Gas storage plan must be stopped | Star-Gazette | stargazette.com

My husband, Bill, and I have attended several recent meetings dealing with the potential use by Inergy Corporation of depleted salt mines at the U.S. Salt Company in Watkins Glen for the storage of liquefied petroleum gas.

As some of us have learned more about the potential for damage that looms over our beautiful Finger Lakes, a groundswell has begun. The Watkins Glen High School auditorium was filled to overflowing at the meeting on April 14. Although Inergy had been invited to attend this meeting, it chose instead to sponsor one of its own the previous evening at the Community Center in Watkins Glen. It, too, drew a large crowd — but alas, questions from the audience were not entertained.

By the time the second meeting was over, we were struck by this fact: The speakers at the second meeting at the high school volunteered their time to protect our communities. Speakers included Cornell University and Hobart and William and Smith professors who have studied the properties of Seneca Lake for many years and are gravely concerned about the potential effect of the gas storage proposal. The speakers the night before at the Community Center represented a huge corporation whose goal, of course, is profit. For the most part, although they insisted they were our “neighbors,” their homes are far from here.

Subsequent informational meetings were held for concerned citizens at the Damiani Winery and at Glenora Wine Cellars.

The emerging information is terrifying if you love the Finger Lakes for its vineyards, for its lakes, for its rolling farmland and for its unmatched beauty and quietude. This project has the potential to change the entire nature of the region.

It only became clear in the last several months what Inergy’s plans entail. Although at its meeting it highlighted only two caverns to be used for storage of LP gas, that alone would create the need for a 14-acre brine pond it proposes building at the junction of Routes 14 and 14A. But there are many more depleted caverns under U.S. Salt, and Inergy has been quoted as bragging that this site will become the gas storage hub of the entire Northeast.

As one speaker asked at Glenora — and I paraphrase, “Why would we risk losing the millions of dollars in tourist trade that we have worked so hard to attract? Why would we risk all the jobs of the people employed by that industry? Why would we risk pollution of the waters of beautiful Seneca Lake that supplies drinking water to 100,000 people? Why would we risk having our wells polluted by leaking gas? Why would we risk having our property values plummet? And why would we face the risk of a catastrophic accident that could take lives and force us from our homes?”

We think now that the only way we will be able to delay or stop the initiative that Inergy proposes is if residents of our beautiful Finger Lakes say, “No, we do not want to become the hub of gas storage in the Northeast!” We want preserve our land for the rest of our lives, and for the lives of our children and grandchildren.