Fusion epoxy facility for coating steel pipe in Duquesne, PA

From an Article by TOM DAVIDSON, Pittsburgh Tribune – Review, July 10, 2019

A Mercer man who had portions of both legs amputated six years ago after they were crushed in a Christmas Eve accident at a Duquesne pipe yard will receive a nearly $10.6 million settlement, attorneys announced Wednesday.

Robert R. Ryder, 59, was a truck driver dropping off a load of eight, 42-foot-long steel pipe on Dec. 24, 2013, at the Dura-Bond Coating Inc. pipe yard in Duquesne when one of them rolled off the truck as a Dura-Bond employee was unloading them.

The pipe weighed 5,000 pounds and pinned his legs, according to the lawsuit Ryder filed in Allegheny County court. In the lawsuit, Ryder claimed Dura-Bond failed to properly inspect the cargo and secure the load after receiving it.

“This was not his fault,” said one of Ryder’s attorneys, Dominic Guerrini of Philadelphia-based Kline & Specter. Guerrini accused Dura-Bond employees of making mistakes that caused and compounded his injuries.

“This settlement demonstrates that rigorous workplace safety policies and practices are not optional,” Guerrini said.

Ryder had been a truck driver for 25 years and was working for Yourga Trucking Inc., a Mercer County-based company that hauls steel and pipe across the region. Ryder had been hauling the load from Camden, N.J., to the Dura-Bond yard in Duquesne.

The load wasn’t inspected when Ryder arrived, according to the lawsuit. Had it been, the problem with the load — it was off-center — would have been discovered, the lawsuit alleged. Instead, Ryder was allowed to stand next to his truck while it was unloaded, and his legs were crushed when one of the pipe fell, according to the lawsuit.

Ryder hasn’t been able to work since the accident. The eight-figure settlement reflects the severity of Ryder’s injuries and how it’s impacted his life, Guerrini said.

Dura-Bond Coating Inc. is based in Export and has locations in Duquesne, McKeesport and Steelton. It produces pipe used in oil and gas industry, particularly in the Marcellus shale region.

Natural Gas Compressor Station, Accident, MD

Accident Compressor Station Title V permit hearing set for April 26, 2017 at 6 PM

From an Announcement by Engage Mountain Maryland, The Garrett County Republican, April 19, 2017

The air quality permit to operate the Texas Eastern Transmission facilities at Accident will be the subject of a public hearing on Wednesday, April 26, 6:00 PM at the Garrett College Career Technology Training Center, 116 Industrial Park Drive in Accident.

Every five years the facility’s air quality permit goes through the renewal process, and the public may make comments related to air quality concerns. The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) will accept oral or written comments at the hearing, or within five days after the hearing, until May 1, 2017.

The Accident facilities were the focus of two community meetings held in Fall 2015, sponsored by Engage Mountain Maryland. At the first meeting, citizens were given the opportunity to ask questions about operations at the facility, including air quality monitoring, and to hear about MDE and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regulations pertaining to the “Accident Dome.” The next meeting featured public health presentations about compressor stations, air emissions and noise.

Based on uncertainty about the duration and extent of emissions at the facility, Citizen Shale submitted an application to the national non-profit organization, Earthworks, for GasFinder FLIR (Forward Looking InfraRed) imagery of gas emissions from the Texas Eastern Transmission facilities at Accident.

FLIR images documented that air emissions of concern were observed when the compressors were operating.  These results were shared with the Garrett County Commissioners, acting in their capacity as the Board of Health, October 2016.

Additionally, the Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration will provide an overview of federal safety regulations of transmission pipelines as well as an update of investigations of the Aliso Canyon, California underground gas storage facility leak and the Delmont, PA pipeline explosion.  The Delmont pipeline has the same operator as the Texas Eastern transmission pipeline at Accident — formerly, Spectra Energy. In February of this year, Canada’s Enbridge purchased Houston-based Spectra Energy.

MDE’s public hearing is not an informational meeting. Questions raised as part of formal testimony will be addressed in a written Response to Comments document after the close of the comment period, according to MDE’s notice.

See also:  Health Risks from Compressor Stations

Alabama Pipeline Explosion from Fire Truck

Pipeline Blast in Alabama Injures Seven (7) Workers

This Article from the Associated Press, NBC NEWS, October 31, 2016

HELENA, Ala. (AP) — At least seven workers were injured Monday when an explosion occurred along the Colonial Pipeline in rural Alabama, not far from where it burst last month, authorities said.

