NEW SCOTLAND — Blue-shirted Tennessee Gas Pipeline representatives ringed the packed hall at the Colonie Country Club Thursday during an information session for the proposed pipeline expansion that would cross Albany County to bring more energy downstate.

Union members of Laborers’ Local 190 attended in orange, waving a large union flag and parking a neon orange electrical display outside the posh country club’s front door. Residents, local and county politicians, construction workers, quiet protesters, and Tennessee Gas employees mingled while munching on catered hors d'oeuvres and perusing maps of the proposed pipeline expansion.

The information session was scheduled after the Albany County Legislature passed a resolution in December calling for local public input on the proposed expansion. New Scotland passed a similar resolution in November.

The event on Thursday, hosted by Tennessee Gas and its parent company, Kinder Morgan, offered little news and few answers for local residents.

Worry and resistance

“A lot of this stuff is contradicted on the Internet,” said a Berne resident. She and her neighbors pored over a map of proposed lateral pipelines that could cross Berne.

“We haven’t let them on our property,” said Vicki Junco, who owns land in New Scotland near Thacher Park and also in Knox. “They’ve been trying to survey our property,” she said of Tennessee Gas employees.

Rebekah Rice, whose family owns 9 Mile Farm close to the existing pipeline, told The Enterprise that Tennessee representatives have been illegally using a part of their property as a base point for surveying other parcels. Her home was built of local stone with a shale and limestone foundation more than 200 years ago, she said, and the house and farm are dependent on their spring-fed pond as their only water source.

Rice attended the event to find out where Tennessee Gas will put the pipeline’s pressure station. She said that a blast at the station, proposed near the overhead power lines that also cross New Scotland near her farm, could knock out the electrical grid for the town and surrounding areas. She worried, also, about a pipeline leak or blast that could effectively, but unintentionally, drain her water supply and affect her home’s foundation.

“I just don’t want to blow up my farm,” she said.

Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy attended the information session. He told The Enterprise this week that he has been working with Albany County Legislator Michael Mackey, who represents New Scotland and Bethlehem.

“We’re going to pass a resolution in the county legislature,” McCoy said. “There’s a problem with the wells. When the pipeline goes through, [Tennessee Gas Pipeline] has to test the wells all along within a mile radius.

“When they re-install the pipes, they’re going to have to fix [contaminated wells] at their expense,” McCoy said. The proposal may also require Tennessee Gas to maintain the grounds where it holds easements, he said.

Residents have complained for years of brush overgrowth, and human trespassing, on the easements that lie on privately-owned lands.

Town Councilman William Hennessy examined maps at the event to see how many local properties would be affected if the pipeline expands.

“I’m up to 40 properties right now,” he said, concentrating. Then, “Approximately 50 in the town of New Scotland.”

Town zoning board member Edie Abrams said that she spoke to The Enterprise as a resident rather than as a town representative.

“They divided and conquered by not having a question and answer period,” Abrams said of the event. “They have union people here to intimidate people and to take up parking.”

According to the Northeast Energy Direct project map provided at kindermorgan.com, the existing routes cross Schoharie County to Wright, in Gallupville; run across Albany County and directly through New Scotland, and end in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

The new routes include proposed lateral pipelines, or segments of a pipeline that branch off the main or transmission line, that would cut from Wright through both Berne and Westerlo, heading, eventually, to Queens, Long Island, and Connecticut.

Other views

Labor union members Joseph Johnson and Paul Vroman spoke to The Enterprise about why they attended the event. Their colleagues stood nearby holding signs that said, “We live here. We raise our families here.”

Johnson, of Albany, has been a union member for five years, while Vroman, of Troy, has been a member for 13 years.

Johnson said that he supports bringing a pipeline to the area. When told that the pipeline is already in Albany County but that it could be expanded, he said, “I’m supporting it.”

