Schoharie County Board passes resolution on pipeline health impacts and sends to FERC!

From: Robert Nied 
Date: Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 10:39 PM
Subject: Huge victory - Schoharie County Board passes resolution on pipeline health impacts and sends to FERC!
 

Folks:

 

It was indeed a good day in Schoharie County. Please see the message below from Glenn Sanders, our most astute political navigator, who is reporting the passage of Resolution 36 at 7:30 this evening (with support from the Schoharie County Health Department), which states the following and includes supporting documentation which will be forwarded to FERC: (Congratulations and thank you to our Glenn and our many tireless activists who continue to accomplish what many said was impossible.)

 

RESOLVED, that the Schoharie County Board of Supervisors requests
that comprehensive health impact assessments be among the issues
considered by any and all regulatory agencies reviewing projects
proposed for siting within the County which include natural gas
exploration, production, waste products, transmission, storage,
or delivery, and be it further

 

RESOLVED, to request that certifications or permits issued by
said regulatory agencies include requirements for reasonable
mitigation of significant adverse health impacts reported in
said comprehensive assessments, and be it further

 

RESOLVED, to request that the inability to include comprehensive
health impact assessments in the course of reviewing natural
gas proposals be considered by regulatory agencies to be a
significant omission in the data available for review, and be it
further

 

RESOLVED, to submit this Resolution, together with the attached
Documentation, in a timely manner and in the form of a Public
Comment to FERC as regards the proposed Constitution gas
transmission pipeline.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi All -

 

Another good day at the County Board of Supervisors. The

Resolution below was passed unanimously (5 supervisors had

already left by the time - 7:15pm - it came up for a vote, but it

did get the votes of Singletary & Murray, as well as lape, Bradt,

Mann, & Skowfoe - as wide a consensus as one could hope for).

 

It, and the supporting documentation, are on the long &

complicated side, so I want to tune you in to the key points:

 

1. Schoharie has acknowledged that there is a credible scientific

basis for expecting adverse health impacts from natural gas

operations.

 

2. It is concerned that these foreseeable impacts have never been

thoroughly and properly evaluated.

 

3. It wants gas regulatory agencies to study and mitigate these

impacts.

 

4. It wants the failure or inability to study these impacts to be

considered by the regulators a "significant omission" in their

review process.

 

I have talked with the environmental review honcho, Charlie

Brown, at FERC, and I think he is honestly interested in looking

over the studies on the "Documentation" attachment, which

follows the Resolution at the end of this e-mail, and in hearing

Williams' response.

 

I hope that you are able to take advantage of this as an

educational and political tool. It is hard for someone to spend

much time with the Documentation page and remain convinced

that pipelines are safe.

 

Best,

Glenn

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------                                                                                                                                        March 15, 2013

                 Schoharie County Resolution 36    
  Resolution on Comprehensive Health Impact Assessments

                         for Natural Gas Projects

 

WHEREAS, Schoharie County currently hosts two interstate
natural gas transmission pipelines and one propane gas
transmission pipeline, and

 

WHEREAS, the NY Department of Environmental Conservation
(DEC) is on record as advising the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC) that a proposed interstate natural gas
transmission pipeline (Constitution), which has a
preferred route through Schoharie County, has a reasonably
foreseeable impact of promoting gas-related heavy
industrial developments alongside and nearby its route, and

 

WHEREAS, the Schoharie County Standing Committee on Public
Health and the County Department of Health  are in receipt
of concerns expressed by health professionals and regulatory
officials regarding a reasonably foreseeable risk of
significant adverse public health impacts created by the
above-noted pipelines and industrial developments, and

 

WHEREAS, there are no comprehensive health impact assessments
pertaining to the above-noted health concerns, conducted in
accord with accepted research standards of scholarly
institutions, that have been made available to or can be
identified by the Schoharie County Department of Health, and

 

WHEREAS, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has
requested input from all interested parties concerning
environmental impacts of the proposed Constitution gas pipeline,
so that these impacts may be properly studied and evaluated, so
therefore, be it

 

