Inside Danskammer

Plant rescued from the scrap heap

By Mark Reynolds
mreynolds@tcnewspapers.com

    Recently, Larry She, President of Danskammer LLC, invited the Southern Ulster Times for a tour of the inside of the cavernous power plant; a rehabilitation project that is still very much a work in progress. It was originally built in four phases, starting in 1951 and additional sections constructed in 1954, 1959 and 1967, respectively.
    She said after the flooding from Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 the two oldest sections of the plant took on 24 inches of water in their lower and basement areas. He said initially there was consideration given to scrapping the plant, however, the most expensive parts, the turbine generators and the control room, were not damaged by the storm. Plant Manager Ed Hall said as they inventoried the plant they were able to identify all of the parts that were damaged in the storm and needed to be fixed, such as electrical motors, valves and fittings. After a final price was established, they decided in May 2014 that the plant was worth saving and began to move forward.
    She said the company was not disclosing the exact amount needed to fix the plant “but it is in the low 8 figures.” Reports place that figure at $14 million, a number She acknowledges is in the “ballpark.”
She said more than 70 people [40 full time and 30 contractors] have been working “feverishly” six days a week on the plant. He said this equates to “about 600 years of Danskammer specific experience to help bring this place back and to ultimately operate it.” Ray Hart has 13 years experience, Rich Backofen 23 years, Mike McGuiness 34 years, Robert Mason 9 years and Eric Holbeg at 33 years, to name a few of the crew. Rich Backofen’s own story mirrors what many workers feel about the plan to revitalize Danskammer. 
“It brought me back to my town and my family. I worked here for 23 years, moved to Florida [and] found another job but I was away from my family and ultimately when I left here it was on a sour note. I wanted to finish what I started here 23 years ago. I wanted to finish my career here.” Other members of the crew agreed, saying that today “things are upbeat and there is a high morale.”   
Presently 2 of the generators have been repaired and the remaining 2 will soon be finished, with the expectation that the plant will be operational by the end of this year.    

  She described the fundamental way the plant works.
    “The sole purpose of the entire plant is to make clean water into very high pressure steam and that steam turns this engine that makes this generator make electricity; that’s basically it,” he said. “Everything in this plant is to make, control [and] monitor the generation of steam…The temperature and pressures are very high.” She said that if Danskammer’s 4 generating units were running at full capacity the plant could power a total of 450,000 homes.

    She said the main control room is a mix of old and new technology “and everything is still functional.” One panel controls temperature, flow and pressure at the plant while another controls the generation at the plant – “watching the electrons that are being made.”
    She pointed out that every power plant in New York is paid to be on standby.
“You can think of it as a payment to be ready to make power at a moment’s notice,” he said.
Danskammer receives $24 million annually from the state but She quickly adds there are “meaningful expenses” the plant incurs throughout the year, such as salaries and the recent expenditure of $11,000 just for panel light bulbs.
With the plant nearly ready, She recalled a time in the recent past when they rescued it “from the jaws of death. Nobody lived this closer than I did.”
During the rebuilding process She worked very closely with the Department of Environmental Conservation.
“The regulators work within the rules that are established and they don’t take their personal opinions into things,” he said. “They work within the framework of the law. They helped us to the extent they could in understanding our permits and our options and ultimately they were very cooperative. I give the DEC a tremendous amount of credit in helping us navigate through this. We [also] had the support of local legislators…and they did not stand in the way of this project’s potential.”
She said at the beginning of the project he questioned if they were going to be able to make it all work
“I characterized this as a one in ten thousand shot,” he said of their initial odds for success. He said many companies had “written this place off” and believed the plant would never again operate.
“If more folks thought this place had a chance to return to service there would have been people clamoring at the opportunity to buy it; there were no takers,” he recalled.
With Danskammer poised to return to service at a modest level of operation, it appears that once again power will be produced on the shores of the Hudson River in the Town of Newburgh.

Anchorage Advocate Speaks to Area Yacht Clubs

 

