Take Urgent Action to Halt Dominion New Market Pipeline/Demand That the Town of Dryden Withdraw All Local Approvals and Require Governor Cuomo to Revoke the SPPP

Greetings Fractivists,

I write again to express deep gratitude to everyone who came from near and far last Monday to participate in the Dominion New Market Pipeline meeting with company representatives and Town of Dryden officials. We received more terrific press coverage that reported our advocacy efforts in-depth.

See: "What Are You Hiding?" – Citizens Question Dominion Pipeline Project

Dominion attempts to calm pipeline concerns

It is no accident that the only public meeting ever held in Dryden about this massive fracked gas pipeline expansion was scheduled after all federal, state and local approvals have been granted. According to Dominion, the project is scheduled to break ground "very soon."

This is it. It is now or never. It is do or die. If Dominion New Market is permitted to proceed, a horrific fossil fuel infrastructure approval precedent would be set. Valley Lateral Pipeline, Pilgrim Pipeline and Crestwood Gas Storage could be approved next. All for one, one for all. We are in this together.

Take URGENT ACTION TODAY to Require Town of Dryden Officials to Stop the Dominion New Market Pipeline From Proceeding

I implore all Fractivists to call and write Dryden Supervisor Jason Leifer to request that he fulfill the promise he made at the public meeting to write Governor Cuomo to revoke the factually incorrect New Market Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan.

See: Dominion meets the community to discuss pipeline

Request that his letter echo the powerful requests in his Letter from Town of Dryden to FERC re: Borger Compressor Station - 3/6/2017

Demand that the Town stop the Borger Compressor Station from being expanded until all documented contamination problems are cleaned up in strict compliance with state standards: Inadequate Investigation and Clean up Documentation Borger Compressor Station CNG Spill # 9806491

Urge Supervisor Leifer to use the Town's authority to stop Dominion New Market from perpetuating New York's addiction to fracked gas.

Call Supervisor Leifer at (607) 844-8888 and press 6. Email him at: supervisor@dryden.ny.us

Call and email all the Town Board members at: http://dryden.ny.us/board-commission-list/town-board/

DEMAND THAT THE TOWN TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION TO:

RESCIND LOCAL APPROVAL for the New Market Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan;

REQUIRE Dominion to apply for a Special Use Permit for the Borger Compressor Station expansion;

DENY the Special Use Permit because expansion of the proposed Borger Compressor Station cannot comply with the Town of Dryden's comprehensive land-use plan.

Accept no excuses. PROMISE TO REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER! The terms of three board members are up at the end of this year: Jason Leifer, Dan Lamb and Kathy Servoss.

See below my detailed rebuttal to Supervisor Leifer's arguments regarding the Town of Dryden's limited authority regarding Dominion New Market.

Go hard. Thanks so much.

Best,

Walter

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: Re: Dominion
Date: Mon, 1 May 2017 16:35:50 -0400
From: Walter Hang
To: >
CC: Supervisor <JasonLeifer2@dryden.ny.us>

With all respect, I believe that Supervisor Leifer must halt the inappropriate expansion of the toxic-contaminated Borger Compressor Station. I do not accept that this matter has been decided.

The Supervisor earlier wrote FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) and Governor Cuomo to oppose Dominion's requested wetland and waterway protection variances. In his letter to Governor Cuomo, he asked New York State to conduct a full SEQR (State Environmental Quality Review) of the requested variances. There was virtually no chance that the Governor would fulfill this request given FERC's authority in the matter. Indeed, he did not.

See: Letter from Town of Dryden to FERC re: Borger Compressor Station - 3/6/2017

See: Letter from Town of Dryden to Gov. Cuomo, Commissioner Seggos, and Attorney General Schneiderman re: Borger Compressor Station - 2/3/2017

The Supervisor aptly points out in his letter to the Governor: "designated buffers and setbacks exist for a reason; to protect water quality and ecosystems from harmful encroachment. Pursuant to the federal Clean Water Act, New York State has both an authority and obligation to weigh in on matters affecting water quality. Moreover, such authority is expressly preserved by the Natural Gas Act (15 U. S. C 717)."

After the Governor failed to provide a favorable reply to his request, the Supervisor should have immediately withdrawn local approval for the fatally flawed Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SPPP) when its shortcomings were respectfully brought to his attention. He also should have fulfilled requests to write Governor Cuomo to request that the State revoke the SPPP.

