ARTICLES INSIDE • Biodiversity and Pipelines • Columbia County Living Land © Chris Graham 2015 News from Hudsonia Volume 29, Number 1 Spring 2015 David Clouser & Associates One Paradies Lane, Suite 200 New Paltz, New York 12561 (845) 256-9600; 256-9700 fax website: www.dcaengrs.com Civil Engineering, Land Planning and Development Engineers & Land Surveyors Supporting Appropriate Land Development Common gallinule. Kathleen A Schmidt © 2001. Cover photo: A beaver-flooded meadow in Beebe Hill State Forest, Austerlitz, NY. Beaver activity has helped to shape many parts of the northeastern landscape, creating ponds, marshes, meadows, and swamps that support a great variety of native plants and animals. Photo © Chris Graham 2015. Our business sponsors generously support News from Hudsonia. If you would like to sponsor this publication, contact Judy Schneyer at 845-758-7053 or [email protected]. (Publishing a sponsorship does not constitute an endorsement.) ISSN 1072-8244 News from Hudsonia A journal of natural history and environmental issues Volume 29, Number 1 Spring 2015 IN THE PIPELINE: Dear friends of Hudsonia, BIODIVERSITY AND GAS As we approach the summer Solstice after TRANSMISSION the long cold winter and short K. Schmidt © 2001 spring, Hudsonia biologists and By Erik Kiviat* interns are deep into our 2015 studies of rare plants, invasive plants, rare and common turtles, sig - nificant habitats, forest restoration, habitat management Recently the New York State Department of Environmental for biodiversity, and conservation priorities (see p. 6 of Conservation decided to prohibit high volume horizontal hy- this issue). draulic fracturing (HVHHF) in New York, ostensibly on the We look forward to seeing many of you at the summer basis of a public health impacts review. But the issue of and fall workshops on land use planning and conservation HVHHF impacts has not gone away. There are three reasons: on the Rensselaer Plateau, habitats of Columbia County, 1. The decision could be reversed; 2. HVHHF wastes may be urban biodiversity, and habitat assessment and conserva- exported from Pennsylvania to New York for disposal; and tion for the Hudson Valley (see p.7 and 11). 3. Gas pipelines are proposed, under construction, or being Thank you for the success of Hudsonia’s 2014 matching replaced or expanded to accommodate the transmission of funds campaign! Please continue to support this important HVHHF gas from Pennsylvania to New York and New Eng- work that brings innovative conservation science to residents, land. This article focuses on the impacts of gas transmission community leaders, and public agencies in the region. Our pipelines on ecology and biodiversity. wide-ranging research and education programs depend on Figure 1 shows a 2009 map of gas pipelines, and many more donations from readers of News from Hudsonia. pipelines have been proposed and constructed in the six years since Thank you! the map was made. At the end of 2013 there were about 2.5 million kilometers (1.575 million miles) of gas pipelines in the U.S. overall.28 Ordinarily the pipes are laid in narrow trenches and backfilled (or Philippa Dunne Erik Kiviat mounded over, where some of the older pipelines cross wetlands). Chair Executive Director Some recently-constructed pipelines have also used a “trenchless” method in which the pipe is installed in a tunnel drilled under a wet- Hudsonia is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation and donations are tax de- ductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. land, stream, or other sensitive area. In forests, a corridor ca. 15-30 m (50–100 ft) wide is cleared and then maintained in herbaceous (non-woody) vegetation for the life of the pipeline to facilitate equipment access and prevent tree roots CONTENTS from disturbing the pipe. Vegetation may be managed by mowing In the Pipeline: Biodiversity and Gas Transmission. p. 1 or herbicide application. The pipeline corridor, or right-of-way (ROW), Columbia County Living Land . p. 4 Hudsonia Projects, 2015. p. 6 Continued on page 2 * Erik Kiviat is Hudsonia’s executive director. Pipelines continued from page 1 Figure 1. Gas pipelines in the conterminous United States as of 2008. (From the US. Energy Information Administration.) resembles an electric transmission ROW but and vegetation, and habitat conversion. The DIRECT DISTURBANCE AND without the towers, cables, and strong electro- operating impacts include habitat conversion HYDROLOGICAL CHANGES magnetic field. Instead, gas (and oil) pipeline and fragmentation effects on species, noise and The proposed Constitution Pipeline west of the ROWs have greater soil disturbance from air emissions from compressors, herbicide tox- Hudson River would cross at least 277 water- trenching for, and backfilling over, the