HomeMy WebLinkAboutC_Public_Comment_74.cPSE Energize Eastside Renton Public Hearing—1/8/2020
Submitted for the record by:
Sue Stronk , 12917 SE 86th Place , Newcastle, WA 98056
Energize Eastside is not safe while PSE says safety is number one!
PSE does not follow NERC standards requiring a right of way, or clear
zone, of 120’–150’ for a single 230kV line.
EE proposes 2-230kV lines in a 100’ right of way (from house edge to
house edge) with two Olympic Pipelines-16” and 20” diameters with their
location varying within the right of way. These pipelines carry 13 million
gallons of hazardous fuels through our cities daily. With these pipelines
taking up “central space” in the right of way—it is impossible to have a
safe project without widening the right of way. As you see below in Phase
1 of EIS-Table 2-3 Construction Summary requires a “120 to 150 foot
wide clear zone and the existing corridor could be widened by 50 feet”.
This corridor should be even wider for safety when co-locating with
dangerous aging pipelines within the same space. Yet PSE forces this
project unsafely in an overburdened space they own.
Here you see listed in the EIS Phase 1 Table 1-1 the Regulatory Agencies
Governing PSE—why is PSE not following right of way widths that NESC
suggest? Safety is NOT PSE’s number one concern. Profit is!!
This is what a typical double 230kV line should look like with proper
clearances. It should be central in the right of way space. This is
impossible in the existing corridor because that is where the Olympic
Pipelines reside.
Bonneville Power requires a 50 foot separation from a transmission line to
a pipeline. See below:
See the EIS Construction Summary below-Alternative 1-Option A, calling
for a 120-150 foot wide clear zone:
Chevron has pipeline guidelines
that should be followed also.
Page 14 of Chevron Pipeline Guidelines below shows a recommended
distance of 50 feet from a house, business or place of public assembly.
Page 10 below shows no parallel pipelines within 25 feet of each other.
Pipelines now are about14 feet apart now beside my house. What if
Olympic Pipeline needs to rebuild their pipelines someday since they are
aging and need a 25’ distance between them for safety codes?
Page 16 of the Chevron brochure shows vibrating machines should be 150
feet away—so how does PSE think they can dig safely within feet of the
Olympic Pipelines to set poles into the ground?
As you see in my crude, but to scale, drawing below. The right of way
width existing is 100 feet from house to house. Pipelines shown with
black dots vary in location, here about 14’ apart and buried only 4’-8’
underground. Here the pipelines are mostly centered in the right of way
and about 10 feet from new pole foundations. This is too close for digging
and safety in an earthquake fault zone! Pipelines are not 25 feet apart as
guidelines recommend nor are they located 50 feet from homes and
structures.
The DNV-GL study says there should be no digging within 13 feet of the
pipelines nor should power lines and pipelines run parallel for any distance
as this can induce corrosion on these aging pipes. PSE always comments
that corrosion is the concern of Olympic Pipeline. This is just not right or
safe for PSE to create potential harm to a fragile piece of infrastructure
leaving the problem they create to Olympic to solve.
Per DNV-GL—Transmission lines and pipelines should not run parallel for
corrosion concerns. This is page 48 of their report showing co-location of
pipelines and transmission lines are off the charts at them running parallel
for just 5,000 feet—not many miles of collocation that this project risks.
The EIS mentioned two locations where AC current density already was
was measured above 20 amps—I inquired where these locations are
currently causing potential harm the pipelines. EIS response shown on the
right on the following page. Already the parallel collocation of these
utilities is a problem!
There are other solutions to a small and sporadic peak energy problem in
our area if one exists at all. Without PSE sharing their data and being an
open and honest utility, this project should never be approved as citizens
risk is just too great. It would be grossly unsafe and unfair to Renton
residents to allow this project to be forced into a too small right of way
where the pipelines already do not have the adequate 25 foot separation
for safety, where transmission lines should not run parallel to pipelines for
miles and miles creating possible corrosion to the underlying pipelines.
The pipeline has ruptured before. Forcing this project into this already
over-burdened corridor which is too small and already has existing
hazardous aging pipelines is very unsafe.
Force PSE to use 21st century solutions that other US cities are using to
avoid a catastrophe. It is about Safety being number one, not the PSE
shareholder profits.