Following what goes on with oil and gas exploitation in and around Adrian, Michigan since 2013 - and how these events in our little city connect to the global environmental situation... - with the occasional sidetrack to other related environmental issues in Lenawee county, Michigan and how those relate to global issues.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Open Letter to the City of Adrian Commission
Honorable Mayor, City Administrator, and City Commissioners,
I am very disappointed with your decision to agree to the
Savoy proposal as you now all personally signed off to oil business as usual in
our city. In contrary to what several of you repeatedly stated over the last
weeks, Savoy needed this decision to be able to go ahead and build pipelines
from the current and all future drill sites in Heritage Park to Witt Farm. As
some of you are into common sense arguments: it is in fact common sense that a
corporation would not spend $80,000 for something that they already own. As a
matter of fact, the new drilling operation in Heritage Park that used the same
well head as the previous successful drilling could not be exploited and was on
hold until you agreed to their proposal yesterday night. Evidence for this is
the presence of a temporary overflow storage tank and a small flare-off
chimney.
Now the field is cleared to burry pipelines right across
sensitive wetlands and valuable recreational park land, crossing Beaver Creek
or the South Branch of River Raisin, run under farmland and Howell Hwy to Witt
Farm. The currently tiny, nevertheless smelly flare that emits cancerous vapors
will grow into a massive flare, gasing off large amounts of benzene and other
toxic substances. As I said before, this is by no means a better solution than
processing oil and transporting it off by tank trucks from each well site – but
it is certainly better and cheaper for Savoy!
Some decisions on oil exploitation in Adrian were made
before your time on the City Commission but you just sold the last corner stone
and put the last nail in the coffin of the city’s environmental health. And the
worst thing is that you did not even demand concessions from Savoy. It is true
that baseline testing of air, soil, and water should have been performed BEFORE
Savoy’s operations started. However, we were still in the beginnings, meaning
that baseline tests would have served some purpose as to the state of natural
resources now – compared to when Savoy is done. Again, you wound yourself out
of responsibility by a very weak and invalid argument. As it stands now, what
is the sense of Savoy’s promise to clean up the Witt Farm site after their
operations are complete? How will you proof to them that they caused the mess?
Will they also call back all the oil that seeped out of the pipelines
underground?
Finally, despite statements of some of you about the need to
have the public more involved in this topic, you failed again to organize a
city sponsored public forum about oil and gas exportation in and around Adrian
BEFORE making a crucial decision. How was the public meeting on the changes in
the recreation department and the city’s budget more important to justify such
an event? Not that that particular meeting served the purpose to screen the
opinions of the public but rather was a presentation of the excellent work of
the honorable City Administrator… As I stated before, and to connect to
ex-mayor Berryman’s statement about the city commission session of April 1st
being a teaching piece in democracy – real democracy would be to engage the
public to be more involved in city affairs, and to be really interested in the
public opinion beyond voting day – meaning organizing regular public assemblies
about important topics shaping the future of the city…
And a very last comment. For me and many other Adrian
citizens, Heritage Park was the one and only, still nearly pristine site in the
entire city, allowing for peace and tranquility in our troubled times. It is a
shame that such values do not count for you as it will now go down the tubes -
if Savoy is lucky to hit the jackpot and it becomes economically rewarding for
them to establish several more wells on park land.
Tom Wassmer
P.S. I will also post this open letter on
adrianoil.blogspot.com
---------------------------------------
Thomas Wassmer, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of
Biology
Siena Heights University
Siena Heights University
1247 E. Siena Heights Dr.
Adrian, MI 49221
Adrian, MI 49221
517-264-7637
Monday, April 15, 2013
Oild Drilling in Heritage Park Suspended
Oil drilling in Heritage Park came to a stop again. The drilling site this time also features a red tank that is connected to a small flaring pipe.
It seems that the produced oil cannot be trucked away right now. I was wondering why the central processing facility was not put into Heritage Park when the city tabled the decision on that Savoy proposal. In the same line I was wondering why Savoy wanted to buy 8 acres for $10,000 each in the Savoy proposal that failed to pass on the City Commission assembly on April 1st. I slowly think that the current lease between Savoy and the City of Adrian does not include unlimited truck traffic and the right of way for pipelines...
It seems that the produced oil cannot be trucked away right now. I was wondering why the central processing facility was not put into Heritage Park when the city tabled the decision on that Savoy proposal. In the same line I was wondering why Savoy wanted to buy 8 acres for $10,000 each in the Savoy proposal that failed to pass on the City Commission assembly on April 1st. I slowly think that the current lease between Savoy and the City of Adrian does not include unlimited truck traffic and the right of way for pipelines...
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
The myth of save pipelines
I initially planned to only include local news but the Arkansas pipeline accident less than 3 years after the enormous Kalamazoo pipeline spill in July 2010 should have an influence on the City of Adrian's decision to sell up to 8 acres of Witt Farm to Savoy Oil and grant them right of way to build pipelines from any close-by well (including any well in Heritage Park) to the central processing plant at Witt Farm.
