Millennium offers $50,000 for health study; Should be complete before construction begins

Posted 8/21/12

MONTICELLO, NY — In two different county meetings at the government center on June 9, the planned compressor station on the Millennium Pipeline near Eldred was discussed. Legislator Scott Samuelson …

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Millennium offers $50,000 for health study; Should be complete before construction begins

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MONTICELLO, NY — In two different county meetings at the government center on June 9, the planned compressor station on the Millennium Pipeline near Eldred was discussed. Legislator Scott Samuelson said Millennium has agreed to pay $50,000 for a health study of the potential impacts of the facility.

Legislator Nadia Rajsz said that she is grateful that the company has agreed to pay the amount, still, it was like “putting the fox in the hen house.” She asked if $50,000 was enough and if six months, the proposed length of the study, was enough time.

Samuelson answered that the six months would began once the consultant was chosen, and that once the request-for-proposals process is complete, if more money is needed, Millennium “is prepared to have that conversation.”

Rajsz also said that the letter laying out the details was not clear, and that it appeared to her that the study would be done once the compressor station was built.

Samuelson said that was not the case. The letter says the study will “assume” that the Highland compressor station will operate with a gas-powered compressor rather that one powered by electricity. Samuleson said the equipment proposed for Highland is similar to the equipment in both the Hancock and Minisink compressor stations. He added that the study hopefully would be finished before the start of construction of the compressor station in Highland.

The study will involve real-time monitoring of conditions in the air at an existing compressor station with similar specifications to the one proposed in Highland, but the dates and times of that monitoring will be revealed only to the county manager in advance of the study and not to the legislature or others. The specific compressor station to be studied was also not specified.

County attorney Cheryl McCausland said, “Their concern is that if information gets out, and folks are aware of when and how, that there may be an opportunity to alter” the air quality. The times and results of the monitoring will be identified when the written study is issued.

(A study of the Minisink Compressor Station was performed by the Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project (tinyurl.com/hd9fe6p), and one of the conclusions was, “Overall mental health and wellbeing levels were below normal for half of the respondents” who lived near the facility.)

Progress on the new Sullivan jail

In other business Josh Potosek, the county manager, told legislators that bids due to the county may be coming in by July 21, but that date was not set in stone. He also said that if the timetable works out, the county legislature would be taking a vote on the contracts on August 11 or perhaps August 18.

He also informed the legislature that court staff were moving in the direction of having the land for the jail, which is located outside of Monticello on Old Route 17, annexed into the Village of Monticello in order to hook up to water and sewer systems.

The legislature voted to pass a local law to allow them to override the Albany-imposed 2% property tax cap in order to pay for the bonding that will be required to build the jail.

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