pipe. icity, and explosions. bodies. Crossings are almost certain to result Much of the recent scientific literature on The replacement or upgrading of existing in pollution of streams and wetlands with sed- pipeline impacts concerns impacts on large pipelines may involve disturbance or loss of iment, nutrients, and other materials.25 Because mammals from gas and oil pipelines in the far plants and animals established on or beneath several crossings may all drain into the same North. Very little is known about pipeline im- the ROW, widening of the ROW, siltation and stream, cumulative downstream impacts would pacts in the northeastern states, and the effects other water pollution, other impacts of construc- occur. of pipelines on plants and small animals. tion activities, and release of toxic materials Trenching disturbs the existing movement of The effects of gas pipelines on biodiversity accumulated inside the old pipe. Routine main- groundwater, and the backfill material is likely may be considered in two categories: construc- tenance and cleaning of pipelines can also result to have different hydraulic conductivity (capac- tion impacts and operating impacts. The con- in leakage of chemical residues to the environ- ity for water to move through) than the surrounding struction impacts include direct physical ment. Many of these impacts have received little intact soil. This may result in alterations of disturbance of soils, bedrock, streams and wet- scientific attention. Because pipelines are very groundwater discharge to streams and wet- lands, siltation and other pollution, hydrological long and narrow features, they cross many lands. Groundwater itself can support many changes, facilitation of invasive species, mor- streams, wetlands, mature forests, and other small animals, most of which are poorly known tality of wildlife from vehicles and heavy equip- sensitive habitats. Careful alignment can reduce or unknown to science, and this pertains to ment, wildlife trapped in the pipeline trenches, the numbers of sensitive habitats disturbed but subterranean habitats in both non-glaciated visual and noise disturbance to wildlife, loss of cannot eliminate such disturbance. and glaciated regions.26,27 carbon and other potential pollutants from soil Among the most sensitive and important News from Hudsonia 2 Volume 29, Number 1 habitats potentially affected by pipeline con- 15 m (50 ft) wide, they may inhibit dispersal of struction are the wetland habitats of the bog West Virginia white butterfly, juvenile amphib- turtle (federally listed as Threatened, and En- ians, and ground beetles, or disrupt breeding Hudsonia Ltd. dangered in New York, Connecticut, New habitat use by certain forest birds, such as the Jersey, and Pennsylvania). These habitats are ovenbird, and plants, such as orchids.12,22 Not Board of Directors sensitive to alteration of groundwater flow, only are some species poorly able to cross Philippa Dunne, Chair Mark Lindeman, Secretary siltation, and nutrient inputs. Many bog turtle ROWs, but other forest species are affected by Enrique Díaz-Alvarez wetlands in Pennsylvania are affected by ex- drying and warming of air and soil near the Megan Dundas Ann Gourlay Gabler 12 isting or proposed pipelines (Jason Tesauro, newly-created edges along the ROWs. Im- Jim Glomb pers. comm.). proved routing and more sensitive construction Amy Kirk methods can reduce damage to important Advisory Board INVASIVE SPECIES habitats but will not eliminate fragmentation. Robert Boyle Bill Maple James Challey Jane Meigs Disturbance to existing soil and vegetation is Elizabeth Farnsworth Jonathan Meigs one of the most important impacts facilitating RESIDUES Richard Feldman Marcus J Molinaro colonization and spread of nonnative pest plants Some toxic substances from the natural gas are The Hon. Maurice Hinchey David Mordecai Samantha Kappagoda Frederick Osborn III such as tree-of-heaven, Japanese knotweed, deposited on the inside of pipelines. Twenty-five Felicia Keesing Laura Tessier and common reed. Because a pipeline ROW is polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were René VanSchaack a long linear feature, it may act as a dispersal detected in gas pipeline residue in the South- Research Associates pathway for invasive plants, much as do high- west;3 many PAHs are toxic to humans, other James (Spider) Barbour Nancy Slowik Leah Ceperley Jason Tesauro way verges. Seeds or fragments of weeds that animals, and plants. In wastewater from hydro- Laura Lukas Kristen Bell Travis colonize physically disturbed, sunny soil may static testing of gas pipelines, Eiceman et al. Kristi MacDonald Othoniel Vázquez Kathleen A Schmidt Domínguez be spread along pipeline ROWs by construc- (1983) found 25-38 mg/L of benzene. In Brazil, tion equipment,