The Sullivan Times We cover and uncover the big stories in Sullivan County, NY. Monday, August 27, 2018 - Issue 1
TALE OF TWO ADJACENT PROJECTS: County Collaborated With Millennium On Parameters of Highland Compressor Study Delaware Riverkeeper: ‘Entire Process Manipulated ...With Help of Elected Officials’ New Eldred Preserve Owner Silna Eyeing Residential Development Near Pipeline By Rich Klein (Editor & Publisher) ELDRED, August 26, 2018 - Sometime this Fall, Sullivan County is expected to receive a baseline study of air quality in and around the Millennium Pipeline compressor station that is being built in the Town of Highland. That study is being conducted by KC Engineering and was scheduled to be paid for ($67,000) by Millennium under an agreement with the County. But the County, which started the Request For Proposal (RFP) process about two years ago, may be late to the study game. That’s because the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has already given Millennium the final OK to proceed with its Eastern System Upgrade that is slated to go online before the end of 2018. Millennium’s Highland Compressor Station (CS), part of that Eastern System, is a 22,400-horsepower facility to be built off Route 55 to help move natural gas from Corning NY (Steuben County) to Ramapo, NY (Rockland County).
“The original study that was being contemplated was a full health impact study,” District One Legislator Scott Samuelson said in a recent interview. When the legislature put the RFP out ...that came to a quarter of a million dollars and nobody wanted to vote to spend that. So that got scratched.“ “The County was a reluctant follower in the entire discussion about the Millennium issue,” says Maya K. van Rossum, executive director of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network. “It only sought to mollify and quiet public opposition rather than do their duty of representing the public and the community that are their constituents.” She told The Sullivan Times that she was disappointed that the County did not even try to match the $67,000 that Millennium agreed to pay for the study.
SCOTT SAMUELSON: District One Legislator and new COO of The Eldred Preserve Project (Official Photo)
“Had there been an effort to secure additional resources, I was prepared to put up a sum of money and at the time I was thinking $10,000 based on what was available in our budget,” van Rossum said. “But it quickly became clear that the County wasn’t interested in other funding.” Van Rossum also confronted Millennium officials at a public forum about the compressor station in Rock Hill on March 31, 2016. Last week, she described that 2016 event as full of “lies and fabrications” being promoted by the company. At press time, County spokesperson Dan Hust said that Millennium has not yet paid for the study but added that was not unusual since the study had not yet been completed. KC Engineering, the firm hired by the County after a third round of RFPs, declined comment and referred all questions about its study back to the County. “They (Millennium) certainly were not going to pay to have the air monitored out of Minisink,” said George Billard, an Eldred resident who leads Sullivan County Residents Against Millennium (SCRAM).
The Sullivan Times has also learned -- through a series of emails from 2016 and through late 2017 -- that County Attorney Cheryl McCausland, Samuelson and other County officials, were closely coordinating with Millennium Pipeline officials, including Michelle Hook, Millennium’s director of public relations
The emails were friendly back-and-forth discussions about both the language of a resolution put before the Legislature and the parameters of an RFP study to assess potential risks to the public regarding the compressor station. County Attorney Cheryl A. McCausland, seen in the email above, said “I do not comment on matters of County business.” Documents also reveal that Millennium required the County to veto any consultant that appeared to be too biased against the natural gas industry. On June 1, 2017, the County issued a news release that stated, “a number of residents and municipalities, including the Town of Highland, have expressed concern about and opposition to the project, and as a result, the County has sought to better understand the potential health and environmental impacts from such a facility. However, past attempts to solicit firms to scientifically evaluate those impacts have not led to an awarding of bids or proposals, so this new RFP is designed to elicit greater interest from qualified companies.” In that same release, Samuelson stated: “The health and safety of our residents is our ultimate goal, and it is our responsibility to fully understand all of our options.” Despite the County’s and Samuelson’s assertions early last summer, those consultants being considered who had any connections to environmental-friendly or anti-fracking organizations were quietly vetoed. In fact, Millennium suggested its own consultants.