By Mark Reynolds
mreynolds@tcnewspapers.com

    Last week Edward J. Kelly, Executive Director of the Maritime Association of the Port of NY & NJ, addressed a large gathering of yacht club members from all along the Hudson River about a recent proposal that has been made by the U. S. Coast Guard to increase the number of anchorages for oil barges on the river. Presently there are two anchorage locations at Hyde Park and Yonkers and the proposal is calling for 10 new additional sites with 43 berths at the Yonkers Extension, Montrose Point, Tompkins Cove, Newburgh, Marlboro, Roseton, Milton, Big Rock Point, Port Ewen and Kingston Flats South.
    The proposal has generated significant bipartisan opposition from local, state and federal officials as well as from environmental organizations, citizen groups and residents from across the region.   
    Kelly brought a different perspective to the conversation. He said the Maritime Association was founded in New York City in 1873 and is concerned with commercial navigation and shipping issues from the Long Island Sound, north to Albany and along the New Jersey shore. The association has about 550 paid corporate and individual members that consists of international shipping lines, marine terminals, tug and barge operators, admiralty attorneys, long shore laborers, marine underwriters, divers, fuel organizations and vessel staff facilities. The industry brings imports and exports to the greater Mid-Atlantic region, which is considered a gateway to the United States. 
    “When you stop to think about the ramifications about how the world has gotten so small and the maritime industry transports so many of those goods in and out, it has really made the world a better place,” he said.
    Kelly said the Hudson River Pilots Association and the American Waterway Operators are supporting his association’s internal tug and barge committee recommendations that have been submitted to the Coast Guard for the additional federally designated anchorage areas. Kelly said due to the high level of interest this proposal has generated, with more than 6,000 letters submitted, he expects a series of public hearings would be scheduled for the spring and a final decision by late 2017.
    Kelly said the reason his association favors the increase in anchorages is based on facts.
    "We’ve seen a tremendous amount of disinformation and misinformation on the subject that has been put out there by various organizations," he said. "There are things on websites that are not true. There are things that are being spoken about that are not true. It is my opinion that you should first establish the facts and then try to distort them, not the other way around.”  
    Kelly said the safety record of water transport of oil products is well documented, with vessels now required to be double-hulled.
    "It is the cleanest and most environmentally friendly way to move freight. It is the most fuel-efficient [and] requires the minimal amount of infrastructure. It reduces roadway congestion and wear and tear, so therefore it reduces the need for public taxes to replace infrastructure, roads and bridges. It does reduce emissions both in the air and in the water as compared to any other mode of transportation," he said.
    Kelly estimated that one barge on a waterway saves 60 truck trailer trips on roadways.
    Kelly said the additional anchorages would help barge operators when facing difficult weather conditions such as fog, ice and sudden thunderstorms. The proposed locations have been chosen because they are in wide areas of the river, have deep water so ships would not run aground, provide shelter from strong currents out of navigable channels and are spaced in closer proximity so stopping points are not a far distance apart.
    Kelly said these anchorages would not be used by oil companies to park oil while waiting for their product to rise in value because the cost in equipment, man-hours and each with an attendant tugboat is simply cost prohibitive. He said critics who claim this is the real reason have "never looked into the actual economics or cost of trying to do that or else its an inconvenient fact they don't want to talk about."
    Kelly said the anchorages would be used for limited amounts of time, sometimes as little as 4 hours but typically to a maximum of 48 hours before the Coast Guard "says you must move." 
    Kelly said the anchorage sites "do not require any construction or the placement of any infrastructure in or around the river. These are not proposed moorings and nothing will be placed on the bottom of the river…and no yellow lines painted on the water."
    Kelly said there has been speculation that additional barges would increase the chances of a terrorist attack, a correlation he discounts. He said the shipping industry is subject to U. S. Coast Guard approved vessel and facility security plans and all professional mariners are required to be U. S. citizens who must possess digital transportation worker identification credentials and have undergone extensive drug and criminal background checks. Crews must also have proper U. S. Coast Guard licenses, ratings and training certificates "for any type of operation they are engaged in, whether its the type of the vessel, the type of waterway or the type of products they are involved with." 
    Kelly highlighted the importance of the shipping industry to the economy of the Hudson Valley region; by moving not only oil but commodities such as salt, sand, cement, crushed rock and oversized cargoes that cannot be moved on the roadways, to name a few.
    Kelly predicted that oil being brought through the Hudson Valley from the heartland and then refined for export would not happen because "it's too damn expensive" and selling it here make more economic sense."
    Kelly said extremely large vessels would not be able to travel up the Hudson.
    "You can't get big ships up here [and] we couldn't do that if we tried," he said. "If we put roller skates on the bottom of these ships we couldn't get them up here; there is just not enough water and that will never, ever happen."   
    Kelly said having federally designated anchorage areas would prevent companies from placing cables in the river at will and if snagged when barge operators do not know where they are located could cause serious injury or death to a barge crew and cut off power to a sizable area. Having the anchorage areas be cable-free is a significant safety measure.
    Kelly concluded by saying "that's my story. We believe its based on facts…we realize that commercial operators are not the only people on the river [and] we also realize there are environmental and recreational concerns. There is a lot of mixed use of this wonderful river. Commercial activity is part of it and we want to find ways to work with other people in and on the river so that we can serve the needs of this community for the products they consume in as safe and economically and environmentally friendly manner as possible."
    Kelly was peppered with questions from yacht club members, which gave him the opportunity for further clarification. He reiterated his central point, saying he believed that additional anchorage areas would make the river's commercial activity "even safer, more secure [and] more efficient…we are looking to mitigate risk. It has been proven over time that designating areas, marking them on proper [maritime] charts has been the safest solution."
    Kelly said the mid Hudson region is being considered for the additional anchorages because it is between the ports of New York City and Albany but they will be "fairly evenly spaced." Marlborough resident John Scott disagreed, pointing out that 16 anchorages are proposed for a 32-mile stretch of the river in this area. 
    Kelly was asked if the industry would agree to limit the number of barges on the river at any given time if the additional anchorages were granted; Kelly responded with a question. 
    "Is there any place in the United States where you are going to tell people what they can do? That's against the Constitution. We would never get that enacted,” he said.

