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Crestwood Concessions Don't Cut It For Seneca Lake Protesters

Seneca Lake.
jmac1963
/
Flickr
Seneca Lake.
Seneca Lake.
Credit jmac1963 / Flickr
/
Flickr
Seneca Lake.

Crestwood Midstream Partners is volunteering to change its plans to store propane in salt caverns along Seneca Lake, but protesters of the plan are not impressed.

On Monday, Crestwood sent a letter to the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), saying it would concede to some concerns. For example, it said it would not store butane.* It also offered to ship the gas via pipeline instead of by noisy trucks and trains.

But some protesters are worried those changes would just be a bigger blow to the community.

“They’re not going to need employees, so there aren’t going to be any jobs either. Two or three jobs maybe now? It was a handful before," said Joseph Campbell, with the group Gas Free Seneca. "But now that they’re taking out the above-ground infrastructure, that takes out the jobs."

Both anti-gas groups and Crestwood have been waiting on an official “yes” or “no” from the department of Environmental Conservation since last winter.

There is no set timeline for the DEC to make a final ruling.

*This story has been corrected. One of the proposed changes relates to butane only, not propane.

Copyright 2016 WSKG News

Monica Sandreczki heads up the socioeconomic desk at WSKG, covering stories about how social structures affect people who don't earn much money. Before that, she hosted Morning Edition at the station for two and a half years.