One of those consulting companies that was rejected (reportedly behind closed doors) by the County sometime in March or April of 2017, was Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project, which had already conducted a study of the nearby Minisink Compressor on behalf of a group in Orange County that was led by Pramilla Mack, who is currently running for a seat in the New York State Senate. It was unclear exactly why that company was rejected by the County, but here are some of the questions sent to Southwest’s Celia Lewis ( a researcher and communications analyst) by Allyson Lewis (no relation), Sullivan County’s director of purchasing: 1. Are you or any of your principals or team members associated with local community groups who have lobbied or will lobby against Millennium Pipeline, including those known as SCRAM or SACRED? If so, state each name and the nature of the individual’s involvement. 2. Have you or any of your principals or team members been involved with research or communications that have been or will be used in reports or public communications involving the natural gas industry? If so, state each name and the nature of the research and/or communication.
3. Have you or any of your principals or team members provided research or other support to any individual or group that has opposed or currently opposes the proposed compressor station in Highland or the overall Eastern System Upgrade requested by Millennium Pipeline? If so, state each name and the nature of the research or other support provided. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Southwest Pennsylvania had already conducted similar studies for the New York counties of Montgomery, Madison, Rensselaer, Schoharie and Chemung, according to Raina Rippel, director of Southwest. Asked if it was typical for a legislative body to ask such questions on similar Rippel said: “This was the only time that we’ve had these kinds of questions.” Rippel said her organization submitted its final proposal to Sullivan County on March 2, 2017, before the additional questions from Allyson Lewis arrived on March 8. The County, via spokesperson Hust, was asked who in government created the questions, why these particular questions were directed at Southwest for the RFP -- and if those same questions were asked of KC Engineering. At press time late Friday, Hust said he would get back to The Sullivan Times sometime this week. (The Sullivan Times will have a Part II of this article in September or October.)
Informed about the County’s coordination with Millennium on the RFP questions, van Rossum said: “The entire process has been manipulated by Millennium with the support of elected officials.“ In a recent interview, Nadia Rajsz, chair of the Legislature’s Committee on Health and Family Services whose district covers Highland, said: “Constituents do not want it. They don’t want anything like it in their backyard. God forbid it blows up...are we prepared to contain such a fire..is Millennium prepared? “ Yet, in the very same interview conducted last week, she said, “I was able to take a ride up to where they want to put it and let me tell you it’s miles and miles into that land up there. No one should be able to hear it, see it or smell it. Unless they are planning to leak out gas, I can’t imagine anyone smelling anything. It’s well off the beaten path. And, from what I understand, this is all processed gas..it’s been refined. It’s the same kind of gas as you get in your kitchen..like when you turn your stove on. I am not pro fracking and not for contaminating our aquifers, our water, our environment but this is already gas that is going down a pipeline and it’s being compressed to push it further down.”
District 2 Legislator Nadia Rajsz, whose district covers Highland
Samuelson, at the invitation of and led by Hook, had taken Rajsz and County Legislature Chair Luis Alvarez on a recent tour of the Hancock facility for a planned “blowdown” event. (Hook said last week that Millennium is adding a second compressor there for more horsepower to push the gas downstate). Samuelson said that, about two years ago, he also arranged a tour for Dan Silna and his wife, Joan, owners of the new Eldred Preserve Project -- since he said that they had heard about community concerns and wanted to learn more about the compressor station firsthand. (A blowdown event is a planned or unplanned venting of pressurized natural gas from pipelines or facilities to the atmosphere. Planned gas venting may be performed during operations and maintenance activities to ensure proper operation of safety systems as well as the equipment, or to release gas prior to performing work on the facilities. Unscheduled gas venting of the emergency shutdown system is an unplanned event and can occur at any time under an abnormal operating condition.) Samuelson, with long-time partner Eddie Dudek, will get a new Bradstan Country Hotel (and an increase from five rooms in the current Bethel location to 28 in Eldred) as part of their deal with the Silnas. “It was a very generous offer and we’ve known Joan and Dan for more than 30 years,” Samuelson, who opened the Bradstan in 1991, said.