According to statements by the Adrian's mayor Greg DuMars, the city administrator Dane Nelson and several city commissioners on the city commission meeting on April 1, Savoy could do all of the above under the current lease but nobody was able to explain, why the city administrator and Savoy wanted the above mentioned sale to pass a vote in the commission, and why Savoy would pay $80,000 to get something they already own? This is exactly the same situation we had with the tabled decision to build the central processing facility in Heritage Park - that was supposedly also not really needed by Savoy according to the understanding of mayor DuMars and Dane Nelson. Lucky for us Savoy moved the planned facility to Witt Farm and that was the end of the tabled city commission decision.
OK - back to the actual topic of this post: the myth of save pipelines. I had some discussion about this topic with commissioner Jacobson after sending a EPA photo link of the Arkansas pipeline spill ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2013/04/05/exxon-oil-spill-photos-mayflower-arkansas_n_3024336.html?ir=Green ) to Dane Nelson and some city commissioners. The controversy started with telling me that there are no plans for Adrian to lay 20" pipes carrying 95,000 barrels a day of tar sands diluted bitumen. It is true that tar sands diluted bitumen is a much dirtier stuff than crude oil, and that the size of the pipeline and the pumping volume are much higher than what would go underground in Adrian. However, fact is that such large pipelines are less numerous and better equipped with a so-called spill detector system than smaller pipelines like the ones that would go underground here, and thus major spills should statistically only occur at max every 10-years - and we had more than 2 of them in the last 3 years. Just have a look at the great collection of pipeline accidents here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pipeline_accidents_in_the_United_States_in_the_21st_Century This hints strongly to a spill incidence of small pipelines of several spills every year as they are much more numerous. Spill detection is poor as spill volumes are usually small, and pipes are laid underground. However, small spills can have a destructive impact on the environment and water resources if pipelines are laid through sensitive wetlands and highly permeable soils, which happens to be just the case between Heritage Park and Witt Farm. Pipelines would be laid through wetlands, crossing Beaver Creek or the South Branch of River Raisin, climb up the floodplain bluff, crossing farmland and Howell Hwy before reaching the central processing plant. The adjacent farm land and Witt Farm are both on highly permeable soil, meaning that every spill from a leak in a pipe could percolate quickly into the ground water and the aquifer.
I hope the city will not pass the motion of April 1 that was unsuccessful due to a 3:3 vote behind closed doors - or in a second attempt at the next meeting before finally organizing a public forum to investigate what Adrian citizen really think about what is going on with oil and gas extraction in and around the city.
According to statements by the Adrian's mayor Greg DuMars, the city administrator Dane Nelson and several city commissioners on the city commission meeting on April 1, Savoy could do all of the above under the current lease but nobody was able to explain, why the city administrator and Savoy wanted the above mentioned sale to pass a vote in the commission, and why Savoy would pay $80,000 to get something they already own? This is exactly the same situation we had with the tabled decision to build the central processing facility in Heritage Park - that was supposedly also not really needed by Savoy according to the understanding of mayor DuMars and Dane Nelson. Lucky for us Savoy moved the planned facility to Witt Farm and that was the end of the tabled city commission decision.
OK - back to the actual topic of this post: the myth of save pipelines. I had some discussion about this topic with commissioner Jacobson after sending a EPA photo link of the Arkansas pipeline spill ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2013/04/05/exxon-oil-spill-photos-mayflower-arkansas_n_3024336.html?ir=Green ) to Dane Nelson and some city commissioners. The controversy started with telling me that there are no plans for Adrian to lay 20" pipes carrying 95,000 barrels a day of tar sands diluted bitumen. It is true that tar sands diluted bitumen is a much dirtier stuff than crude oil, and that the size of the pipeline and the pumping volume are much higher than what would go underground in Adrian. However, fact is that such large pipelines are less numerous and better equipped with a so-called spill detector system than smaller pipelines like the ones that would go underground here, and thus major spills should statistically only occur at max every 10-years - and we had more than 2 of them in the last 3 years. Just have a look at the great collection of pipeline accidents here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pipeline_accidents_in_the_United_States_in_the_21st_Century This hints strongly to a spill incidence of small pipelines of several spills every year as they are much more numerous. Spill detection is poor as spill volumes are usually small, and pipes are laid underground. However, small spills can have a destructive impact on the environment and water resources if pipelines are laid through sensitive wetlands and highly permeable soils, which happens to be just the case between Heritage Park and Witt Farm. Pipelines would be laid through wetlands, crossing Beaver Creek or the South Branch of River Raisin, climb up the floodplain bluff, crossing farmland and Howell Hwy before reaching the central processing plant. The adjacent farm land and Witt Farm are both on highly permeable soil, meaning that every spill from a leak in a pipe could percolate quickly into the ground water and the aquifer.
I hope the city will not pass the motion of April 1 that was unsuccessful due to a 3:3 vote behind closed doors - or in a second attempt at the next meeting before finally organizing a public forum to investigate what Adrian citizen really think about what is going on with oil and gas extraction in and around the city.
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