Two members of Stop NY Fracked Gas Pipeline Now attended the event, but did not draw attention to themselves. Bob Connors and Judy Zimmer, both of Columbia County, want to “set up information sessions where the public can get information on the ‘other side,’ ” Connors said, “to counteract what Kinder Morgan says.”

Connors said that, at previous events, Kinder Morgan representatives have said that only air gets released from vented pipes, whereas other scientists contend that carcinogens are released with that air.

“We won’t get excited and scream and call them liars,” Connors said. “We’ll tell owners that they can deny permission. They can rescind permission to survey. We can tell them their landowner rights.”

Stop NY Fracked Gas Pipeline hopes to offer presentations to property owners, and religious or town organizations, he said. The group will speak at the Nassau Sportsman Club on Feb. 28 at noon.

“The public is invited. It’s free,” Connors said. Connors also said that he is not a scientist; he is involved with several not-for-profit organizations, and works in social services and as a small-business owner.

The expansion does not benefit the state, he said.

“It’s about money. It’s not about shortages of electricity or shortages of gas. It’s about money,” Connors said.

Expansion to be co-located

Mark Hamarich, of Tennessee Gas, said that the current pipe flow is 500 million cubic feet of gas per day to local distribution centers, or LDCs. Tennessee Gas hopes to secure enough large customers to expand its ability to transfer gas to 800 million cubic feet per day, Hamarich said.

“We’re not going to build it if the market’s not there,” said Hamarich. “Right now, we don’t have any contracts.”

Tennessee Gas and its affiliates sell to Niagara Mohawk and National Grid, according to Allen Fore, the vice president of public affairs for Kinder Morgan, and the company hopes to procure more large-scale customers and maintain demand by its current clients.

“We’re deciding whether to build a 30-inch or a 36-inch pipeline,” Fore said. “It depends on what customers need. It’s all about what our customers need and want.”

He told The Enterprise that the informational session fulfilled part of the Federal Energy Regulation Commission pre-filing process for such a project.

“This is just the start of a very long process,” Fore said. “We won’t even be filing for permits until fall.” A one-year review process begins then, he said.

“This won’t be in service until 2018,” he said.

“This system is embracing and growing our ability to deliver to existing customers. The pipes are full,” he said.

He said that, contrary to public ideas that all gas passing through the pipeline will be sold to Europe, “Based on what customers are telling us they need, 100 percent of this gas is going to the region — Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire. It’s all part of the local distribution system in the northeast.”

Fore said that gas is now used for electricity rather than just heat.

“It’s a year-round energy,” he said.

Fore said that he was unaware of residents’ opposition to the project based on those who attended the event. He heard, instead, from former town officials about how the gas supply had changed over the years, he said.

The project could create 3,000 construction jobs, he said, including local and imported workers. Locally, Fore said, the laborers have begun taking pipeline-labor classes.

“Union locals pick laborers,” he said. “Locals get first pick.” Work spirals out from union construction workers to truck drivers to operating engineers using heavy equipment, Fore said.

“We have signed agreements with these folks,” he said. “They are excited about this enormous project that’s going to provide years of work.”

Asked if the work were only temporary, Fore said, “Every construction job is a temporary job. That’s what these folks do. I see this, and the laborers see this, as the gift that keeps on giving.”

Fore said that the project will provide $25.5 million per year in property taxes, with about $1.9 million going to the town of New Scotland.

“That’s a significant chunk, too,” he said.

Fore suggested that the pipeline money would be appreciated in a rural town. The town of New Scotland, while rural, is home to one of the most affluent school districts in the region. The town’s average home price is $276,000.

Fore said that the proposed expansions are all “co-located next to an existing pipeline or a powerline.” By design, he said, “It is where something already is.”

He said that Kinder Morgan holds information sessions to answer questions.

“We need to be transparent,” he said. The company also makes sure that property owners are fairly compensated for their land if portions are used.

“We’ve been good to the communities we’ve worked in,” Fore said.

Abrams, a longtime town resident and outspoken activist, told The Enterprise, “The jobs are temporary and the problems are forever.”