Yesterday’s Scoping Meeting in Rochester
March 1st, 2016
Yesterday was the Scoping Meetings for the Rochester pipeline project, winding around the NW down and around to the SE of town. There was quite a large turnout at the afternoon session, probably 50 people, but that may have included Commerce staff, etc.
Comments on the Scope (what all should be included) of the environmental review are due by 4:30 p.m. on April 13, 2016:
larry.hartman@state.mn.us
… or by snail mail:
Larry Hartman, Environmental Review Manager
Minnesota Dept. of Commerce
85 – 7th Place East, Suite 500
St. Paul, MN 55101
I was really surprised to learn that Larry Hartman, the Commerce project manager, did NOT know about the Rochester Public Utilities gas plant proposed at the NW terminal of this project! And I was also surprised to learn that Northern Natural Gas is running a new gas pipeline into the west side of Rochester, to join with this line at the middle purple blob on the west side of the map.
The RPU plant is not exactly a secret, it was an issue in the 2008 CapX 2020 Certificate of Need hearing:
RPU chooses Boldt to build new $62 million plant
A New Generating Station for Rochester
The RPU studies:
2015_Update_RPU_Infrastructure_Study
2005 RPU_34945_Report on the Electric Utility Baseline Strategy for 2005 – 2030_June_2005 (CapX 2020 CoN Exhibit 157)
This is old, old news…
As to the proposed Northern Natural Gas line that’ll connect to this Rochester project, which it appears is part of its “Northern Lights 2017 Expansion” project narrative, in press release-based industry puff pieces, but it’s not on the Northern Lights 2017 Expansion project map or described, other than “Rochester 1D TBS rebuild” and “Rochester branch line” in any of the FERC filings or other documents I can find.
What about safety? The environmental review document needs to address the burn radius, which is large for such a large and high pressure pipeline:
- Model for Sizing High Consequence Areas Associated With Natural Gas Pipelines
- Safe Separation Distances From Natural Gas Pipelines
This project is in an area where future development could be, should be, expected, and I sure don’t want to see a scenario like that along the natural gas pipeline along, roughly parallel, to Hwy. 14, where cities have platted developments over the pipeline, and where builders have built homes over the pipeline, and people bought those newly constructed homes with pipelines through their yards, and worse, Minnesota law does not require disclosure for newly constructed homes.
Platting new subdivisions over a natural gas transmission pipeline should be criminal… and yet I see another such scenario developing.
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