RESOLVED, that the Schoharie County Board of Supervisors requests
that comprehensive health impact assessments be among the issues
considered by any and all regulatory agencies reviewing projects
proposed for siting within the County which include natural gas
exploration, production, waste products, transmission, storage,
or delivery, and be it further

 

RESOLVED, to request that certifications or permits issued by
said regulatory agencies include requirements for reasonable
mitigation of significant adverse health impacts reported in
said comprehensive assessments, and be it further

 

RESOLVED, to request that the inability to include comprehensive
health impact assessments in the course of reviewing natural
gas proposals be considered by regulatory agencies to be a
significant omission in the data available for review, and be it
further

 

RESOLVED, to submit this Resolution, together with the attached
Documentation, in a timely manner and in the form of a Public
Comment to FERC as regards the proposed Constitution gas
transmission pipeline.

 

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                                        

                                   Documentation of the Need for Comprehensive

                              Health Impact Assessments of Natural Gas Operations

                                        (for Schoharie County Resolution 36)

 

 

1. Radon, benzene, toluene, methyl mercury, and formaldehyde are among the

toxic "impurities" in natural gas. A  list of inherent toxins is presented in the following link

to the U.S. Energy Information Administration:

 

http://www.eia.gov/pub/oil_gas/natural_gas/analysis_publications/natural_gas_1998_issues_trends/pdf/chapter2.pdf

 

2. These inherent toxins, along with methane, and other toxins which may be

introduced during various steps in gas operations, are released in significant quantities

into the atmosphere, the soil, and groundwater as a result of leaks ("fugitive escapes"),

venting, and combustion. These releases are documented in the following government,

industry, news service, and academic source material:

 

http://www.epa.gov/gasstar/documents/redesignblowdownsystems.pdf

[routine massive venting from compressor stations] 

http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/1/014017

[toxic releases from gas operations measured in tons per year]

http://www.edf.org/sites/default/files/9235_Barnett_Shale_Report.pdf 

http://www.eeb.cornell.edu/howarth/Howarth%20et%20al.%20--%20National%20Climate%20Assessment.pdf

[best estimate is that just under 1% of pipeline contents escape as leaks]

http://www.migmasys.com/GasTutamen.html

[leaks are extremely difficult to detect]

http://www.ingaa.org/cms/33/1060/6435/5485.aspx

[estimates of releases have high degree of uncertainty]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/business/energy-environment/15degrees.html

http://www.epa.gov/airquality/oilandgas/pdfs/20110728factsheet.pdf

[pollutants also emitted from processes used to move gas through pipelines]

 

 

3. Chronic, low-level exposure to these released toxins may have significant adverse

impacts on public health. This possibility is strongly suggested by the following government,

academic, environmental, news service, and medical source material:

 

http://www.epa.gov/radon/healthrisks.html 

  [chronic, low-level radon exposure has significant adverse health impacts] 

http://des.nh.gov/organization/commissioner/pip/factsheets/ard/documents/ard-ehp-3.pdf

http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/1/014017

  [converts health impacts into million-dollar costs per county]

http://www.endocrinedisruption.com/files/HERA12-137Table4References.pdf

  [37 pages of studies showing health impacts of chronic, low-level exposure to gas toxins]

http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/wilmasubra04012012/

http://newyork.sierraclub.org/documents/FERCNGP-SC-FWWCommentsCP11-56.pdf

  [gas from Marcellus fields has much higher radon content]

http://www.catskillcitizens.org/learn_one.cfm?t=13&c=47

http://www.thevillager.com/?p=7817

http://www.ccag.org.au/images/stories/pdfs/literature%20review%20witter%20et%20al%202008.pdf

  [epidemiological evidence of health impacts from chronic, low-level gas toxin exposure]

http://www.gascape.org/California%20Gas%20Warning.html

http://rwma.com/newsletter_fracking_special_edition_2012.htm 

http://dbp.idebate.org/en/index.php/Argument:_Natural_gas_can_be_harmful_and_even_poisonous_to_ingest

  [references to physicians linking natural gas exposure to human illnesses]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11762803

 

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