Coast Guard Icebreaker Clears Hudson River

BY MARK REYNOLDS  |   MREYNOLDS@TCNEWSPAPERS.COM

            As everyone knows this has been an extremely cold and snowy winter all across the region, with people anxiously awaiting the warmth of spring. The brutally cold temperatures in February have dipped to as low as -20 degrees with the wind chill in certain areas, resulting in the Hudson River completely freezing over.

            The U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker the Sturgeon Bay has been clearing a shipping lane on the river from New York City to Albany to ensure that barges can deliver jet fuel, gasoline and home heating oil as well as road salt, cement and scrap metals to customers and businesses. 

            In a phone interview, Commander Lt. Kenneth R. Sauerbrunn USCG said the Coast Guard designates ice season from December 15 through April 1. He said the Sturgeon Bay has broken through ice up to 8 inches thick, with some snow capped ice areas reaching 18 inches, but the ship is capable of handling ice 30 inches thick, a scenario Sauerbrunn said he has not had the opportunity to witness. 

            The Sturgeon Bay is 140 feet in length with a beam height of 37.5, is powered by two diesel engines and displaces 662 tons. To break up the ice the ship uses a low pressure air hull lubrication system, called the bubbler method, which forces air and water between the hull and the ice to break up the ice.

Sauerbrunn described how the system works.

“Throughout the hull there are little ports that air shoots out of and it actually looks like the ship is sitting in a bubble bath; there’s just bubbles coming out from underneath the water all around the ship. That helps us in very thick ice by forcing water up between the hull and the thick ice on the side of the hull and it creates that little bit of lubrication [and] actually makes us much more efficient,” he said.

Sauerbrunn said his ship is the most advanced domestic type in today’s Coast Guard fleet. In addition, sister ship ‘Thunder Bay’ and the 65 foot Coast Guard cutter ‘Wire’ are presently operating on the Hudson River. He said the Sturgeon Bay operates on the river for up to 3 weeks before returning to their home port of Bayonne, NJ where routine maintenance and preventative engineering work is performed “just to make sure that we’re always fully operational.”     

 

            Sauerbrunn has a year round crew of 17 on board.

“We each stand 4 hour watches…and a new watch comes on every 4 hours,” he said, adding that it is too dangerous to operate the ship cutting through ice at night.

Sauerbrunn said the Sturgeon Bay has a special ‘football’ shaped hull design.

“That allows us to ride up onto the ice…and the weight of the ship crushes the ice,” he said, adding that the design produces a “very big wake and the wake helps break up ice on either side of us; not only are we crushing directly beneath the hull but if we are moving fast enough it crushes ice on either side.” He said his ship can reach a maximum speed of 12 knots, or approximately 15 mph. The ship initially cuts a path that is nearly 40 feet wide when the ice is very think but after several passes, they are able to expand that to “a nice wide track” of nearly 150 feet. In the narrow parts of the river they keep their widths to 100 feet but in other sections, from Poughkeepsie south, they have the room to create paths that are up to 250 feet across because of the river’s width and depth.

Sauerbrunn said sections of the river are not wide enough for two ships to pass each other, especially north of Kingston.

“There are certain designated spots throughout the river that the Coast Guard carves out extra wide and we call those passing zones,” he said. “[When] we have southbound and northbound traffic meeting they try and time it so they meet in these wide passing zones.” 

Sauerbrunn said there are five areas between Kingston and Albany where they form these passing lanes. He said there is a particularly narrow area of the river by West Point known as ‘World’s End.’

“That’s actually one of several designated choke points; areas in the river where there is a tight bend or ice has been known to accumulate very easily,” he said, adding that Crum Elbow above Poughkeepsie is another “major choke point and others as you go north.”

Sauerbrunn said there is an advantage to limiting the width of a track.

“You only want to break as much [ice] as necessary because the more of that really thick stuff in the swirl that breaks off, the more that can flow into the track and clog up [for] vessels making their way,” he said. “The risk is the more ice you break, the more ice you make, so we only try to break as much as we need.” 

Sauerbrunn called this winter the “worst one since 2004; the most ice as far as thickness and as far as percent coverage.” He said this has resulted in a record number of requests for ice breaking assistance on the river. 

 Sauerbrunn recalled that recently his ship was able to free up 8 barges near Germantown that were “stacked up and all stuck and no one could get around each other. To know that we got all 8 vessels moving south and unstuck [is] very satisfying, knowing that we’re out there making a difference.”

Sauerbrunn, a graduate of the U. S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Ct., said he and his job are a “perfect fit.” 

“I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I joined, but shortly thereafter I realized that it’s an incredible organization…I can’t imagine doing anything else,” he said.