Sunday, June 22, 2014

Concern about gas pipeline under Rockaway


From WPIX:

Every night, a group of Rockaway residents watches with fear and worry as work is underway out at sea for the little publicized Rockaway Lateral Project Pipeline.

“It’s doesn’t matter if it’s on federal property,” Sandra Schunk told PIX11. ” It’s still our beach, our lives.”

Residents say the pipeline has gotten little attention because it’s mostly on federal property, the Gateway National Recreational Area.

It will eventually bring 647,000 dekartherms per day of fracked natural gas from the Marcellus Shale under high-pressure, beneath the beach, under a golf course, under the Marine Parkway bridge, through Floyd Bennett Field and eventually to distribution lines of Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn.

Community board member John Gaska told PIX11, “The board approved the pipeline. We have concerns about safety but it’s a positive for the community. Gas will be cheaper.”


When I saw the title of the video, "Queens residents fighting construction of Rockaway Pipeline", I thought I was going to read about an actual fight, but instead this report was just about a bunch of folks who are concerned but not doing much of anything about it. Oh well.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

What's the big deal about the pipeline? It's not like there aren't already a handful of other large diameter gas pipelines in Queens, never mind all the ones for local distribution.

Anonymous said...

JFK Airport is crisscrossed with dozens of oil pipelines as it is.

Anonymous said...

JQ there are gas pipelines all over the city. When's the last time one blew up? I don't mean a leak in a building where someone's pilot light went out, when's the last time a pipeline failed and blew up in NYC?

Anonymous said...

It SUCKS
The pipeline they will be tapping into is Long Islands that comes in near Long Beach.
Why should Long Island pay more for gas and "to share" at gunpoint due to mass development in Brooklyn and Queens ?
Long Islanders already getting reemed with gas heating bills (and oil headed $10 a gallon) will PAY MORE.


JQ said...

last anon

since this

http://wordondastreet.com/gas-explosion-harlem-blows-2-buildings-2-women-dead-17-injured/

I'll add more later.

"think,it ain't illegal yet"-funkadelic

Anonymous said...

JQ your link doesn't say the explosion was caused by a leak in a pipe in anyway resembling this one. The dangers of the aging gas distribution network are well known. Part of the reason to construct this pipeline is to add redundancy, which would better facilitate repairs, increasing safety, preventing the disaster you portend. Now the NTSB preliminary investigation pointed to a failure at the connection to the building that collapsed, not along the main itself.

So allow me to rephrase my question, when is the last time, in NYC or elsewhere, a large diameter pipeline similar to the one being constructed failed catastrophically as you seem to believe this one will, and within the first 50 years of its life?

Anonymous said...

The actual people who attempted to fight the project attempted to explain to people that number one this particular project does not in fact deliver a whole lot of incremental supply and the incremental supply that the original paperwork said wasn't correct as the project actually needed upstream work, the northeast connector as well to provide that supply. We also tried to explain that Port Ambrose appears to look on paper like it requires the rockaway project to proceed. We also attempted a few other things. But the folks with the new Norockawaypipeline tag just like the folks running around with flyers for two years just want to talk about scary fracked gas pipeline.

People also signed petitions against the bill that was passed albeit how much of a real chance did we have as the project's first public meetings in april of 2012 came after all testimony on that bill in both houses of congress. The bill was required because NPS does not have authority in general to grant rights of way for gas or oil pipelines without congressional action and because the project also involves a lease of historic structures in the park for adaptive reuse as a metering station for the pipelines. In any case, national grids project along flatbush is on phase 11 now.

Anonymous said...

Actually the projects deliver 100,000dth of new supply out of the "647,000dths" of fracked gas. The rest is the ability to redirect from the delivery point that exists, long beach long island.

One of the two pipes that was laid last year under the inlet by national grid will deliver into the rockaways. The other in the opposite direction.

JQ said...

the pipe that blew up in harlem wasn't old,it was recently installed

Anonymous said...

There are far more important things to be concerned with; didn't anyone hear about this Knockdown Center?

Anonymous said...

JQ-- what is your point exactly? Here is the reality: for every pipeline project there are the same lines. The company has a terrible track record and the pipes are dangerous. Look it up- that is the case. I don't think anyone locally has ever said there were no concerns about safety because there are concerns about safety with all pipes.

You are simply not aware of the actual facts, history etc of this project. And your statement that the hip folks know more about climate change and the environment is offensive. The very last thing anyone needs is the antifracking movement to come to their rescue. These are the people who have spread an enormous amount of misinformation on this project as well as how pipes actually get approved.

I personally have never seen this group of people currently doing battle with an energy corporation and betrayal of their government in the rockaways. What there factually were was park users concerned, residents who did sign petitions against the bill passed two years ago. What the fractivist folks have done is distort nearly every fact imagineable on this project. And they were aware of this project for the last 2 years.

Anonymous said...

The gas main that failed which was the cause of the March 12, 2014 Harlem gas explosion was 127 years old. That's not an excuse but these events are quite rare.

If you want to oppose any pipelines on principle, you are decades too late, we've got hundreds of them in Queens. One more makes little difference.

Jq said...

I was mistaken about the pipe in harlem,I heard there was modernization in that area.

I just thought the whole deal stunk and seeing Grimm's name just made it worse.Just thinking that this was made possible by an indicted embezzler makes it justified in stopping this.

And what's going on out there in rockaway is disturbing.The timing of the sand finally arriving and the sudden news media attention of the pipeline when they should have been on it day one was also stinks.Combined with the gentrification,lame bohemian bullshit going on there.And the boardwalk schedule is just asinine,it should have been done in a year,but they want to use concrete instead of wood.

I got a bit of trouble with calling out the libs for their hypocrisy.I assure you I don't think they know more than people with other ideologies,so sorry about the generalization.I think its curious when all those celebs showed up after sandy hit,they weren't around when that bill was
considered then passed.

all the comments were very informative,I know a lot more about the infrastructure involving gas mains now.I still don't agree with this construction because something bad is going to happen.and its going to ruin the beach over there with the pitch and putt and even fort tilden,which is why I questioned the lack of activism in the first place of these new visitors.

this was really enlightening,no sarcasm,thanks to all.


PS.I also didn't know there was an antifracking movement.