County resolution calls for New York to approve propane storage facility
The Schuyler County (N.Y.) Legislature has approved a resolution supporting a proposed underground LP gas storage facility in upstate New York.
The resolution, which passed 5-3, calls for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to allow the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to issue the necessary approvals on a project that has been planned for about five years. Whether the state will issue its approval remains uncertain.
In October 2009, Crestwood Midstream Partners LP (formerly known as Inergy Midstream LP) submitted an application to the DEC to construct and operate the storage facility in salt caverns developed at the US Salt complex in Reading, N.Y. The facility has a capacity to hold 88 million gallons of propane.
The Schuyler County resolution highlights that a qualified expert performed a quantitative risk analysis and submitted its report to the DEC in February 2012, that the storage facility received authorization from the Army Corps of Engineers in May 2012 and that the New York state geologist endorsed the integrity attributes of the proposed facility in March 2013.
Industry leaders say the storage facility, had it been in operation, would have helped prevent the supply constraints that gripped parts of the country last winter while saving New Yorkers $88 million in additional propane costs.