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Stop the Rockaway Pipeline
October 22, 2013 @ 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Not this Summer! Not in our Ocean! Not Under our Beach!
STOP THE ROCKAWAY PIPELINE
Pipeline company Williams Transco says it will build this summer!
To lay the pipe, they plan to trench the ocean floor off Riis Beach, stirring up sediment—lots of sand for sure & long-buried toxins too.
All along Williams Transco said this work would be done during winter, when marine populations are low and no one is at the beach.
Now, they make this stunning announcement!…and it comes 2 weeks after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) published its draft Environmental Impact Statement (dEIS).
Join us at Public Hearings this Tuesday and Wednesday.
Say No!
Tuesday, October 22nd
6pm Rally … 7pm Public Hearing
Knights of Columbus, 333 Beach 90th St
or see below for Wednesday info, talking points
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The deadline to fight the Rockaway Pipeline is approaching
and we need your help!
The gas industry intends to surround us with an expanding network of shale gas pipelines to bring fracked gas to markets here and overseas. One of these is the Rockaway Pipeline, a 26-inch high-pressure pipeline to be built by Williams Transco and National Grid. It will be trenched into the ocean floor, run under the sand of Riis Park Beach, cross below the Rockaway Inlet adjacent to Jamaica Bay, and continue up Flatbush Avenue to a Metering & Regulation facility (M&R Station) to be built in two historic hangars at Floyd Bennett Field, from there to enter the city’s grid at King’s Plaza Shopping Center. In fact, some of it has already been laid, but it’s not too late to stop this project from completion.
Almost the entire project falls within Gateway National Recreation Area, our National Park. The Rockaway Pipeline will transgress the waters of the Rockaway Inlet, uncomfortably close to the protected environment of the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, and the M&R Station is to be sited within feet of the Floyd Bennett Community Garden, Aviator Sports Complex, and camping grounds.
The impacts and risks are many: local environmental effects from both the construction process and the normal operation of the project and the risk of catastrophic failure, accidental or intentional. This pipeline would greatly encourage the expansion of fracking with all its attendant environmental ills, and it would bring more fracked (and possibly very radioactive) gas from the Marcellus Shale into our region.
Even worse, instead of freeing us to develop renewable energy, building this pipeline commits us to additional decades of shale gas use, which exacerbates climate change. This is a sad irony for all of us who are so freshly aware of climate change destruction, and especially for residents of Rockaway and the communities in and surrounding Jamaica Bay where many are still recovering from Superstorm Sandy.
Do you want to stop this?
Please join us at the Public Hearings next week!
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has recently released its draft Environmental Impact Statement (dEIS) for this project. There will be two public hearings for the dEIS, and we need you to come and express your concerns and opposition to the pipeline. Both hearings start at 7:00 p.m.
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October 22, 2013
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Knights of Columbus Rockaway Council 2672
333 Beach 90th Street
Rockaway Beach, NY 11693
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October 23, 2013
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Aviator Sports & Events Ctr
3159 Flatbush Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11234
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Getting there by public transportation:
To 333 Beach 90th Street:
A train to Broad Channel, stay on platform for the S train to Beach 90th Street in Rockaway (one stop!). The Knights of Columbus is one block north toward the bay.
To Aviator Sports Center:
#2 or #5 train to Flatbush/Nostrand Avenue (Brooklyn), then Q35 bus south (stops across the street; ask driver to notify you).
Some talking points for comment at the hearings follow:
1. Transco plans to trench the ocean floor this spring and summer.
On October 18, 2013–two weeks after the dEIS was published–Transco submitted 543 pages of additional information. Transco plans to trench the ocean floor off Riis Beach this summer. All the sampling and counting of marine animals was done during low-count winter months. This new information is not the information on which FERC relied when writing the dEIS.