The explosion sent flames soaring over the forest about a mile west of where the pipeline burst in September, Gov. Robert Bentley said in a statement. That rupture led to gasoline shortages across the South.

People within 3 miles of the blast site were being evacuated, the governor said. ”We’ll just hope and pray for the best,” the governor added. Video from area media shows a huge plume of flame and smoke rising in a wooded area in Shelby County southwest of Birmingham.

The seven injured workers were taken to Birmingham hospitals by helicopter and ambulance, Bentley told WBRC-TV in a live interview Monday evening.

“It appears to have been an accident, and they’re allowing fuel to burn,” Bentley said. “It’s about one mile west of where the repair took place on the Colonial Pipeline just recently.”

Georgia-based Colonial Pipeline said in a brief statement Monday evening that it has shut down its main pipeline. ”Colonial’s top priorities are the health and safety of the work crew on site and protection of the public,” the company said.

Several fire departments were sending crews to assist. Helena police say they’re assisting Shelby County authorities with the blaze. The explosion happened in a remote area outside the town of Helena, away from residential areas, Helena Mayor Mark told WBRC-TV.

PHOTO: A helicopter flies through a plume of smoke from a Colonial Pipeline explosion, Oct. 31, in Helena, Ala. Colonial Pipeline said in a statement that it has shut down its main pipeline in Alabama after the explosion in a rural part of the state outside Birmingham.

In September, the Colonial Pipeline leaked thousands of gallons of gas southwest of Birmingham near Helena and led to dry fuel pumps in several Southern states — for days, in some cases. There was no immediate indication Thursday whether or not Monday’s explosion will lead to similar shortages.

Colonial Pipeline, based in Alpharetta, Georgia, transports more than 100 million gallons of products daily to markets between Houston and New York City, serving more than 50 million people, it says on its website. They include petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel fuel and jet fuel. Authorities have not said which type of fuel was involved in the explosion Monday.

NOTE: “Some 220 ‘Significant’ Pipeline Spills Already This Year Exposes Troubling Safety Record” — By Dan Zukowski, EcoWatch.com, October 25, 2016

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

Helicopters at Wetzel 4-H Camp for Burn Victims

Three Workers Hurt in Wetzel County Well Pad Fire

From an Article by Staff, Wheeling Intelligencer, October 28, 2016

New Martinsville, WV ­ – Two natural gas well operators and a mechanic suffered burn injuries at the Stone Energy Corp. Howell pad in Wetzel County after a “flash fire” this afternoon, West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Kelley Gillenwater said.

Gillenwater said the workers were performing maintenance on the well when the flash fire took place at approximately 4:49 p.m. Friday. All three workers have been transported to hospitals via medical helicopter for injuries of uncertain severity, she said.

“All the wells on the pad are shut in,” Gillenwater said. “We believe the situation is under control.” The site is along Turkey Run Road off WV Route 20 between New Martinsville and Reader, WV.

She said only the three burned workers were injured, adding the fire did not spread throughout the pad. The WV-DEP will monitor the situation through the evening and weekend. The flash fire occurred at 4:49 pm and was under control by about 6 pm.

Officials with Stone Energy could not be reached for comment. The Lafayette, LA, based company recently filed for bankruptcy.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The following process description, taken from the Howell Pad Permit Application R13-3171, is provided here for informational purposes only:

Natural gas and produced fluids (condensate and water) will be received from ten (10) wells on this location at approximately 500 psi and pass through heaters (one per well) to avoid ice formation during subsequent pressure drops. These materials will then pass through a three-way separator where gas, condensate and water are separated. The gas will be routed to a gathering pipeline.

Condensate will normally be injected into a liquids pipeline owned and operated by others. However, as a back-up to this pipeline, provisions will be made to stabilize the condensate through heating and pressure reduction, coupled with vapor recovery. The stabilized condensate will be accumulated in four (4) 400 bbl tanks, pending truck transportation by others to a regional processing facility for separation into individual products.

