West Virginia DEP orders halt of Rover pipeline work
From an Article by Ximena Mosqueda-Fernandez, July 24, 2017
West Virginia ordered Rover Pipeline LLC to stop construction on its 3.25-Bcf/d natural gas pipeline project due to violations of a state water permit.
The state’s Department of Environmental Protection issued a cease and desist order after finding violations of a water pollution control permit that involved deposits of sediment in at least eight locations, failure to maintain erosion controls, and other problems.
The order was filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on July 24. The state agency ordered the Energy Transfer Partners LP subsidiary to submit a plan to correct the violations by August 6th.
The West Virginia order added to a growing list of problems for the project developer, which had to postpone an anticipated in-service date for the first phase of the pipeline until late summer.
In April, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency cited Rover Pipeline over environmental violations. Since then, Ohio accused Rover Pipeline of resisting state authority and began pursuing civil penalties.
According to the FERC certificate order that approved the Rover project, work in West Virginia includes construction of 54.1 miles of 36-inch-diameter pipeline from Doddridge County, W.Va., to Monroe County, Ohio; 5.9 miles of 24-inch-diameter pipeline in Doddridge County, W.Va.; 23.6 miles of 24-inch-diameter pipeline from Marshall County, W.Va., to Belmont County, Ohio; new compressor stations in Doddridge and Marshall counties; and new meter stations and other supporting infrastructure.
Rover Pipeline is awaiting FERC authorization for modifications to an existing compressor station in West Virginia, which would add 100 MMcf/d of capacity. (FERC docket CP15-93)
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ETP cannot account for diesel oil at Ohio Rover natgas pipe spill sites
From an Article by Scott DiSavino, Reuters News Service, August 3, 2017
(Reuters) – Energy Transfer Partners LP said on Friday sabotage or an accident might have caused diesel to get into drilling fluid that spilled into an Ohio wetland during construction of its Rover natural gas pipeline, but opponents of the project disagreed with the sabotage theory.
U.S. energy regulators banned ETP from new horizontal directional drilling in May until the company explains how diesel, prohibited under its permit, got into 2 million gallons of drilling fluid that spilled into the Tuscarawas River wetland.
Environmental agencies are probing whether ETP’s contractor may have used diesel to lubricate the drill to make it easier to cut through rock when crossing large obstacles like highways and rivers.
ETP said it did not believe the contractor used diesel.
“Rover theorizes that these diesel concentrations could have been caused by an inadvertent and unreported spill or leak from equipment operating during the clean-up, or it could have been the deliberate or malicious act of individuals opposed to the project,” the company told FERC in a filing Friday, noting the data was inconclusive.
Despite the drilling ban, the company has said it expects to complete the first phase of the project in late summer and the second phase in November.
Once complete, the $4.2 billion Rover will carry gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale fields in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia to the U.S. Midwest and Ontario in Canada.
Opponents want the federal government to step up its investigation into ETP’s construction practices, noting the company has a history of spills in other states.
“Accusations of sabotage are difficult to believe since the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found diesel in multiple locations,” said Terry Lodge, a lawyer in Toledo, Ohio, representing groups opposed to the project.
James Lee, a spokesman for the Ohio EPA, could not say how much diesel was in the drilling fluids but noted traces were found in multiple samples from several locations on different days.
After reviewing the Ohio EPA data and conducting extensive sampling of its own, ETP said it was uncertain about the diesel’s source but it does not believe its contractors added the fuel into drilling fluids.
ETP “never requested nor approved of the addition of diesel to the drilling fluids” and said if it discovered a contractor intentionally added such materials, it would “take all appropriate action available under the law.”
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-energy-transf-natgas-pipeline-rover-idUSKBN1AK2IP