The new Eldred Preserve Project will include a conference/event center and the rebirth of The Old Homestead Restaurant, the notable Monticello steakhouse that was destroyed by fire in January 2015. The Silnas, said Samuelson, were regular customers at the restaurant and reached out to the former owners (Paul and Alice Edelman) who had retired to North Carolina after the fire. The Edelmans have agreed to operate the reborn Old Homestead for at least one year, said Samuelson. As a legislator, Samuelson has come under criticism from some constituents who believe that he has expressed support for the Millennium Pipeline instead of advocating for their concerns. His own Town of Bethel Board banned hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in 2011. Asked last week about concerns that the Pipeline location is too close to his new hotel business with the Silnas, he said: “Having personally observed live operations of a compressor station (in Hancock, NY) including a planned release, I don’t see anything that will impact our (Eldred Preserve) day-to-day operations in any way. We understand it is a sensitive issue for some in and around the community but I’m not sure that the negative talk is helpful for tourism and real estate sales in the area. “ But Delaware Riverkeeper doesn’t think it’s just “negative talk.” A study done by Key-Log Economics on behalf of the organization stated: “In Sullivan County, 115 people live within 2 miles of the proposed Highland CS (U.S. Census Bureau, 2015). Applying the results of (environmental health researcher Wilma) Subra (2015) to the population in Sullivan living within 2 miles, 104 people would experience odor events, 82 people would experience respiratory impacts, 67 people would experience sinus problems, and 45 people would experience sleep disturbances and/or severe headaches.” SCRAM’S Billard said: “We at SCRAM have been wondering why Scott Samuelson ignored the wishes of his constituents when he supported Millennium Pipeline in their efforts,” Billard said. “We wonder why he suppressed any serious effort to monitor air emissions from Minisink, which would have answered any concerns about public health….we wonder who Scott Samuelson thinks he works for." In an extended interview, Samuelson spoke eloquently and in great detail about Millennium’s technology and safety protocols that he learned from multiple tours of Hancock’s compressor station led by Hook. However, Millennium states on its own website: “While natural gas pipelines have a proven record of safety, pipeline failures can, and sometimes do, occur. Hazards associated with a pipeline failure and gas release may include blowing gas, line
rupture, fire, explosion or, if gas is present in a confined area, possible asphyxiation. Damages by outside forces, often by someone digging into a pipeline, is the largest single cause of a pipeline failure. Incidents also may occur due to corrosion, material failure, equipment failure or other causes.” Hook of Millennium had nothing but praise for Samuelson. “Scott Samuelson is a county legislator who has taken the time to call and truly become educated about our project instead of believing what’s been said by those who oppose it. He will inquire about things he hears in an effort to better understand Millennium’s project and the true nature of what will be done at our facility. He has never worked for Millennium in any capacity. I know he has encouraged other members of the community to reach out to me (as I have told him he could do) if they have questions or want a tour of our existing facilities.” The Silnas (Dan and Joan) have two of their residences in White Lake and in Saddle River, NJ. Dan Silna was an original partner in Bethel’s Chapin Estates project and Samuelson for a time was head of sales for Chapin. The Silnas, whose corporate entities are Ozdan Development, LLC and Amytra Development, LLC listed in Carlstadt, NJ, also reportedly own additional acres of land between Chapin and their new site. Their Eldred Preserve Project, set to open in 2019, is being welcomed by many in the County -- including Sullivan County Visitors Association President Roberta Byron-Lockwood -- as a boost to tourism with the revival of three respected Sullivan County brands.
(Dan Silna may not be a household name but he and his late brother, Ozzie, struck an unprecedented deal with the National Basketball Association in June 1976. When the Silnas’ American Basketball Association team -- The Spirits of St. Louis -- were one of two teams left out of the historic merger with the National Basketball Association, they crafted a deal in which they would receive $ 2.2 million and a 1/7 share of each of the four remaining former ABA teams' television income in perpetuity. O ver the years, the Silnas earned millions but they were still in a long running legal battle with the league. And In 2014, the Silnas reached an extraordinary settlement with the NBA that gave the Silnas a lump sum of $500 million.)
