pipeline spills release much larger amounts of oil than spills from any other mode of transport. From 2004 to 2012, pipelines spilled three times the oil that oil trains did over the same period (PHMSA). The 10 year average (2004-2013) is 631 pipeline incidents per year with 97,263 barrels (over 4 million gallons) per year spilled resulting in $494 million per year in property damage (PHMSA).
  • Slide 15
  • Slide 16
  • Why arent they safer? New technology will not reduce the risk Photo: The Advocate Photo: pbs.org PHMSA data indicates that 44% of pipeline leaks are due to non-technology factors Examples: excavation damage, natural force damage, outside force damage, and incorrect operation Pipelines poor track record from 2003-2013, 1,880 crude oil pipeline spills (on average, nearly one every other day), 44 million gallons spilled
  • Slide 17
  • Kalamazoo River Michigan, 2009 843,000gallons of tarsands crude35 miles ofriverCleanup at$2B+
  • Slide 18
  • Tioga, North Dakota September 2013 Farmer finds 865,200 gallons of fracked oil spilled onto his property from a pipeline leak, covering the equivalent of seven football fields. One of the largest spills in state history, soils were contaminated to a depth of 30 feet. Photo: John Wathen, Hurricane Creekkeeper Source: Neal Lauron
  • Slide 19
  • Glendive, Montana Jan 2015 Pipeline breach spilled 50,400 gallons of crude oil into the Yellowstone River, contaminating drinking supplies. At time of rupture, 110 feet of pipeline lay uncovered on the bottom of the river, exposing it to damage. Three and a half years before it was 8 feet under the river. Photo: The Advocate Photo: pbs.org
  • Slide 20
  • Pipeline Under Sediment Pipeline exposed leak
  • Slide 21
  • Santa Barbara, California May 2015 Pipeline breach spilled ~105,000 gallons of crude oil near the coastline of southern Santa Barbara County, contaminating Refugio State Beach. Photo: The Advocate Photo: pbs.org Source: KTLA ~21,000 gallons passed through storm drain to ocean $3 million/day. $62 million as of 6/10/15 Source: LA Times
  • Slide 22
  • What Went Wrong in Santa Barbara? The Smart Pig Didnt Work! Photo: The Advocate Photo: pbs.org Devices (e.g., Smart PIGs) used to detect corrosion not always effective, especially in high corrosion areas. Possibility of human error in analyzing the results of tests. Preliminary PIG results showing that the pipe had lost half its metal near the break vastly underestimated just how thin the pipeline had become. Pipeline Inspection Gauge (PIG). Source: PPSA
  • Slide 23
  • Costs and Impacts of Oil Pipelines Condemnation Pilgrim will need to lease or condemn all or part of several hundred privately owned parcels along its proposed route Secondary impacts Many more property owners just off the route will face secondary impacts including construction impacts (noise and traffic), threats to property values and health and safety risks First responder preparedness costs Spill clean-up costs and damages Pilgrim will not indemnify Threats to public drinking water supplies if impacted it could take years to clean up Impact on property values, not only as a result of a spill, but even proximity to an oil pipeline (lower property values means lower property tax revenue) Presence of an oil pipeline can cause homeowners insurance premiums to rise for that property and potentially for adjacent properties
  • Slide 24
  • Pipeline Construction Impacts (There are none for rail or vessel transport) Impacts on homeowners Noise and air impacts associated with clear-cutting, blasting and drilling, and construction vehicle traffic, among others Construction across key waterbodies including important tributaries to the Hudson River (Esopus, Rondout, Sawkill and Plattekill Creeks and the Wallkill River) Wetland Disturbance: federal and potentially state Stormwater impacts due to vegetation removal Potential impairment of sensitive aquifers on which residents depend for drinking water Crossing of Delaware and Catskill aqueducts that supply drinking water to more than 9 million New Yorkers Disturbance of critical wildlife habitat
  • Slide 25
  • Are There Any Benefits? Will constructing Pilgrim Pipelines take crude oil transport off the rails and the river as Pilgrim LLC predicts? Pilgrim has not designed the pipelines to be big enough to end both rail and river transport, or even both vessel and barge No one can require that rail or vessel transport be moved to the pipelines. It will depend on the choices that the industry makes, which no one can predict. Here is what the industry has said: When we look at the modes of transportation, our industry the oil and gas industry we take an all of the above approach. Robin Rorick (oversees transportation of oil and gas from well to market for the American Petroleum Institute) Two thirds of Bakken crude is now transported to East Coast refineries by rail, demonstrating the industrys preference for the extensive network and increased flexibility of rail as compared with pipelines. It is just as likely that the building of Pilgrim Pipelines will increase the amount of oil being transported down the Hudson Valley not, as Pilgrim claims, move it from rail and vessel to pipelines. More oil transported encourages more fossil fuel extraction, accelerating climate change.
