RE: PCBs in Natural Gas Lines

["Campbell, Jon" <Campbell@Rational.Com>]

Rebecca,

    Thanks for the confirmation of this problem. I saw it mentioned, almost
in passing, in an EPA document about PCB suorces, but have not seen it
mentioned in other official documents. I knew it to be the case because a
friend of mine who works in the gas business in Massachusetts confirmed it.
PCBs have been used in compressor oils for many years, and it is only common
sense that when these leak there will be PCBs in the gas. Because the
chemicals are so damn heavy, they condense all along the lines and continue
to evaporate/condense unless they are specifically removed.

    Between 50 and 500 ppm. Well, that is much higher than I thought, and
certainly confirms my common sense supposition and my worst fears about it.
That is horrific. That makes gas power plants large producers of dioxin, and
everyone who has a gas stove is putting dioxins directly into their homes,
including Byron Bodo.

    The Lowell gas plant (Mass) is the largest producer of particulates in
the area. People from Lowell often wake up with their cars and homes covered
in carbon. I don't know why Byron would claim otherwise.

    Thank you for this information. We are fighting another gas-powered
plant, and this will provide more ammo.

Thanks again
Jon

-----Original Message-----
From: Rebecca Leighton Katers [mailto:cwac@mail.execpc.com]
Sent: Monday, June 07, 1999 11:16 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list DIOXIN-L
Subject: PCBs in Natural Gas Lines


I have to respond to this discussion, because I 
attended a horrible EPA conference in Chicago  a 
few months ago where the subject of PCBs in 
natural gas came up.

It was a presentation of EPA staff concerning the 
new PCB Mega Rule --- to an audience of several 
hundred mostly industry representatives.

The fact is that natural gas pipelines are now 
regulated under the PCB rule because many of them 
ARE contaminated with PCBs, due to leaking of PCB 
oil used in the compressor pumps which push the 
gas through the pipeline.   

All along the gas lines --- from the original 
wells to our homes and industries --- are 
condensate traps where sampling often finds PCB 
in high levels.   (Between 50 and 500 ppm)

EPA officials at this conference confirmed this 
was happening, though when I started to ask 
questions the industry guys in the audience 
immediately tried to assure me (excessively) that 
it was nothing to worry about.   They made me 
suspicious immediately.

When I pressed, the EPA officials 
admitted there had been incidents in Atlanta, 
Georgia and on Long Island (or Manhattan?) where 
extremely high PCB levels were found.   They 
couldn't discount that the problems could be more 
widespread --- but the EPA guys were so 
pro-industry in their presentations that they 
kept saying things lke, "It's not an enforcement 
priority.  We'd rather not know about it."  (This 
got lots of laughs from the industry lobbyists.)

It was said that a utility called Atlanta Gas 
& Light was replacing 250 miles of natural gas 
pipeline per year because of PCB contamination.

EPA officials also admitted that PCB contaminated 
condensate has been found in condensate in 
home gas meters, which means that the PCBs are 
reaching into our homes --- through kitchen gas 
ranges, gas water heaters, gas clothes dryers, 
and natural gas home furnaces --- which means we 
have millions of mini-PCB-incinerators in 
neighborhoods throughout our country.

Wonderful, isn't it?    It's too bad the 
industry guys can never be trusted to give an 
honest response to issues like this.


> Date:          Sat, 5 Jun 1999 16:14:33 -0400
> Reply-to:      bodo@interlog.com
> From:          Byron Bodo <bodo@interlog.com>
> To:            Multiple recipients of list DIOXIN-L
<dioxin-l@essential.org>
> Subject:       Re: paper industry query

> At 11:55 AM 6/5/99 -0400, Jon Campbell wrote:
> >Hello,
> >
> >      I'm sorry I missed this message and hope this is not duplicate
> >information.
> 
> Unlikely given the false claims make below:
> 
> >Natural gas burning power plants create a
> >tremendous amount of particulate (PM10, PM2.5) pollution, and trace
amounts
> >of PCBs that contaminate the nation's gas pipelines, when burned, form
> >dioxins and furans. 
> 
> Nonsense.  Burning natural gas produces CO2 & some water vapor.
> My gas stove & furnace produce zero particulates.  The chief complaint 
> about gas fired electrical generating stations is release of greenhouse
> gases.
> 
> Gas pipelines & mains are welded steel.  There are no PCBs,
> no PCDD/Fs.  Some regulator/compressor/valve stations built back in
> the 60s & early 70s may have used some PCB containing materials 
> [sealants, paints], but the release of PCBs into the gas stream would 
> be nil for  practical purposes.
> 
> -bb
> 
> 
Rebecca Leighton Katers
Clean Water Action Council of N.E. Wisconsin
East Port Center
1270 Main Street, Suite 120
Green Bay, WI 54302
Phone:  920-437-7304
Fax:  920-437-7326
E-mail:  cwac@execpc.com