In promotional materials, the Silnas have yet to mention any plans for residential housing at or near the Preserve - but Millennium’s own documents filed with FERC state: “Millennium consulted public sources to obtain information on planned future developments. To date, no planned commercial or other developments have been identified that may be located within 0.25 mile of the Project facilities; however, we received comments from Ozdan Development, LLC and Amytra Development, LLC regarding future residential developments that would be located on lands adjacent to and bordering Millennium’s existing pipeline and the proposed Highland Compressor Station (see section B.5.2). We also received comments stating that the Highland Compressor Station site was part of the Eldred Preserve. As stated above, Millennium owns all the land that would be affected by the new compressor station, therefore this land is no longer a part of the Eldred Preserve. Further, we found no evidence that any land associated with the former preserve is protected by a conservation easement or actively managed.” The Sullivan Times w as unable at press time to obtain any comments that the Silnas or their representatives made to FERC. A source with knowledge of the parcels belonging to the Silnas and Millennium says that the Silnas have recently leased approximately eight or nine acres of land to Millennium Pipeline -- whose existing 80 acres of property is adjacent to the Preserve on Route 55. That same source believes that Millennium actually needed an additional eight or nine acres of property to complete the pipeline connection in Eldred. “I don’t like to speak for Dan but what you have is accurate as far as I know,” Samuelson said in response to a question to confirm the existence of a lease agreement. “But for any details you would have to speak with Dan.” But Dan Silna said Samuelson, his new chief operating officer, had the wrong information. “Eldred (Preserve) has never leased any land for Millennium,” Silna said in a brief phone call to The Sullivan Times last week and repeated in a voicemail later in the day. The Silnas are being represented by New Paltz attorney James Bacon, who did not respond to a request for comment on the leasing issue. Asked about a leasing deal with the Silnas, Millennium Pipeline spokesperson Hook said: “In terms of specific landowners that we do agreements with, that’s considered proprietary information mostly to protect the landowners from opposition groups. So we don’t actually confirm or deny names of people who have agreements with us for land acquisition purposes.” But Hook added that there’s been “no additional acquisition beyond the 80 acres” it originally acquired from the prior owners of the Eldred Preserve in 2016. Another issue connected to the Eldred Preserve Project is the help it received from the County’s Industrial Development Agency (IDA), chaired by Legislator Ira Steingart. “We (IDA) have pilot programs to promote tourism because obviously it’s a very strong economic sector for our county,” Steingart said. “That’s why we offer the benefits to try to encourage growth. It’s there to entice people to invest in creating more room for tourism and destinations in our county. We want to create that economy again. The pilot program lets them know their costs from x amount of years out. They are not paying taxes but they are
paying a pilot payment which winds up getting divided the same way as taxes ...school, town, county, village..in the same percentage as taxes. This is a huge investment in that community. “ Steingart added that the Eldred Preserve Project is “going to create jobs, which will create additional money being spent in the community. When that happens, there’s sales tax and room tax..and it has a snowball effect. Business owners are then able to spend more and the community will be in better shape.“
Left to right: County Legislator and IDA Chair Ira Steingart; Luis Alvarez, chairman of the County Legislature, and Joshua Potosek, the County Manager before an August 16, 2018 meeting of the Legislature. (Photo by Rich Klein)
Asked about Samuelson’s role in the air quality study, Steingart said that his colleague “was very active in trying to make sure his community is protected. He started doing that before this project was on the board. If anything, he was doing due diligence by pushing to get these studies done. We made sure there was a baseline study so that if anything did happen, it could be shut down. “ Steingart said he agreed with Samuelson’s own assertion that there is no conflict in serving as a legislator while spearheading an air quality study about a pipeline project adjacent to what will be the new Bradstan Country Hotel. On April 20, 2018, the IDA unanimously approved a resolution detailing the tax incentives for Amytra through 2038 for a project that will create 24 jobs. It came just four days after a public hearing in Highland that began at 9 a.m. at Town of Highland Town Hall. Shepstone Management Company, Inc. was the consultant for Amytra’s application and benefit/cost analysis to the IDA. Owner Tom Shepstone is known as the face and voice of the shale gas drilling industry in the Northeast and even has a radio show and blog devoted to the promotion of the natural gas industry and for attacking its opponents. “I have done benefit/cost analyses for the IDA for many years,” Shepstone said. “This was simply another one. Great project, though!” Steingart confirmed that the IDA selected Shepstone for the analysis but that Amytra paid for the study. On June 11, Steingart authorized the opening of a new sales tax escrow account for Amytra Development, LLC., Eldred Hospitality, LLC., and Eldred Entertainment, LLC.
“He’s (Dan Silna) putting millions and millions of dollars in,” Samuelson said of the Silnas’ investment, adding that a $12 million figure “is conservative at the moment. So any help he can get to just get it started and off the ground is only fair.“ Samuelson added that the Silnas did receive a sales tax abatement on anything that he purchases to build. (And) we will charge sales tax and room tax and that goes back to the County and (Sullivan County) Visitors Association.“ NOTE: The Sullivan Times twice reached out to Media Solstice to obtain an authorized photo of Dan Silna for use in this article but those requests by phone and email were ignored.