PORTSMOUTH — National Grid has previously said it plans to keep storing liquefied natural gas (LNG) at its seasonal facility on Old Mill Lane for up to 10 more years.

Now it appears the “temporary” vaporization equipment that’s located within a residential neighborhood could remain there for much longer than that.

Presenting an update to the Town Council Monday night, Brian Schuster, director of customer community management for National Grid in Rhode Island, said the utility company is looking to use the Old Mill Lane facility “as long as needed.” He also repeated National Grid’s position that the vaporization facility is the only viable option providing uninterrupted service of the natural gas distribution system on Aquidneck Island. 

National Grid has chosen this option over major non-infrastructure changes, such as converting customers over to heat pumps and adding insulation; a new transmission pipeline; or using an LNG barge located a few miles offshore. (Council members pressed him about a second transmission pipeline to address the vulnerability issue, but Schuster said there is always significant “pushback” when that option is proposed.)

“The biggest advantage of this solution is the cost; it’s by far the most affordable,” Schuster said in addressing National Grid’s proposed solution to ensure that what happened in January 2019 — 13,800 Aquidneck Island natural gas customers experienced severe outages — doesn’t take place again.

Abutters to the facility have complained of noise and safety issues ever since the R.I. Energy Facility Siting Board (EFSB) approved the company’s request to place five tanker trucks carrying LNG at the temporary vaporization facility.

“Nobody wants to have a portable LNG operation in their neighborhood,” Schuster said. “(However), It’s the most balanced approach, the most affordable approach … and it provides us with the greatest reliability.”

To appease abutters, he said National Grid is proposing to redesign its five-acre-plus property on Old Mill Lane by moving its equipment back further from the road. The move would involve wetlands, so it would need approval from the state Department of Environmental Management, he said.

“What we’re now thinking about is relocating much of the equipment much further back into the property,” Schuster said, noting the reconfigured facility would be less impactful to neighbors, especially during vaporization.

National Grid has also offered to purchase property owned by abutters so they could relocate, he said. Other details on how National Grid would further mitigate the facility’s impact will come out during EFSB hearings on the plan, he said. National Grid’s supplemental application needs to be filed by April 4, 2022, and its next appearance before EFSB is set for 1 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 18, via Zoom. The public is welcome to tune in and comment.

Abutters respond

Despite Schuster’s promises of National Grid’s mitigation efforts, neighbors of the facility were not convinced. 

Steve MacDonald, who lives right across the street from the facility on Old Mill Lane, said the noise continues to be a nuisance. The sound levels generated by the facility range up to 97 decibels, which exceeds both the Portsmouth and Middletown noise ordinances, he said. 

“For the past three winters, these operations have had an adverse effect on the surrounding residential area,” he said, adding that it’s been “a neighborhood’s worst nightmare.”

MacDonald also pointed out that any mitigation efforts proposed by National Grid — including the moving of equipment — won’t happen this winter. Schuster later acknowledged that National Grid is targeting the equipment relocation for next winter, and that the utility will also need a variance from the town’s noise ordinance. To that, MacDonald urged the council to reject any request for a variance.

He also addressed the large tanker trucks that come and go from the facility. During an emergency, MacDonald said up to 15 trucks will be needed.

“These trucks are large and when they try getting into that property, they literally have to have somebody directing them so they don’t go on adjacent property lines,” said MacDonald, adding the trucks will be traveling over narrow Wapping Road and Old Mill Lane in the dead of winter past school bus stops, possibly with snow on the ground.

“This is a recipe for a tragic accident. It does not belong in this neighborhood,” he said.

Schuster said during a worst-case scenario — a major transmission loss — 17 refuels of five tanker trucks would be necessary. “Obviously, we hope that never occurs,” he said, adding the chance of another major outage taking place in the future is less than 1 percent. In addition, local authorities are notified in advance of the routes taken by tanker trucks, he said.

Lawrence Silvia, who also lives across the street from the facility, said National Grid’s proposal to stay on Old Mill Lane is motivated purely by greed. “They’re sacrificing quality of life and safety,” he said. Instead of choosing the easiest and cheapest option, he added, “I would hope they’d take the safest way out.”

The tanker trucks are so big “they block out the sun when they go by. I’ve never seen a truck that big,” Silvia said.

In short, even a seasonal vaporization facility has no place in a residential neighborhood, he said. 

“But somehow they plow us under, which isn’t fair,” Silvia said.