Are you tired of the FERC site? Does it make you want to feed your computer to your dog? Do you howl in frustration as the browser spinner just spins…and spins….and spins…and spins? Have you set up a twitter feed just to indicate how many times FERC is down or give you an error?

And that application itself..have you found it yet? Do the 99 files (yes, 99….) look like a bunch of coding nonsense and acronyms? Have you tried to find a critical resource report and been forced to click through endless PDFs you could care less about…and risk angering the FERC computer gods with every new link you try? Have you been preparing for a meeting, working for your township pipeline committee researching the application, and not been able to find anything?

IS THIS ALL DRIVING YOU INSANE?!?!

Well, it sure drove me insane. So insane I finally did something about it. I started a new web site.

Announcing the PennEast/FERC Resource Web

The new web site is designed to categorize and link to all of the PennEast filing documents, plus any critical documents that come down that people will want to reference often and find quickly.  And it’s not connected with FERC – all of the files referenced have been downloaded from FERC and uploaded into cloud service platform.  So you can say goodbye to FERC errors forever – and if you get an error you can curse me instead of FERC (just kidding – if you hit any problems please email me immediately!).

The site is still a work in progress.  We only have the main application and the Resource Reports up.  The mountain of appendices is still in progress because – no surprise – FERC has been down all night and I haven’t been able to download anything.

Only the underlined files are available right now.  The rest are placeholders.  We’ll be adding in new sections as more documents are uploaded.

If you have any issues or suggestions please let me know!

PennEast/FERC Resource site
http://pipeinfo.org

The final map from the PennEast FERC application is now available online.  As mentioned before it is mostly the same as previously shared maps but there are some changes, so please check it out for your area.  What PennEast calls a “minor” change can have a life-long impact on the people who have to live with it.

This map includes the following:

• The center line of the pipeline, so you can judge exactly where they intend to put it.
• The 400′ wide “survey corridor”.  I’m not sure why they’re still including this.  Don’t confuse this with the construction ROW, that will be smaller.
• Mile markers.  The mile markers are a good change.  Most PennEast documents reference features by mile marker.  Now you can see exactly where the things you care about on the route are in terms of mile marker and see what impacts PennEast has planned.
• NOTE: The route is essentially fixed.  Don’t expect any more big changes.  Small changes may be mandated for a number of reasons but think dozens of feet, not hundreds of feet or miles.

We’ll be getting maps online soon with the detailed construction plans along the entire route.  You can see the raw maps now in the application if you want to jump right in, but be warned they’re very unwieldly files to use.

The map is below.  I’m working on getting the “Detailed Route Map” tab updated.

PennEast final September 2015 Route Map

West Amwell Citizens Against the Pipeline announced today that they are creating an Intervenor Convenience Service. This is a free service to get you registered with FERC and online as a declared intervenor immediately.

Do you hate the FERC web site? Does it confuse you? Does it crash on you constantly? Have you thought about intervening and just keep putting it off? Do you break out in hives when you come within 100 feet of a computer? Do you have nightmares of your computer mouse turning into a real one in your sleep?

Then this is the service for you. WACAP will create a dedicated email account for you, get you registered with FERC, and file a motion to intervene. The accounts are then turned over to you to do with as you please.

Details are on the WACAP site below:

http://westamwellcap.com/2015/10/01/announcing-the-intervenor-convenience-service/

MEETING DETAILS

West Amwell Municipal Building
Rocktown Lambertville Road
Wednesday, September 30th
7pm

There will be a meeting of the West Amwell Citizens Against the Pipeline at 7:00pm on Wednesday, September 30th at the West Amwell Township municipal building at Rocktown Lambertville Road.

We will be discussing the PennEast application, doing live demos of declaring yourself as an intervenor in the FERC process, and will be assisting people live on site getting registered with FERC if they are not already, and getting themselves declared as an intervenor.

This is open to everyone and you don’t need to be a resident to attend.

Please bring your laptop along if you have one and want us to walk you through the intervenor filing online.

If you don’t have a computer we can register for you online with our equipment.  Details on the West Amwell CAP Web site here:

http://westamwellcap.com/2015/09/27/penneast-formally-files-with-federal-government/

MEETING DETAILS

West Amwell Municipal Building
Rocktown Lambertville Road
Wednesday, September 30th
7pm

The new docket number is CP15-558.

I urge everyone who opposes this pipeline to declare to FERC that they wish to be an intervenor. The stoppenneast.org site and Facebook page will have in-depth instructions on how to do that.

