DEC releases draft permit for Schuyler gas storage

The state Department of Environmental Conservation today issued draft permit conditions for the Finger Lakes LPG Storage, LLC’s proposed liquid propone gas storage facility – an action that is the next step leading to an issues conference in February. The release of these draft permit conditions in no way indicates that the project will ultimately be approved.The draft permit conditions contain requirements and obligations that DEC staff believes would be appropriate and necessary to be imposed upon the applicant in the potential event that, after the hearing process, a permit is issued.Because of extensive public interest regarding this proposal, an issues conference is scheduled for February 12, 2015 at the Horseheads Holiday Inn, to determine if there are any significant and substantive issues that require an adjudicatory hearing.An administrative law judge set today as the deadline to issue the draft permit conditions for parties to review. By providing detailed conditions now, the applicant and the interested public will have adequate time to review them prior to the December 10, 2014 deadline to file Petitions for Party Status.Finger Lakes LPG Storage, LLC, has proposed to construct and operate a new underground LPG storage facility for the storage and distribution of propane and butane on a portion of a 576-acre site located west of Seneca Lake in the Town of Reading, Schuyler County. The storage facility would use existing caverns in the Syracuse salt formation created by U.S. Salt and its predecessors’ salt production operations. Participation in the issues conference involves DEC staff, the applicant and any individual or group that has filed a Petition for Party Status. The notice for the proceeding was published in the DEC’s Environmental Notice Bulletin on October 29, 2014, and can be found at: http://www.dec.ny.gov/enb/99319.html.