Friday, December 6, 2013

DMP/Williams Files with NYS PSC for 2nd Parallel Natgas Pipeline Into Windsor, NY

Some more unnoticed "public notice," that I noticed this morning.

Here's a link to this particular NYS PSC file's overall table of contents, which should keep delivering updates to you, as this application inevitably builds and builds
, voluminously.


What this is is — in a nutshell, because I don't have much free, unpaid time right now — is this:  This is a flood of paperwork — 89 documents in just the first salvo, filed Dec. 2, 2013 — put forth with the New York State Public Service Commission by DMP New York, Inc. and Williams Field Services Company, LLC

To my knowledge, these entities are the current owners of a now-already-installed 16" PA-to-Windsor, NY natural gas pipeline which originally went by the tagline "Laser," but is now apparently called the "New York Mainline."


The new, proposed work they're calling the "New York Mainline Loop."


The paperwork shows the pipeline developers have contracted with Northeast PA drillers that have so much shale gas they want to get to the Northeastern U.S. market, there's a plan to
put in a second, parallel, 16" pipeline — right into still-frackless NY, presumably allowing them to feed twice as much product into the west-east Millennium Pipeline.

Should be of interest to taxpayers in the Township of Windsor, NY, and taxpayers in whatever school district soaks that particular area with tax bills, including tax bills to pipeline owners (I'm assuming that would be the Black Knights at Windsor Central).

Should also be of interest to landowners along the route.

Should also be of interest to readers of the Binghamton, NY newspaper, always on the lookout for more unsubsidized private-sector investment in Gov. Cuomo's "Open for Business" Southern Tier.  (But it doesn't look like the newspaper people are on top of it yet, which doesn't surprise me.)

And it should also be of interest to NY and PA pipeline specialists, folks with the know-how, the where-with-all, and the crying economic need to line up some more work for themselves, down the road.

Some additional context: 

Sometime around Oct. 2012, there was some rare reporting, I believe originating out of the Binghamton newspaper, which showed that what was then known as the Laser pipeline (and compressor station) gave a nearly $30 million boost to the Town of Windsor's taxable value.  But even that's not a fair number, as Windsor assesses property at 68% of full value, according to the latest state-issued equalization rate, so it's really more like a $44 million development.

I just double-checked the math, and the Jan. 2013 data for Windsor shows $446K paid in town and county taxes by the Laser/Williams pipeline people.  In the context of a township with a total annual collection of $4,226K, that's more than 10% of the tax base that's being carried by that part of this pipeline development that's already in the ground.  The first year the tax impact materialized, the pipeline was credited with lowering town and county tax bills for Windsorians by 8% on average — which stands to reason if the town's budget went up slightly over the same time period.  I haven't also double-checked the math on the school tax side, but Windsor Central school taxes were last reported to be lowered by 5.8% due to the pipeline.

Needless to say, if the developers succeed in putting in a second twin pipeline and whatever additional infrastructure it takes to run it, the Windsor assessor is going to get a chance to re-run these numbers all over again.

Meanwhile, here's a question:  Over in the neighboring Town of Sanford, which employs the same assessor, when will local people see the impact of installation of the similar Bluestone Pipeline, green-lighted by the State of New York in Sept. 2012, and reported to be flowing gas into the NYS end as of May 2013?  I got to the bottom of the answer to that question here.

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