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D.C. gets fuel cell project
Northeast neighbors express safety concerns
(Published May 17, 2004)

By COURTNEY A. BURNS
Staff Writer

Some residents of Northeast Washington say they are wary of plans to locate one of the country's first fueling stations for vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells in their neighborhood, despite safety assurances from company officials whose project is receiving go-ahead support from city officials.

The fueling station is under construction at the former site of a Texaco gas station at 3355 Benning Road NE, at the edge of the River Terrace neighborhood.

Shell Hydrogen, part of Shell Oil Co., is building the station, which also will operate as a regular gas station, according to George Smalley, a spokesman for Shell Hydrogen. Smalley said his company announced a partnership with General Motors Corp. in March 2003 to develop and promote hydrogen fuel cell transportation. The plan is that GM will bring six vehicles into the Washington area and Shell Hydrogen will construct a demonstration project, he said.

While Shell Hydrogen was busy getting control of the site and informing Advisory Neighborhood Commission 7D, River Terrace neighbors were not informed of the new development, according to Wanda Carter, president of the River Terrace Community Organization.

"They [Shell Hydrogen] sent out an apology letter … for not coming to the community first and telling them about the station," Carter said.

Smalley described the company's failure to contact the neighboring residents as "one lesson we learned." He said the company should have talked to residents of the area "even before the commercial negotiations were settled" to legally obtain the site.

Carter said the neighborhood association didn't learn about the project until ANC commissioners informed them in November 2003 -- after Shell was already installing a hydrogen tank at the gas station.

"At first, the community didn’t want anything coming in," she added.

River Terrace residents have long protested environmental problems in their neighborhood, which they claim to be the cause of a higher-than-average incidence of cancer and asthma among longtime residents of the area. An agency of the federal Centers for Disease Control earlier this year classified the air in River Terrace to be an "indeterminant health hazard."

Christine Tolson, chairman of ANC 7D, said she is impressed by the efforts Shell Hydrogen officials made to reach out to the general public by explaining the pros and cons of the project, with Environmental Protection Agency validation, through the ANC and, more recently, through other community efforts.

"I’ve never seen a company do that, not one as big as Shell," Tolson said. "They wanted to be partners in the community."

Shell officials also plan to install an information center at the hydrogen fueling station and have recruited Howard University as part of the demonstration project's local team.

"Everybody has to get used to the new technology, because when you hear ‘hydrogen,’ you think explosion," Carter said.

According to information from the U.S. Department of Energy, which Shell Hydrogen has made available, "fuel cells use the chemical energy of hydrogen to generate electricity without combustion or pollution. The only by-products are pure water and useful heat."

If hydrogen is mishandled, it can be dangerous, warned Smalley.

Shell Hydrogen officials have assured the River Terrace community that the station's storage tank will be double insulated, a precaution that Carter said they did not have to take, but did so to make the community feel more comfortable.

"We know that hydrogen fuel is new to many people, so we are trying to proactively engage the community. [Yet] it is fair to say there is opposition," Smalley said.

River Terrace residents held a rally to protest the fueling station on April 24 at the site.

George Gurley, a neighborhood resident and the protest’s organizer, said a majority of residents were opposed to the project when a community vote was taken in mid March.

Gurley said part of the concern is that the station is located right next door to River Terrace Elementary School and, he said, the area already is too congested with traffic.

In the meantime, construction of the station had been moving along until March 3, when the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs put a "stop work" order on the project.

Smalley said city regulators decided to require Shell Hydrogen to file an environmental impact screening form. This stopped all construction underground on the project, but the screening form was completed and submitted on March 19. In the meantime, construction on the outside of the site has proceeded.

Despite the opposition, Carter said she believes the hydrogen fueling station will become a reality in River Terrace. Shell Hydrogen has "bent over backwards to get our confidence," she said.

Among its efforts, the company has sent newsletters to every home in the neighborhood to explain the project and has hired a local consulting firm.

At a meeting in early April, Shell Hydrogen brought in one of the hydrogen-powered cars for neighborhood residents to ride in.

"I rode in it -- it rides pretty smooth," Carter said.

Yet Gurley said he remains unconvinced. The station is the first on the East Coast, which "means we’re being used as guinea pigs," he said.

"There is no guarantee that it’s going to be safe," Gurley said, despite Shell Hydrogen’s various presentations that tried to assure the community of its safety.

Carter said she believes that the majority of River Terrace residents are against the station's construction.

"But there’s nothing you can really do about it," she said. "Shell owns the station."

During a recent community visit, officials from Shell Hydrogen stopped by River Terrace Elementary School to donate $15,000 for computers.

"We’re tying to build our lab back up," Carter said.

According to Carter, Shell Hydrogen asked River Terrace Elementary’s principal what the school needed after their first visit to the community. The company offered to help with the school before they even knew that the community didn’t want the fueling station, she added.

However, Gurley sees the $15,000 gift differently.

"We [the community] feel that is sort of a bribe," he said.