Backup gas supply raises safety concern

Sep 28, 2023

PORTSMOUTH – The five tanker trucks filled with liquid natural gas and the vaporization equipment that stand ready on Old Mill Lane to back up Aquidneck Island’s supply of natural gas in an emergency were just approved by the state this month.

The Energy Facility Siting Board issued an order on Jan. 8 that allows National Grid to operate a temporary portable LNG vaporization facility at the site for the next two years. After that period, the firm will have to reapply.

National Grid says the facility is temporary because it will be there for only four months each year, Dec. 1 to March 31, when the demand for gas is high. In April, the equipment and temporary fencing will be removed, the property will be reseeded, and it will be returned to its natural state, the company says.

In granting the approval, the state waived the obligation of National Grid to meet the licensing requirements of the state’s Energy Facility Siting Act because it is temporary and because of the demonstrated need for it.

Peter Horvath, a Portsmouth resident who lives within 1 mile of Old Mill Lane, has some serious concerns about the LNG facility though.

“There is not a lot of regulatory oversight,” he said. “The Department of Transportation is the main regulatory body because it is all on wheels.”

“For example, there was no emergency management plan,” Horvath said “If something occurs, it’s on-the-job training.”

If there were an explosion of one LNG truck, it is a one-mile evacuation zone, Horvath said. “But there are five trucks there. Does that make it a five-mile evacuation zone? They won’t tell us how big a bomb has been placed in the neighborhood.”

“It’s a public safety issue,” he stressed.

Horvath spent 10 years as a ship officer on LNG ships traveling in Indonesia, Japan and Korea. He then spent 20 years after that working for firms like Dominion and Repsol on energy marketing and tracking, so he is familiar with issues surrounding LNG.

National Grid sent a letter to abutters within 200 feet of the facility, but other than them, relatively few people seem to be aware of it, Horvath said.

“Nobody knows this exists in our neighborhood,” he said.

Horvath contacted town officials and there was a meeting on Dec. 16 between the officials and National Grid representatives to discuss safety concerns.

“The towns were caught flat-footed,” he said.

“In addition to our 24-hour security personnel on-site, we have been in constant contact with local first responders to coordinate emergency preparedness and response plans on both their end and ours,” said National Grid spokesperson Ted Kresse in response to these concerns.

There are "Emergency Response procedures in place" at the site and they have been shared with local town officials and agencies, the company said. "These cover responses to a variety of scenarios including but not limited to a gas leak or spill, fire, site access and evacuation."

During the hearing before the Energy Facility Siting Board, National Grid stressed the importance of having backup LNG on the island.

The company told the board “it had been informed of certain transmission system constraints that may occur during the next four winters and that could negatively impact its ability to provide reliable service to its Aquidneck Island customers,” according to the order. “The constraints could be caused by emergency situations or by inspections or repairs of the transmission pipeline.”

National Grid said it has initiated a plan to resolve those constraint issues within five years.

The equipment at the site includes a portable vaporizer; two ambient vaporizers, five portable storage tanks, and electric generators to operate the equipment, according to National Grid’s application. The five-acre property is surrounded by permanent and temporary eight-foot chain link fencing.

When the vaporization equipment is operating, there will be at least one National Grid employee and one employee of Prometheus, the owner of the equipment, present at all times, according to the order of the state board.

National Grid said the vaporization equipment only would be operated on high-demand days. The gas is fed into the gas lines at that location.

The board in its order pointed out that the Providence Gas Company went through the full licensing requirements when it established an LNG vaporization plant at Naval Station Newport. That approval was granted in September 2001.

National Grid purchased Providence Gas Company, also known then as New England Gas Company, from the Southern Union Company in 2006.

The LNG transfer station at Naval Station Newport continued to operate until 2010, when National Grid ceased to operate it.

One problem at that time was that not all National Grid employees and third-party contractors were cleared for entry onto the base, which made things difficult, said State Sen. Louis DiPalma, D-Middletown.

“It’s a band-aid,” DiPalma said about the current Old Mill Lane station. “We have to find a long-term solution.”

One possibility is “un-mothballing the LNG facility at Naval Station Newport,” he said.

The challenge for National Grid will be to make sure truck drivers delivering LNG and repair personnel have all the security clearance and badges that will allow them on the base, DiPalma said.

“It’s fixable with appropriate planning,” he said.

State representatives Lauren Carson, D-Newport, and Deborah Ruggiero, D-Middletown and Jamestown, also support reestablishing the LNG facility on the Navy base.

Horvath said he is strongly in favor of moving the LNG facility back to the base because the security there is much greater. Also, he said, the gas company provided LNG training to Newport firefighters when the facility was on the base, something he has not seen happen for Portsmouth or Middletown firefighters in connection with the Old Mill Lane station.

“If we don’t get them to move back to the Navy base, this is going to be permanent,” Horvath said.

National Grid was asked whether a return to the Navy base was a possibility.

“It’s an option we’re looking into, but it’s too soon to know if it’s doable,” Kresse said.

[email protected]

Editor's Note: In recognition of the one-year anniversary of the gas outage, The Daily News is running a series of stories throughout the remainder of the week examining some of the issues that remain, revisiting with the businesses and people affected, and updating stories from the week of the outage.