2. Was this project segmented to avoid review?
The Rockaway Lateral Delivery Project under FERC review has 2 parts: 1) a 3.2-mile pipeline that would be trenched into the ocean floor and run beneath Riis Beach in Queens, and 2) a Metering & Regulating Station to be built in historic hangars at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. But there is a 1.6-mile gap between those 2 pieces of the project.
This summer, National Grid “bridged” that future gap with their Brooklyn-Queens Interconnect (B-QI), Phase I. Because the B-QI has been falsely categorized as a local distribution pipe, National Grid was allowed to construct it under the Rockaway Inlet—through the Special Natural Waterfront Area and Significant Coastal Fish and Wildlife Habitat of Jamaica Bay—without any environmental review.
In 2012 the EPA advised FERC in its review: “A comprehensive evaluation of cumulative, indirect and secondary impacts should be presented. The cumulative impacts analysis should consider the environmental impacts of the National Grid pipeline, without which the Rockaway Delivery Lateral would not be constructed.” And federal case law says a project cannot be segmented so as to avoid review. FERC has ignored the EPA advice and the law. FERC should include a comprehensive evaluation of the cumulative impacts of the entire project—including the National Grid pipeline—in its environmental review.
3. Pipeline Safety
“Since 1986, pipeline accidents have killed more than 500 people, injured over 4,000, and cost nearly seven billion dollars in property damages” in the United States alone.1 The Rockaway Lateral Pipeline would be vulnerable to leakage during construction, from natural disasters, from terrorism, and from corrosion. Current national inspections of pipelines are inadequate, with only 7% of natural gas lines inspected each year. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Adminstration (PHMSA) is chronically short of inspectors. It has funding for only 137, and had even fewer inspectors on staff in 2010. By the way, Transco plans its own in-person inspections only once every 7 years.
1. Lena Groeger, Pipelines Explained: How Safe are America’s 2.5 Million Miles of Pipelines? Pro Publica November 15, 2012.
4. Fire and Flood Hazards
“The transportation of natural gas by pipeline involves some incremental risk to the public due to the potential for an accidental release of natural gas. The greatest hazard is a fire or major pipeline rupture.” (Draft EIS 4.12)
In Floyd Bennett Field, the Metering & Regulating Station’s regulator vault will be placed one foot above the floor of an airplane hangar which is at a 16′ elevation above sea level. This is in a flood zone where water crested at 14′ after Hurricane Sandy. The potential mix of seawater and gas is a dangerous one.
When regulator vaults flood, the regulator mechanism’s ability to reduce gas pressure can be significantly impaired. Water can cause the regulator to be stuck in the open position, dramatically increasing the pressure. If gas comes into a home or business at a higher pressure than it’s supposed to, a fire or explosion can result. And the local firemen tell us that many of the fire hydrants at Floyd Bennett Field either have low pressure or don’t work at all.
Williams Transco claims that the likelihood of flooding is not significantly greater now than in the summer of 2012, just before Hurricane Sandy, despite authoritative findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that sea level rise is inevitable and man-made.
5. Impacts on Protected Species
The project will have negative impacts on endangered and protected species. The dEIS acknowledges that this project “is likely to adversely affect Atlantic Right Whale and Atlantic Sturgeon,” and that it may also have impacts for the Leatherback Sea Turtle, Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle, Green Sea Turtle, Loggerhead Sea Turtle, Roseate Tern, Piping Plover, and Seabeach Amaranth. These impacts result from a variety of factors including pile driving noise, dredging, ocean debris, and the potential for collision with vessels.
6. Impacts on Marine Wildlife
Noise in the immediate area of pile driving for pipeline construction would exceed the injury threshold for fish, and the behavioral disturbance threshold for sea turtles; and would exceed the behavioral disturbance for marine mammals for a distance of 2.86 miles. In fact, Williams Transco has applied to the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for authorization for “Intermittent Level B Harassment” of six marine mammal species. Construction of the offshore pipeline also would directly disturb approximately 38 acres of seabed due to dredging and jetting. Benthic species in these areas, such as Surfclams, most likely would perish.
