Kristen French, July 21, 2007

Cement Dust (Ken Bonerigo)

The Charleston County Sheriff's office handled the boarding of Ken Bonerigo's boat at the Cooper River Marina on Wednesday, July 18.  Deputy Adcock and another officer from the Sheriff's office were first on the scene.  During their initial investigation of the incident report submitted by Kinder Morgan, they treated Ken in a professional manner.  After their initial investigation, they were ready to release Ken but received word that they should hold him for Homeland Security.   According to Lt. Connelly, the Sheriff's office also handles Homeland Security for the Charleston area.  The Sheriff's office/Homeland Security was accompanied by representatives from customs and North Charleston (Police Department, we think).  Ken was informed on Friday that the Sheriff's office did not need Ken's permission to board his vessel.  While the Lt. informed Ken at that time that he is permitted to videotape Kinder Morgan now that his intentions are known, he was unwilling to provide legal backing, such as a law or statute, to justify the fact that he warned Ken to stop filming on Wednesday.  In addition, the Coast Guard has just recently informed Ken that there is no statute restricting filming around the Kinder Morgan Shipyard Creek Terminal.  As they put it, there is no 'exclusion zone.'

Ken was also informed that there will not be an investigation of Kinder Morgan's alert to Homeland Security about Ken.  We are disappointed by this revelation, since it seems clear that Kinder Morgan knew that Ken's activities were not a threat to Homeland Security or to Kinder Morgan's facility.

Kinder Morgan has begun to perform its night-time offloading operations under cover of darkness for the first time.  In the past, they have always used a great deal of lighting at the facility during their night-time operations.

Please feel free to keep checking this space for more updates.  Soon I will start adding information about what we have been asking DHEC to require of Kinder Morgan.   I would also appreciate all efforts to spread this information to all your contacts, media and otherwise, as we want to keep everything out in the open.

Kinder Morgan Resorts to Harassment

July 18, 2007 

Kinder Morgan’s Shipyard Creek Terminal in Charleston, SC (very close to North Charleston) is trying to expand its coal imports approximately 3-fold.  Based on Kinder Morgan’s poor containment of fugitive emissions of coal dust and cement dust at this facility in the past and because we feel that expanding this facility would negatively impact North Charleston and Charleston communities in terms of human health and environmental impact, many citizens have been active in expressing our opposition to this expansion.  We have primarily used the open public comment period provided by DHEC, which is considering the Air Quality Permits required for this construction to occur and required for continued operation of the facility.  Currently, we are waiting to hear what DHEC will decide on these permits, and because of the large number of opinions coming from private citizens and public elected officials, DHEC is carefully investigating the situation and taking its time to make a decision.  We are pleased that our voices have had such an impact. 

Now one of our voices is under attack.  Ken Bonerigo, who has been photographing and videotaping operations at Kinder Morgan from across Shipyard Creek (i.e., not on land owned by Kinder Morgan), was raided by Homeland Security yesterday, July 18, 2007.  In his words:

Yesterday morning my boat [home] was boarded and searched by Homeland Security without a warrant or reading my rights. They told me they were alerted by the company and that I was to stop video taping or photographing the operation or face arrest. They threatened to confiscate my equipment. After the 8 or 9 armed officers finished their search I was eventually released. They broke my video camera, I don't know if this was intentional or not.

 
Ken’s work has been invaluable.  Because of his videos and citizens’ concerns, DHEC is researching better pollution control and monitoring technologies, looking at boom containment issues, and investigating possible violations of a consent order with DHEC’s Water Quality Division. 

Examples of Ken’s videos can be viewed on YouTube.  One shows coal being off-loaded via clamshells.   While this is a legal practice, we are pushing for Kinder Morgan to be required to use “best practices” in the industry and to use greater care in transferring coal than is exhibited by this video.  A second video shows Kinder Morgan using a clamshell to dump water on a dock which was recently occupied by a coal bearing ship.  This ‘cleanup’ results in coal dust and debris being washed directly into Shipyard Creek, less than a mile from the Cooper River, and is illegal, according to DHEC.