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Watkins Glen – Concerned citizens, local experts and over 100 businesses came together Tuesday night to discuss the adverse health and safety, environmental, and business impacts of the proposed gas storage facility on Seneca Lake.  Leaders from the local scientific, medical and business communities discussed the many risks associated with Crestwood’s plan to create a massive liquefied petroleum and natural gas storage facility in the Finger Lakes. During the public forum, 'Seneca in the Balance', sponsored by local organization Gas Free Seneca, the panel provided new information on Seneca Lake’s uncertain future should this dangerous plan get approved.

Crestwood Midstream, the Houston, TX-based company that recently merged with Inergy Midstream, plans to convert abandoned, depleted underground salt caverns on the shores of Seneca Lake, into storage for nearly 5 million barrels of propane and butane. Crestwood has told its shareholders and the SEC that they currently have 40 million barrels of potential energy storage on this site and this project is merely the start of development in the area and that they hope to turn the Finger Lakes area into a gas storage and transport hub for the entire Northeast region.

Community residents have expressed concerns about the many risks associated with this facility and the effects it will have on residents and the local agri-tourism industry, notably air and water pollution, industrial noise and light pollution, burning flare stacks and heavy truck and train traffic. Neither Crestwood nor the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) have released any information to address their concerns.

“For well over a century” said Will Ouweleen of Eagle Crest Vineyard on Hemlock Lake, “the farm and vineyard families represented here today, have toiled in the rocky soils of the Finger Lakes to carve out a name for ourselves. One accident could destroy 150 years of careful brand building.”

Michael Warren Thomas, speaking on behalf of Paul Hobbs of California, and Johannes Selbach of the Mosel Region in Germany, who recently purchased 65 acres on Seneca Lake to build a vineyard and winery, said, “You may not know these names, and many people don’t, but the wine investors do. They follow them, they will follow them here to the Finger Lakes, and I don’t think those investors will be interested in LP storage.”

The massive industrial lights, noise and emissions from this facility could crush the region’s budding wine and tourism industries, on which much of the local economy relies.

“The closest resource that could really handle a massive accident at this kind of facility is located in Clearfield, PA,” said Earthjustice Associate Attorney, Moneen Nasmith. “The bottom line is that the community is not prepared for something to go wrong at this sort of facility. At one point in time, the caverns under the US salt facility had a 400 thousand ton piece of rock that fell from the roof of one of the caverns that Inergy and Crestwood maintain are absolutely and totally safe and have no issues of integrity.”

Crestwood’s plans are awaiting approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the DEC. With the formation of his Regional Development Councils, Governor Andrew Cuomo has fostered a ground up, regional economic strategy, allowing communities the opportunity to develop local economies based on their strengths and that strategy is clearly working in the Finger Lakes. Members of the panel asked Governor Cuomo to oppose Crestwood’s plans before they are approved.

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