The Supervisor's eloquently stated variance concerns are belied by the consultant's report, which accepts the inappropriate wetland and waterway protection variances granted by FERC. Regarding documented shortcomings in the SPPP, the Town's engineer concluded:

"There is a slight variation in the wetland portrayals, but it does not affect the outcome of the SWPPP. There is another data dispute about a staging area south of Ellis Hollow Creek Road. It is part of the plan and is part of the SWPPP, but is not an area where soil is being disturbed. There are no stormwater implications from use of the site as a staging area. The bottom line is no work will be conducted in the wetland areas."

First, the wetland portrayal difference may be slight, but it is highly significant because the approved revised Limits of Disturbance apparently now include a wetland as well as a waterway in the Northeastern Portion of the site.

You can see this concern illustrated at: Borger Station Birdseye Map Proposed Limit of Disturbance Dominion Requested Wetland Waterway Protection Variance

Second, the revised Limits of Disturbance area south of Ellis Hollow Creek Road also includes buffers for a contaminated area that reportedly exceeds applicable clean up standards. This area immediately adjoins wetland areas that drain into Cascadilla Creek, a major tributary to Cayuga Lake.

See: Inadequate Investigation and Clean up Documentation Borger Compressor Station CNG Spill # 9806491

At a minimum, the Supervisor should have followed the consultant's suggestion that, "The town can ask DEC to check whether any previous spill sites might be affected or impacted by this activity (emphasis added)."

Until that question is resolved with further investigative effort, the consultant's conclusion is unsupported that "There are no stormwater implications from use of the site as a staging area."

Additional investigation is required because petroleum impacted groundwater was reportedly dumped on the ground in that area. The remediation also failed to fulfill applicable clean up standards according to the above-referenced communication from the Department of Environmental Conservation spill investigator.

For all these reasons, the Town should have done everything feasible to require the Governor to take regulatory action to revoke the SPPP and to prevent the requested wetland and waterbody protection variances from being granted.

The Town apparently assumed without any evidence that Dominion would not have agreed to participate in a Special Use Permit proceeding. The pipeline operator earlier participated in a SUP proceeding circa 1984.

See: Borger Compressor Station 1984 Special Use Permit and Environmental Assessment Form

In a similar matter, the Town of Pendleton, NY refused to provide a building permit for a Northern Access Pipeline compressor station because it did not comport with local land-use requirements. National Fuel promptly took legal action.

Soon thereafter, the State of New York denied the Section 401 Water Quality Certification required for the proposed pipeline to proceed. That decision killed the project.

The Town of Dryden should have similarly taken all appropriate action to enforce its local land-use requirements regarding the proposed pipeline expansion. Recent court decisions reportedly grant greater local authority in these matters.

The Town also should have supported efforts to require the State of New York to rescind its "blanket authorization" Section 401 Water Quality Certification for the Dominion New Market Pipeline expansion project after numerous toxic problems were documented along the pipeline alignment from Woodhull to the Borger facility to East Greenbush.

Against this background, the Supervisor's inadequate efforts are unacceptable. He must take immediate further action to prevent the Borger Compressor Station expansion for all of the reasons he stated in his letters to Governor Cuomo and FERC. The Supervisor must also require the on-site pollution concerns that have been brought to his attention to be remediated in strict compliance with all state standards without any further delay.

Walter Hang

Sent: Monday, May 1, 2017 1:45 PM
To:
Subject: RE: Dominion

> The [problem for the Town is that Ultimately this is a FERC projects that requires some DEC approvals. The Town’s involvement is minimal.
>

> *RESCIND LOCAL APPROVAL for the Dominion New Market Pipeline Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan;
>
> The SWPP as presented to us currently meets state and local law, according to our engineers. Our local code office will make sure that Dominion follows the law and that includes stopping work if they do not comply when work is occurring on site.
>
> *REQUIRE Dominion to apply for a Special Use Permit for the Borger Compressor Station expansion;
>
> We didn’t require a SUP for this work because in 2010, where there was an actual expansion, the Town did not require an SUP. At this point, since the Notice to Proceed has been issued, Dominion would have to consent to go through an SUP. They probably would not consent and if we forced them we’d get sued under the Oil and Gas act.
>
> *DENY the Special Use Permit because expansion of the proposed Borger Compressor Station cannot comply with the Town of Dryden's comprehensive land-use plan
>
> Even if we did get Dominion to voluntarily go through the SUP process (or had we made them apply for one back in 2015) we could not deny the SUP. This comes straight from our Town attorney, Susan Brock, who consulted with Helen Slottje (CEDC) and Deborah Goldberg (Earth Justice). This is because of the Oil and Gas Act. I can show you the email tonight.
>
>
> Jason