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.
