Letter: Get gas storage facts correct
Mr. Joseph Campbell does not know salt.
For starters, injecting propane into a salt cavern creates no more cavern pressure than when a cavern is being solution mined for salt. That’s because brine is the liquid being displaced, and that is what determines the pressure. Basic facts he gets wrong or doesn’t understand in his Aug. 25 Guest Viewpoint.
Water quality regulations were not implemented until the 1970s, and before that, the operating practices of salt companies were not what they are today. For example, when our plant doubled in size during the 1960s, plant wastes went directly into the lake. Before the brine pond was constructed (1969), brine displaced by propane during propane storage operations sometimes had nowhere to go except the lake.
The realities of the past are now history. Dr. John Halfman now reports that since 1970, groundwater inputs aren’t necessary to support Seneca Lake’s measured chloride concentrations. This means that over the past 45 years (29 of which include propane or natural gas storage operations at our site), our caverns haven’t affected the lake. This makes sense, since salt operations have changed dramatically from past accepted practice.
Also, we’ve had one exceedance over the past 900 days, not exceedances “month after month.”
PRESIDENT, US SALT