Is the possible threat of earthquakes from an underground storage cavern for liquid butane in a populated area with a record of problems a trade secret? EPA thinks so.

"WATKINS GLEN, NY – Rubble 200 feet deep covers the floor of a former brine cavern now slated to hold up to 600,000 barrels of highly pressurized liquid butane near this Finger Lakes tourist village.

The company that seeks regulatory permission to use the cavern and several others like it for hydrocarbon storage argues that they are ideal repositories for explosive material, immune to collapse or leakage due to a protective layer of stable, impervious salt.

But the presence of rubble at the base of each proposed storage cavity raises questions that neither the company nor environmental regulators are willing to air in public."

Peter Mantius reports for Natural Resources News Service June 15, 2012. [2]