$400 Million Liquefied Natural Gas Site: Balto Co & City in Uproar!

[AuntiBush]

This made the front pages of my Sun Paper, today.

AES Corp. of Arlington, VA to build $400 million dollar liquefied natural gas site at former Sparrows Point (Bethlehem Steel & Ship Bldg.) Dundalk, Balto. Co. location. This has everyone past on-edge. As it stands, people in the area have been under major fears due to the very close location of the Dundalk Marine Terminals (Dubai Port deals). Add that to many generations of past workers whom lost their jobs, medical benefits, pensions - you name it, from the closing of Bethlehem Steel.

A few years back, a company from Uruguay bought Beth Steel (*'s uncle was Ambassador of Uruguay at the time if I'm not mistaken), then it sold to another firm. Only a fraction retained their jobs. Those that did have gotten by knowing they're jobs would eventually be gone, as well. GM was another local plant that recently closed on these folks, to boot.

Now this and it has everyone very, very upset. Most can not afford to sell, or move. And their surrounded by water. They're well aware a Hurricane could take them out due to Global Warming. I would know as I know many in the areas, and grew-up not far from this vicinity.




Photo: Sun News Graphic

Snip

"Judging by the most apocalyptic of the reports, written more than two decades ago for the civil defense arm of the Pentagon, an accident at a plant on Sparrows Point could create a low-lying, flammable fog over an area large enough to cover the Inner Harbor. Based on another report, LNG spilled from a ship at the proposed site could ignite and create a radius of deadly heat large enough to reach to Turners Station."

End Snip

Snip

"The power supply company says that the plant would be safe, that it is far enough from homeowners to all but assure their safety even if there were a spill. Opponents say the project, which would involve moving tankers filled with concentrated fuel and as long as three football fields past areas where large numbers of people live, is an invitation to disaster - and terrorists."

End Snip

Another Snip

"Former White House counter-terrorism chief Richard A. Clarke called LNG terminals and tankers prime targets for a terrorist attack. Clarke - who later worked for AES Corp., the company that wants to build a facility on Sparrows Point - said in a 2005 report that an attack near the site of a proposed, though ultimately rejected, Rhode Island facility could have killed 3,000."

End Snip

From the article an attorney for LNG claims, "Until a large-spill test (LNG) is done, we're just shooting in the dark."

Kind of how our entire country is run these days.

Read more...http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.lng04jun04,0,2551290.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

[AuntiBush]

1. Kick

for Dundalkians and Baltimore City residents. This could effect them as well, according to this article in today's Sun papers.

[nickshepDEM]

2. I thought the County Council rejected this iusse...

IMO, the risk (being blown to pieces) is not worth the reward (75 or so permanent jobs).

By the way, Im a Dundalk resident. ;)

[Up2Late]

3. Those things are scary. "Study: LNG blast could burn victims up to a mile away

Study: LNG blast could burn victims up to a mile away

Thursday, March 15, 2007
From staff and wire reports

A terrorist attack against a tanker ship carrying liquefied natural gas could ignite a fire so fierce that it would burn people within a one-mile radius, according to a congressional study. The study by the Government Accountability Office examined terrorism risks on the nation's waterways and concluded that further research is needed to understand the consequences of such a remarkable inferno.

In 2003, the Press-Register first reported that experts believed LNG fires could burn people who were up to a mile away. The newspaper also noted that government studies conducted in the 1970s and 1980s suggested such a fire hazard. At the time of those newspaper reports, ExxonMobil was attempting to build an LNG docking facility at the mouth of the Theodore Ship Canal in south Mobile County. An elementary school and hundreds of residences would have been within the one-mile-wide zone.

Energy Department officials disputed the newspaper's reporting in 2003, arguing that a study it commissioned in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001 was more accurate. That 2001 study concluded that such a fire would burn people only within about 600 feet of an LNG fire.

Energy Department officials backed away from those conclusions after the Press-Register reported that the company that conducted the study acknowledged that it contained flaws and the Energy Department "misused" the results.

(more at link) <http://www.al.com/press-register/stories/index.ssf?/base/news/1173950544264770.xml&coll=3>