A company called Sacramento Natural Gas Storage is leading the project. They want to pump nearly eight-Billion cubic feet of natural gas into an existing reservoir under the Power Inn – Florin Road Area.
“It’s not a cavern, it’s not a big hole. It’s a sandstone formation that the gas is injected to.”
Don Russell is the company’s president. He says SMUD and other utility companies could store gas at the facility.
“This gives them essentially a warehouse for their emergency supply of natural gas to keep their natural-gas fired electric generator plants going.”
But some residents aren’t happy about the idea of natural gas being stored three-quarters of a mile underneath their homes.
“Many oppose this project and have grave concerns about what it would mean for this community’s health and well-being.”
Constance Slider is with the Avondale Glen Elder Neighborhood Association, which voted to oppose the project.
“We’d like to protect our community, our children and we’d like to protect our property values.”
Slider says if there was an earthquake, natural gas could seep up through cracks in the ground. But Sacramento Natural Gas Storage President Russell says the sandstone reservoir is covered over by an impervious layer of shale called “cap rock”.
“Even if there were a crack in that cap rock, the time it takes to migrate up three-quarters of a mile through the earth has been calculated to be in the tens of millions of years. So it’s not a threat to anybody’s life.”
If both the Sacramento City Council and the California Public Utilities Commission approve the project, construction could start next year. The PUC will hold a public hearing on the plan Tuesday at 6 PM at Will C. Wood Middle School.