CB welcomes back a member, discusses Buckeye Pipeline

Community Board 10 (CB 10) held its monthly meeting on Thursday, October 4 at the Knights of Columbus hall, 135-45 Lefferts Boulevard in South Ozone Park.
The Board welcomed back member Sean McCabe, who had been stationed in Ft. Hood, Texas since December 2006. Prior to that, he had spent a year in Baghdad, serving as a member of the U.S. Army’s 4th Infantry Division. McCabe, who stopped in to say hello to the many board members he had not seen since being deployed, was not able to stay for the entire meeting.
“He has much more important matters to deal with, like seeing his family,” said CB 10 Chair Betty Braton.
McCabe’s mother, Pat, works in the office of Councilmember Joe Addabbo, who said he holds great respect for McCabe.
“We’re very happy to have him back and unharmed,” said Addabbo. “The first thing he said to me when he got back was, ‘When can I get back on the Community Board?’”
Sue Baer, General Manager of John F. Kennedy (JFK) Airport, was also on hand to introduce herself to the board.
“We have an obligation to work very closely with the neighbors that are closest to us,” said Baer, who has been general manager for only two months. “We have every intention of communicating with you and hearing your concerns.”
Baer said she hopes to return to CB 10 in a future meeting with representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to discuss specifics of the FAA’s airspace redesign project.
The featured guest speaker at the meeting was Roy Haas, Senior Manager of Right of Way and Permits for Buckeye Pipeline, the Linden, NJ-based company that operates the web of pipelines running beneath New York City. Haas presented a slide show in hopes of “dulling some erroneous information that has come about since the quote-unquote terrorist plot at JFK,” he said.
Buckeye supplies New York City with diesel fuel, heating oil, jet fuel and more on a daily basis, using “the most advanced technology available to monitor and secure the pipeline,” said Haas. Approximately 3.6 million gallons of jet fuel are delivered to JFK each day, with an additional 660 thousand gallons delivered to LaGuardia Airport.
“Pipelines are by far the safest way to transport that much oil,” said Haas. “We have statistics that prove that year after year.”
Some common misconceptions, Haas said, include ideas that pipelines are unregulated, that they run beneath thousands of homes, and that they are insecure and could “blow up” entire sections of Queens and Brooklyn.
“Pipelines are regulated and inspected by the Department of Transportation,” said Haas. “Our personnel are all certified by FDNY.”
Only if there were a leak, said Haas, could a potential explosion take place, and even then, only under very specific circumstances. The liquid would have to come into contact with a certain amount of oxygen, vaporize, then come into contact with a point of ignition. Even then, said Haas, the ignition would be a small-scale, localized blast.
“Liquid alone does not burn,” assured Haas.