  • Slide 26
  • Other Benefits claimed by Pilgrim Job growth? Temporary, construction, primarily to out of state firms; small number of permanent jobs, but are they new jobs or just replacing jobs that will be lost in the Port of Albany and on barges and vessels? Pipelines are a safer means of transport? Not supported by the pipeline safety track record and pipeline spills are larger and so harder and more expensive to clean up. Pilgrim pipelines will mean cheaper fuel for consumers because transport will cost less? How do we know that Pilgrim will charge less and whether that savings for wholesalers will be passed on to consumers. No guarantees. May reduce GHG emissions? Compared to barge traffic, but will lock the region into fossil fuel for decades at a time when we need to rapidly transition to more sustainable forms of energy.
  • Slide 27
  • Actions We Can Take on Pilgrim Pipelines Write to the Governor and the NYS Thruway Authority and Department of Transportation and urge them to deny Pilgrim the ability to use the Thruway right of way for their pipelines. Write to the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation and the Army Corps of Engineers and urge them to require a full environmental review of Pilgrims proposal. Work in your community to introduce and pass County and local/municipal resolutions opposing Pilgrim Pipeline and a zoning ordinance prohibiting oil pipelines that do not bring products or services to town residents. Urge your state and federal elected representatives to join you in pressing regulators not to authorize the Pipeline.
  • Slide 28
  • 18 New York Hudson Valley communities pass resolutions opposing the pipelines City of Kingston Cornwall Esopus Marbletown New Paltz, Town of* New Paltz, Village of Newburgh, City of* Newburgh, Town of* Plattekill* 34 New Jersey Municipal Resolutions also passed Red Hook Rhinebeck* Rochester Rosendale* Saugerties (No confidence resolution) Tuxedo Park Ulster County* Wawarsing Woodstock * available online
  • Slide 29
  • Why take action now? There is an opportunity now to influence decisions yet to be made by regulators, Pilgrim investors and even Pilgrim itself that could be lost after applications are filed. A resolution by the Town Board opposed to the pipelines that directs the sending of letters to the NYS Thruway Authority, the Department of Transportation and other regulators, combined with those of many other Towns, could: influence their decision about granting or denying access to the Thruway right of way; impact decisions that Pilgrim makes re route selection; result in a more comprehensive environmental review process being required by state and federal regulators; send a message to investors in the pipelines that this is not a good capital investment for them. Without investors, the Pilgrim pipelines project may fail to move forward.
  • Slide 30
  • Further Information and Resources on Pilgrim Pipelines If residents have interactions with Pilgrim, LLC representatives trying to gain access to their property that are concerning or have questions about your rights and Pilgrims, call the New York State Attorney Generals Consumer Frauds and Protection Bureau at 845-485-3900. Further information available at stoppilgrimpipeline.com and riverkeeper.org/crude. Kate Hudson, Riverkeeper [email protected] Iris Marie Bloom, Coalition Against Pilgrim Pipelines-New York 845-687-7810, [email protected]@gmail.com THANK YOU!