On a brisk night in Bucks County, a group of retirees and young families unloaded their frustrations about natural-gas infrastructure on state officials.
Shelly was one of more than 25 residents who spoke Tuesday at a public hearing organized by the state Department of Environmental Protection as part of its ongoing air-quality review of the Adelphia Gateway project.
Adelphia Gateway LLC is proposing to convert an existing hybrid oil/natural gas pipeline to pump solely natural gas from a plant in Northampton County to a refinery in Marcus Hook, Delaware County. The company, a subsidiary of New Jersey Resources, bought the 84-mile pipeline from Talen Energy Co. last year for $189 million.
That planned conversion, now under review by both state and federal authorities, requires two, 5,625 horsepower compressor stations. One, dubbed the "Quakertown Compressor Station," is proposed to be built on a 1.5-acre lot in the middle of a residential neighborhood in West Rockhill.
The proposal has drawn considerable scorn from residents in the rural township, nestled in the northwest corner of the county.
The residents that packed into West Rockhill Elementary School for the hearing lobbed their questions at Jim Rebarchak, the air quality program manager for DEP's Southeast Regional office, often amid applause as emotion crept into their voices.
During its air-quality review, DEP officials will weigh those comments 2018– as well as any others submitted in writing before Dec. 14 — and use them to inform their decision. If the application is approved, DEP will provide Adelphia with a specific plan on how to monitor the stations in a way "that will ensure the construction and operation are conducted in compliance with applicable rules and regulations," according to the agency.
Rebarchak, according to the protocol of the hearing, couldn't directly answer any questions on Tuesday. Residents covered a wide swath of topics as they addressed him, including the project's environmental impact, integrity of the existing pipeline — first installed in the 1970s — and how local, volunteer fire departments would respond to pipeline-related emergencies.
A frequent source of contention came from how Adelphia has distributed information to the residents impacted by the project.
Tammy Springer said she lives about a mile and a half from the station's proposed location, but that she's in the process of closing on a new home much closer, one in which she hopes to start a family. She and her husband didn't know about Adelphia's planned station until a few months ago, when a concerned neighbor put a flier in her mailbox.
Now, she's worried about the pollutants that would be emitted by the station, concerned about the potential impact they might have on children, or that they might aggravate the congenital heart defect she's struggled with since birth.
Adelphia Gateway's application to the DEP says the natural-gas powered compressors at the Quakertown station will run continuously. They'll emit carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and volatile organic compounds, albeit in levels they estimate to be below what the department considers a "major source" of pollutants.
"You say you're going to monitor operations, but who is going to come to make sure my children aren't going to end up with cancer?" said Cathy Weierbach, whose home on Rich Hill Road is 500 feet from the proposed station.