July 31, 2007 

Kristen French

On Tuesday, August 7, 2007, at 6:30pm, DHEC will hold an informal public hearing regarding Kinder Morgan's proposed expansion permits for the Kinder Morgan Shipyard Creek facility.  The meeting HAS BEEN RELOCATED:

New Location:		Urban Alliance Studio (Storehouse 7)

Address:		The Noisette Company, LLC

 			1360 Truxtun Avenue, Suite 200

			North Charleston, SC 29405

			(843)554-2274

Time:			6:30pm

The information to be covered will include updates on:

*      DHEC's review of the draft expansion permit (#0560-0015-CN) and the facility-wide operating draft permit (#CM-0560-0015)

*      DHEC's meetings with Kinder Morgan officials since the April 17th public hearing

*      results of DHEC's May 2007 compliance inspection at the Kinder Morgan facility

 Please plan to attend this hearing! 

See more information on Kinder Morgan on the Environment Page.  Also, please check out the front page article on this week's (Aug 1, 2007) Charleston City Paper!

Here are some of the actions we have requested of DHEC:

*    Penalize Kinder Morgan for any current or past infractions, including blatant disregard for the Consent order with the Water Quality division of DHEC.

*    Require that Kinder Morgan cease and desist illegal washing of coal and other materials into the Cooper River.

*    Require that Kinder Morgan cease and desist all night time operations until proper night-time monitoring systems are in place and reliable personnel are in place to ensure compliance with all regulations 24 hours a day.

*    Require that Kinder Morgan change the method they use to transfer coal and other materials from ships to hoppers and from storage to rail cars (clam shells cranes are simply unacceptable).  Any new method should minimize the amount of dust that is exposed to wind and should eliminate spillage into the water.

*    Require storage of coal and other dry bulk materials in some sort of silo system, so that the stored coal is not exposed to wind or rain.

*    Require that all rail cars to be filled properly and completely closed before leaving the site, so that coal or other dry bulk materials will not blow out of the rail cars during transport.

*    Require a plan to prevent runoff of dry bulk materials as a result of storm or tidal surges.

*    Require that Kinder Morgan meet with the Cooper River Marina boat owners and reach an agreement regarding past property damage and actions to take after any future property damage or dusting of boats at the Marina.

*    Allow the cities of Charleston and North Charleston to review any permits before they are issued.

Here are some links to articles about Kinder Morgan in the local press:

Charleston City Paper, August 1, Vigilant citizen confronts Kinder Morgan

Post & Courier, August 4, Complaints prompt closer look at permits

SCBIZ, June 26, A burning need: Kinder Morgan seeks to triple coal import capacity

Post & Courier, May 18,  Coal terminal draws attention

Post & Courier, April 22, Shipping terminal faces opposition to expansion plans

Charleston Regional Bus. Journ., Mar 19, Piling on: Kinder Morgan seeks to triple coal import capacity to 10 million tons