A burning need: Kinder Morgan seeks to triple coal import capacity

Tuesday, 26 June 2007

Page 2 of 2 Diesel particulates a concern As in the case of the port terminal, one of the endangered species whose fate the corps will be considering closely is that of the endangered Northern right whale, which migrates past Charleston as it moves between seasonal habitats off Cape Cod and the Florida coast. “You look for the same things no matter what the project is,” Socha said. “And it doesn’t necessarily follow that just because the port was asked to do something that Kinder Morgan is going to be as well. Every mitigation plan is going to be a little bit different depending of the quality of the impact.” As currently proposed, the project will impact 11.15 acres of U.S. waters, including 0.13 acres of tidal wetlands. The project also will increase the amount of diesel particulates that are released into the air in North Charleston, but that’s something Kinder Morgan is already taking steps to address. According to the plans provided to the corps, ships arriving at Kinder Morgan’s terminal currently shut down their main diesel engines and rely on onboard generators to provide power to drive cranes aboard the ship and for all other berth operations. However, even the generators require some diesel combustion, a figure Kinder Morgan put at 20 gallons an hour. Once the project is completed, Kinder Morgan said use of the shipboard cranes will be replaced by larger, electric dock cranes. The proposed improvement will result in a net decrease of approximately 80,000 gallons of marine diesel combustion a year. Socha said the corps’ review also will look at uplands impacts, including those related to transporting coal from the site to inland destinations by rail, and air quality. << Start < Prev 1 2 Next > End >>