7. Impacts on Essential Fish Habitat
The pipeline will be located in a marine area that supports Essential Fish Habitat for 21 species. In addition to noise impacts discussed above, offshore excavations would create turbidity plumes in the water column that could clog fish gills, obscure visual stimuli, and reduce food intake for some fish. It is estimated that up to 402 acres of seabed could be affected by sedimentation.
8. Concerns About The Historic Hangars
Information on the design of the interiors of the airplane hangars is being considered privileged information and not made available to the public, so we have limited information. We do know that in certain areas fire retardant materials will not be used, due to the “aesthetics” of preserving of the historic look of the hangars, nor will the sprinkler system be activated.
In assessing the potential of vibration from construction activities, Transco states that “the simultaneous operation of multiple pieces of equipment or operation of equipment within 5 to 10 feet from the hanger walls could potentially cause damage.” The EIS suggests that a ‘vibration level threshold’ for the hanger be identified and that a Construction Protection (CPP) plan be created and filed with the Federal Office of Energy Projects (OEP). However, the Office of Energy Projects’ enforcement division is focused on national gas market oversight and compliance with tariffs, not construction site safety, and is therefore unlikely to be an effective watchdog. What assurance does the public have that such a plan will be credible? Who will enforce the plan?
9. Dredging Of Toxins
The waters off Gateway National Recreation Area are the site of some of the worst dumping along the East Coast. According to an ad hoc committee’s 1970 report, it is part of the largest grossly polluted area in the United States, and contains lead, chromium, copper, gold, selenium, and zinc. These toxins have been buried and kept out of the waters for years, but could be brought up by dredging related to this project, poisoning local fish and ruining commercial fisheries.
10. Mitigation Procedures Inadequate
While “mitigation procedures” such as monitoring protected species are described by Williams Transco, and additional reviews of potential impacts have been recommended by FERC, we have no assurance that these measures will be sufficient to avoid unacceptable environmental harms. Certainly they will not protect us from the “upstream” impacts of fracking and climate change.
11. Do We Need The Gas?
Regarding this project, EPA stated: “The EIS should include a full discussion of the purpose and the need of the proposed project, quantifying energy demand and the need for such facilities in the region.” This has not been adequately discussed in the EIS.
12. The Project Will Encourage Fracking
The substantial cost of construction of this pipeline puts economic pressure on Williams Transco to continue pumping gas through it as long as possible, and the only new sources of gas available are from fracking shale formations. The more pipelines, the more financial incentive to continue the practice of fracking.
13. It Will Exacerbate Climate Change
Although “natural gas” burns cleaner than coal or oil, the extraction and transportation of this gas is much more damaging to the atmosphere. Natural gas is methane, which contributes much more to global warming than an equivalent amount of CO2. Any leak in a pipe, or release of gas to mitigate pressure (both of which happen frequently) is very harmful, and the extraction process releases large amounts of methane.
14. Investing Billions In Fossil Fuels Infrastructure Is A Disincentive To Investment In Renewables
Wind, water and solar power can be scaled up in cost-effective ways to meet our energy demands, freeing us from dependence on both fossil fuels and nuclear power.
15. The Comments Period Must Be Extended
At over 300 pages of text, 64 tables, 45 figures and 17 appendices the draft EIS is a dense technical document. The informed layperson who must read this document evenings and weekends needs more than a few weeks to read and digest the information. And two weeks after dEIS publication, Transco submits 500+ more pages of new and changing details! The comment period is too short and should be extended to allow for additional public comment.
Shortly after the hearings we will be in touch with information on how to make written comments on this draft EIS at the FERC website.
Thank you for your commitment to our health and our planet.
You can see more about the ferc process here:
And you can read the entire dEIS here:
For more on the Rockaway Pipeline, visit our website:
or find us on Facebook at CARP.