In a nutshell, declaring that you are an intervenor reserves several rights for yourself, including being notified of all documents delivered in relation to the project, and also the right to be part of any legal proceedings (or bring them yourself). There is no real downside to being an intervenor.

You have about 3 weeks to declare yourself as a “timely” intervenor. If you file within that time period you’re pretty much guaranteed in. If you file as an intervenor late it’s much more involved and you can be denied by FERC. So get it in early! There are already dozens of intervenors declared (myself included).

The full application link is at the end of this post.  I urge everyone to go through it with a fine tooth comb.  I have just started, and I can tell you that the application is just terrible.  The scoping documents were sloppy, missing information, misleading and plain wrong in many cases.  The same is true of the application.  In the first ten minutes of looking I found that in one area they mislabelled Goat Hill Road as George Washington Road and confused the Delaware River with the Hudson River.

I wouldn’t trust these people to put together a kid’s bike, let alone a 100 mile long high pressure natural gas super highway.

Intervenor Declaration Quick Reference

For those who are FERC-savvy, the process is the usual FERC rigamarole. You must be eRegistered with FERC. Once you are, you need to do:

Get to Doc-less intervenor Page

Login -> eFiling -> General -> Intervention -> doc-less Motion to Intervene -> Next

Fine the docket

From there you:

Enter Docket CP15-558 -> Hit Search Button -> Select Blue Cross -> Next

Text declaring your wish to be an intervenor

The next screen is where you put in your declaration to intervene.  It can be as simple as saying:

“I reside in a township impacted by the PennEast pipeline and have a number of concerns related to the project.  As such I wish to declare myself as an intervenor”.

You can add as little or as much as you like, but you don’t need to put your whole opposition to the pipeline here.  If you you’re a directly impacted landowner or an abutter you should say so.  If you have other concerns you want made known in your declaration add them as well.

Remember this is just a declaration to intervene, you can eFile later on with all of your specific objections.

After that hit Next.

Specify organization or business

Select “As an Individual” -> Next button

Contact Info

Write in your email -> Add As Signer Button -> Next button

Submission Description

Just hit Next Button

Last Page

This is a summary page.  Hit “Submit” button and your motion will be submitted.  If you did this within the 21 day limit you’ll be an intervenor.  You will get an email shortly as receipt of your filing.

After this you can continue to eFile and make your case against the pipeline at your leisure.

Next Steps

For convenient reference, here’s the full application along with resource reports and appendices. I’ll be putting a perma link on the menu bar when I get the chance.

http://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?document_id=14380457

An important aspect of natural gas pipelines is the Potential Impact Radius, or PIR.  This is defined as:

“Potential impact radius (PIR) means the radius of a circle within which the potential failure of a pipeline could have significant impact on people or property”.

What does significant mean here?  Well the actual definition is based on survivability:

“PIR is the distance beyond which a person standing outside in the vicinity of a pipeline rupture and fire would have a 99% chance of surviving”

The formula for PIR is pretty simple – it’s based on pipeline diameter and pressure:

PIR = 0.69 * (maop * d^2)^0.5

(here the “^” symbol means “raised to the power of).  In English this is:

To determine PIR, start with diameter of the pipeline squared, times the maximum allowable operating pressure.  Raise that the power of 0.5, multiply the result by 0.69, and there you go.

For the PennEast pipeline maop = 1480, and diameter = 36″.

This results in a PIR of 955. This means if the pipeline breaches at point X, everyone in a circle of 955′ radius (radius, not diameter!) of the pipeline will have less than 99% of surviving e.g. could die.  Note that the we’re talking about an exponential equation, so it means as you get closer to the pipeline you have an exponentially worse chance of surviving.  In the case of PennEast, at 500′ you would have little effective chance of surviving.

Fun fact: the model assumes no whether or geographical conditions, just a perfectly flat surface with no wind or other weather conditions.  Wind and topography can have a major impact and means damage can occur significantly beyond the official PIR. See the top picture for the potential differences between PIR and actual impact radius.

Some fun facts:

My house is 180′ from the proposed route pipeline centerline.  So me and my family are toast.

Hewitt Park – 800′ from center line.

Hunterdon County Library Southern Branch – 725′ from center line.

West Amwell Elementary – 1750′.  So they’re good so long as the wind is not blowing to the North East that day.

Lowes Shopping Center in PA, near Lehigh River: the whole shopping center plus Route 33 falls within 900′.