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Health and Environmental Impacts ofTransmission Pipeline Infrastructure
Prepared for Citizens MeetingDallas, PA
September 17, 2014
Sam Koplinka-Loehr Clean Air Council
Presentation Overview
• Introduction
• Pipeline Specifics
• Air, Land, and Water Impacts
• Organizing Resources
Bob Donnan
Clean Air Council Marcellus Shale Program
• Lawsuits against polluters or agencies• Track current rulemaking and write comments on regulations• Work with residents to comment and testify on gas infrastructure• Community actions to achieve goals outside of regulatory pathways
• Luzerne County is a “gas gateway” from the shale fields to national markets and export facilities
• Current Marcellus shale production is 14.5 billion cubic feet/day
• Industry all-of-the-above strategy for pipelines in Pennsylvania
Why Pipelines?
Source: http://www.ogj.com/articles/uogr/print/volume-2/issue-3/marcellus-continues-to-defy-expectations-driving-us-gas-production-ever-higher.html
Leidy Southeast Expansion
• Williams Transco • On August 11, FERC
issued the Environmental Assessment for the project
• 30 miles of pipeline• 42” pipeline diameter• 1 billion cubic feet/day
Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline
• Williams Transco• In pre-filing review with
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
• 180 miles of pipeline• 30-42 inch pipeline• 1.7 billion cubic feet/day
PennEast Pipeline
• PennEast Pipeline Company is a joint venture between AGL Resources, NJR Pipeline, South Jersey Industries and UGI Energy Services
• “Open season” just finished• 100 miles of pipeline• 42” pipeline diameter• 1 billion cubic feet/day
Diamond East Pipeline
• Williams Transco• Currently in “open
season”• 50 miles of pipeline
looping and additional compressors
• 1 billion cubic feet/day
Impacts to the Air
Fugitive Emissions/Leakages
• In a study accepted last month, researchers at three universities found methane leakage rates from shale gas drilling at 10 and 9 percent of production for the Bakken and Eagle Ford shale formations, respectively
Sources: EPA; Schneising et al. 2014, “Remote sensing of fugitive methane emissions from oil and gas production in North American tight geologic formations”Available online: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014EF000265/pdf
Shale Gas Infrastructure Pollutants
• Spectra Algonquin Pipeline
42-inch Pipeline Compressor Stations
Stony Point Compressor Station Emissions: School Bus
Equivalent
Impacts to the Land
Forests
• Nature Conservancy predicts upwards of 150,000 acres will be impacted in the next two decades for pipeline construction
• Pipelines exacerbate forest fragmentation
Farms & Animals
• Topsoil disturbances for farmers
• Permanent right-of-way changes animal pathways and movement
Rivers and Streams
• Open cuts across streams and tributaries
• Erosion and sedimentation affecting fish and stream life
Pennsylvania Constitution
Section 27
“The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic
values of the environment.
Pennsylvania's public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to
come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all
the people.”
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
FERC Engagement
• Comment – it’s free!http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/ecomment.asp
• Intervene – it’s free!http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/efiling.asp
• Know Your Rights – it’s free!http://tinyurl.com/carolynelefanthttp://cleanair.org/knowyourrights
Organize!
Organizing Tools
A Pipeline Movement
• Communities all along each pipeline are organizing from Susquehanna County to Lancaster, Berks to New Jersey
Resources:• gdacoalition.org• cleanair.org/pipelines
Landowners take over Williams open house at Millersville University earlier this year, demandinganswers to their questions. When no representativewas willing to meet with them, landowners left together shouting “Go Home Williams”
Right-Of-Ways on State Lands
