Alert! Port Ambrose LNG Port A Health Hazard for NY and NJ Beaches

Kim Frackek is the Outreach Coordinator for the Sane Enery Project

My role as a blogger for health is to bring your attention to a wide variety of issues that go beyond our usual obsessions. This post concerns the infrastructure being built at an alarming rate to export fracked gas in the New York Harbor. Have you heard of the proposed LNG port proposed for New York Harbor? Do you know where Port Ambrose is and why Jones Beach, Robert Moses Beach and all beaches in the vicinity the locations where you like to take your family may no longer be safe come this summer? Did you know Governor Chris Christie vetoed this project? Did you know that once liquified natural gas starts burning it cannot be extinguished? If you have ever seem someone have the misfortune of trying to flambe rum and have it travel up there are in a flash you have an idea what kind of misfortune this could turn into in New York on a grand scale with our aging and decrepit pipes. If you haven't heard about any of this you are not alone. The gas and oil interests who have brought you fracking have made hearings scant and times and locations to attend at the most inconvenient possible far way from the communities that would be directly affected. I offer you testimony from last weeks hearing (and so far the ONLY hearing) by Kim Frackek one of 300 persons who attended to speak out. At the end of this post see links to make comments and learn more about this very real threat that Governor Cuomo can veto. Please encourage him to do so. I for one would like to continue going to the beaches I grew up on, don't  you? 

With Concern - Ekayani Chamberlin

Testimony dated January, 2015
JKK Hilton Public Hearing on Port Ambrose LNG Project

"My name is Kim Fraczek, I am a resident of Brooklyn, NY and work as the Outreach Coordinator for Sane Energy Project as well as work with several diverse community groups in our region as an arts educator and organizer.
I am here today wishing to address several issues about the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, but with respect to time, I will focus on just a few points, and submit a more lengthy comment in my written testimony. I understand you have accepted our request for an additional hearing in New York, but declined our request to have a hearing in central Manhattan. This already poses a problem for our state. It tells me that you don’t want to hear what the public has to say about this LNG Port, given the complicated location and time today. I know several parents and hundreds of working people who would like to participate in this process, but cannot because of this difficult location where we had to spend money to rent cars and coordinate expensive busses just to be present. I request that you push to hold hearings in every borough as well as surrounding NY and NJ counties, who will also face environmental impacts from the LNG Port, that is near easy public transportation. If you need help finding locations, I can assure you, anyone in this room would be glad to assist you. Further, I appreciate the 30 day extension on the comment period, however 90 days to review 25 lengthy volumes of information about this LNG port while the public is busy working to pay their bills and feed their families is nowhere near sufficient time to possibly digest this this information and formulate meaningful comments.
Per the DEIS, I am concerned about the health impacts this is going to have on my human, marine and plant/food community. I see there is insufficient information about how air quality monitoring is taking place to establish a base reading. I quote from the DEIS, “No air quality monitoring stations are located in the immediate vicinity of the proposed Port facilities as no offshore data are collected;” When mentioning studying ambient air quality, from the shore line, “Monitoring is performed primarily for pollutants, known as criteria air pollutants…These pollutants include nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide,” Given that Liquefied Natural Gas will emit high doses of Methane, how are you monitoring this? We would like a base reading of Methane from the immediate vicinity as well as the shoreline and inland. Why should this be too much to ask? Liberty Natural Gas wants the financial benefits from our location to turn profit, so we want to make certain we are not suffering health impacts. Can we feel safe about relaxing on our famous beaches that bring loads of economic value to our neighborhoods? According to U.S. Dept. of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration, “If LNG spills into water, it explodes. If LNG spills on the ground, it turns into rapidly expanding clouds of vaporizing methane that can asphyxiate by displacing oxygen and flash-freeze human flesh.” According to the Congressional Research Service, “If ignited at the source, these vapors become flaming “pool fires” that burn hotter than other fuels and cannot be extinguished. Highly volatile LNG cannot be odorized, so there is no warning of a leak”
I would actually like to ask you to sit with those thoughts and images for a few moments and imagine if your family and friends were to be affected by a very possible leak on a nice summer day, enjoying the beach.
Why should we have to bear the risk and the definite air quality issues that come with a giant refrigerator housing volatile gas near our homes when there is such a possibility and future with renewable energy sources that can come from the wind, the tide and our ever-giving sun. Creating clean energy systems that work in harmony with our planet, can provide exciting jobs and careers for our union members here.
Companies like Liberty Natural Gas is part of the largest industry our planet has ever known. They will put their profits before our labor forces safety, our food supply, our water supply, the safety of our homes and the safety of our future to sustain life on this planet. And life is a pretty great gift that we have. Please work together with us to deny Port Ambrose and build an efficient, clean and profitable future for everyone, including our local communities.

Thank you."

Coverage in New York Newsday
Sane Energy Project How to Submit Comment Info: