OPINION: Pipeline endangers Brooklyn
Building a fracked-gas pipeline next to an aging nuclear power plant sounds like a recipe for disaster. But that is exactly what is happening in Westchester County, and it puts Brooklyn — and all of New York City — at risk.
The project is known as the Algonquin Incremental Pipeline, or AIM for short. It would transport fracked gas from Pennsylvania through Rockland, Westchester, and Putnam Counties to New England then Canada. From there, it would be exported abroad.
All gas pipelines pose serious hazards. Pipeline explosions on their own can cost lives. Gas pipelines enable fracking, a dangerous method of drilling that contaminates water, pollutes the air, and contributes to climate change. And new pipelines deepen our reliance on dirty fossil fuels, undermining efforts to make the transition to clean, renewable power.
But the AIM pipeline poses a particularly treacherous risk because it is being constructed a mere 105 feet from critical safety structures at the Indian Point nuclear plant. Indian Point is dangerous in its own right: the aging facility is leaking radioactive tritium into the groundwater, operating on expired permits, and positioned on top of two earthquake fault lines.