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Gas
Pipelines & Compressor Stations
Click
to view "Dallas, PA Schools Compressor Station" VIDEO
GDAC produced by Scott Cannon &
Norm Tomchak
Natural gas is transported with networks of pipelines,
with smaller gathering lines joining into larger interstate pipelines
& branching out again to reach various markets. Pipeline routes
are dotted with Compressor Stations that run continuously &
are very noisy. The gas is pressurized to force it into bigger lines
& keep it moving - sometimes thousands of miles to its destinations.
Metering Stations measure the volume amount of natural gas pushed.
Pipelines cut through forests, farms, residential neighborhoods,
schools, & even run under rivers (including the Susquehanna)
& lakes, disturbing a variety of environments, sometimes in
very damaging ways, as where toxic sediments are stirred up by "jet
trenching" to bury pipelines in a lake bed.
Pipeline routes are frequently established through the process of
granting "Eminent Domain" - the government taking of private
land- YOUR property - under the guise of "public good"
BUT really at a Corporation's behest & their PROFITS, not the
benefit of local citizens & resistant property owners.
Click
link to hear Bedford, PA residents on Pipelines & Eminent Domain.
Aging
Gas Pipelines Can Be Dangerous
Aging pipeline infrastructure & growing populations
in once-rural areas where pipelines were routed decades ago leads
to frequent leaks, which regularly produce explosions that are costly
in property damage & lives lost.
In 2008 the 1950s era Transco Pipeline exploded in Appomattox, VA-
devastating the area around the blast- below. The cause of the explosion
was "corrosion" not indenified by pipeline inspection.
Read about this event including photos & newspaper articles
at the "Pipeline Saftey Trust" website:
http://www.pstrust.org/TranscoVirginaAccident.htm
Another aging pipeline built in 1956, the Pacific Gas & Electric
Pipeline exploded last year in California, killing 8 people, 6 missing,
60 injured, & burned down 53 homes- below.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2010/09/10/map-photos-san-bruno-california-explosion/
A year after the San Bruno pipeline explosion disaster questions
remain -
as reported recently by the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper:
"Feds
Fear For Safety of PG&E's Gas System" 9-27-11
Compressor
Station Air & Noise Pollution
Besides areas where Gas Drilling itself takes place,
communities near Compressor Stations & Natural Gas Storage Tanks
also suffer from the problem of Polluted AIR. In Forth Worth, Texas,
in the Barnett Shale gas fields, natural gas storage tanks &
compressors have had a negative impact on air quality increasing
smog equal to all vehicle traffic in that Metroplex.
Recent video footage taken by the Texas Commission
on Environmental Quality using an infrared camera clearly shows
fugitive hydrocarbon emissions billowing from storage tanks. Storage
tanks are designed for a certain amount of legally-permitted leakage.
Researchers have found that “neighborhoods, schools, &
workers in close proximity to oil & gas activities may be at
increased risk for cancer, cardiovascular disease, asthma, &
other disorders,” due to industry pollutants.
Emissions released from gas compressor stations, have been shown
to increase the chance of deaths from respiratory & cardiovascular
diseases as well as increasing the rate of premature births &
low birth weights. Chemicals known as Volatile Organic Compounds
(VOCs) that include benzene & toluene, can put people at risk
of developing leukemia, kidney & neurological diseases, as well
as increasing the risk of renal & other cancers.
In Dish, Texas, where numerous pipelines & Compressor Stations
have been built in recent years, there has been a corresponding
die-off of trees, livestock dying of mysterious causes, & humans
are developing a range of unusual medical problems from toxic fumes.
Children in large groups get periodic nose bleeds when attending
schools located near Compressor Stations.
Suspected in these nosebleeds is formaldehyde, a byproduct of the
combustion engines used in the compressor stations that pump gas
through transmission lines-
as reported in the Star-Telegram newspaper of Fort Worth, TX."
The Environmental Protection Agency published a draft report in
June 2010 declaring formaldehyde a carcinogen."
"Environmental scientists say the danger of formaldehyde in
the air is twofold. Some researchers believe that at lower levels,
it accelerates the formation of ozone, the main ingredient of smog.
At higher levels, formaldehyde becomes a direct health risk, irritating
the eyes, nose & throat, causing wheezing."
Besides truck traffic & other industrial activity stresses,
people living near Compressor Stations can develop a life-threatening
condition from the constant intense low-level noise called "vibro-acoustic
disease," described in Noise and Health, a respected international
journal, as a “whole-body, systemic pathology,” marked
by “ depressions, increased irritability & aggressiveness,
a tendency for isolation, & decreased cognitive skills,”
among other symptoms.
-Adapted in part from the co-authored Fact Sheet
of:
Chenango Delaware Otsego Gas Opposition Group (CDOG)
Energy Justice Network.
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Federal-State
Source Documents
Gas
Drilling
Awareness Coalition
General Meeting
Wednesday
February 8th
at 7 pm
Local
& Out of State Attorneys
will present Strategies for
Natural Gas Drilling concerns.
People harmed or potentially affected
by these Industrial Operations are
invited to attend to be informed.
REGISTRATION REQUIRED
Photo ID & Address
Dallas
American Legion
730
Memorial Hwy
Dallas, PA 18612
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