Milo board delays action on gas opposition

MILO--The Milo town board did not take any action regarding a resolution to oppose Crestwood's proposed liquid petroleum gas (LPG) storage project in Reading during their meeting Monday, Sept. 15. The resolution was requested by members of Gas Free Seneca during last month's meeting, but the board agreed they would like to hear the other side of the argument before coming to a decision. After hearing a presentation from Crestwood LPG Storage Facility Manager Barry Moon, the board agreed they needed to look into the issue further before coming to a decision.
Both Moon and U.S. Salt Engineer David Crea attended the meeting speaking in support of the gas storage project. Moon discussed the process of solution mining while adding how the caverns were going to be used for LPG storage. He used examples of what is done at the storage facility in Savona as what the Reading facility is proposed to look like.
Moon discussed the safety issues brought up by the board, which included the possibility of a roof collapse in one of the caverns where storage is proposed. Moon said the collapse "never happened," and the roof is still intact, adding there was an issue with the sonar reading when it was being done on that cavern.
"We have no reason to put something in something that wouldn't hold," Moon said regarding the safety of using caverns to store LPG.
Another issue Moon addressed was the increase in truck traffic due to the facility, which he said would be "a minimal increase." He said the facility would be able to service four trucks per hour, but would only be operating one shift per day, amounting to around 30 trucks per day. Moon said the Savona facility handles more trucks at once than the Reading facility is proposed to deal with.
The issue with potential brine leaks into Seneca Lake was also brought up by the board, which Moon said the lake would "dissolve out over time and not really cause an issue." He said the brine ponds are designed "like landfills," adding a breach would not lose the entire contents of the brine pond. Moon said in the event of other accidents at the site, the facility is designed to shut itself down and can even be done remotely by phone.
"For all the stuff we have in place, there's nobody who wants it safer than I do," Moon said, adding in the case of a large scale emergency, he is the one who will have to go in there to solve the issue.
Councilman Dale Hallings said it was good to hear from the other side of the argument, adding he feels a lot of it is a state issue. Gene Spanneut said he would like to gather more information and keep looking at the issue, adding just because they did not act on it tonight does not mean the proposed resolution will not be approved later. Supervisor Leslie Church added the board was invited down to tour the Savona facility to learn more at a later date.