Flash, working and breathing losses from these tanks will be routed to two (2) vapor recovery units (VRUs) with the captured vapors routed back to the discharge line. In the event of shut down of the VRU’s due to maintenance or equipment failure, the vapors from the condensate tanks will be routed to two vapor combustion units operating in parallel. Vapors generated during truck loading of condensate will be routed to the two vapor combustion units.

The produced water, and water generated during the fuel gas conditioning process will be accumulated in two (2) 400 bbl tanks pending transportation via pipeline to a Stone Energy water management facility. Nominal flash gas vapors from these tanks (modeled at 8 SCFD and conservatively estimated at 120 SCFD for permitting purposes) will be vented to the atmosphere. These vapors are comprised solely of flash gases generated during the drop to atmospheric pressure.

Three (3) gas-fueled generators will also be present to provide electric service for the facility instrumentation and controllers and to operate the pumps.

All natural gas-fueled equipment uses natural gas received at the station.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

www.PipelineNetwork.org

Fight the Mountain Valley Pipeline!

From Appalachian Voices: http://appvoices.org/fracking/fight-mvp/

On September 16, 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission released its Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline. The 42-inch pipeline would transport natural gas from wells in West Virginia and stretch 301 miles over sensitive agricultural and forest lands — including a crossing of the Appalachian Trail — before reaching its destination in southern Virginia.

The FERC staff state in the draft impact statement that the project will have permanent adverse impacts on forests, yet it believes that the project can move forward!

Take Action: Tell the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reject the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

FERC needs to hear from the public. The potential for injury or property damage along the pipeline route is real. The pipeline puts public health and safety at risk — whether from an explosion, or from leaks that pollute drinking water, soil, and air. In addition, constructing the pipeline will spoil thousands of acres of forest and permanently fragment habitats for several federally-listed threatened or endangered species.

There is a 90-day public comment that opened with the release of the draft impact statement. This is your best opportunity to make sure FERC hears your voice. Submit an electronic comment on our No Mountain Valley Pipeline Action page. You can also attend one of the official FERC public listening sessions. At these sessions you will have the opportunity to offer your comments for the official FERC record. All comments must be submitted on or before December 22, 2016.

FERC Public Listening Sessions:

November 1, 2016

• Chatham Va. — Chatham High School — 100 Cavalier Circle, 5 p.m.
• Weston, W.Va. — Lewis County High School — 205 Minuteman Drive, 5 p.m.

November 2, 2016

• Rocky Mount, Va. — Franklin County High School, 700 Taynard Road, 5 p.m.
• Summersville, W.Va. — Nicholas County High School — 30 Grizzly Road, 5 p.m.

November 3, 2016

• Roanoke, Va. — Sheraton Hotel, 2801 Hershberger Road, 5 p.m.
• Peterstown, W.Va. — Peterstown Elementary School, 108 College Drive, 5 p.m.

November 9, 2016

• Coal Center, Pa. — California Area High School, 11 Trojan Way, 5 p.m.

Source:

Appalachian Voices • 589 West King Street, Boone, NC 28607 • (877) APP-VOICE
Background information: About | Contact Us | News Room | Policies

Inside Spectra 42" Gas Pipeline

Four Water Protectors Crawl Inside Pipe to Stop Construction of Spectra Energy’s AIM Pipeline, More Climb On Top of Pipe

From an Article by The Staff, Resist Spectra, October 11, 2016

[Defenders take action along the Hudson River to halt plans to pull AIM pipeline under the river]

At about 7 AM on October 10th, Indigenous People’s Day, four water protectors crawled inside lengths of pipeline along the Hudson River to stop Spectra Energy from dragging its 42-inch diameter, high pressure, fracked-methane gas pipeline under the Hudson River alongside the aging and failing Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant.

Spectra Energy’s proposed AIM Pipeline would bring fracked gas from Pennsylvania to New England, despite a report from the Massachusetts Attorney General that shows no need for this gas. In New York, if completed, the AIM Pipeline would carry gas through residential communities and within 105 feet of critical safety facilities at Indian Point, endangering 20 million people in its blast radius. The water protectors also took this action in solidarity with the Standing Rock Tribe water protectors, and their allies, standing up against the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota. Enbridge which recently announced that it will purchase Spectra energy, is also a $1.5 billion investor in Dakota Access.

The protectors stayed inside the pipeline for more 16 hours. They continued to sustain the occupation until after 11:00 PM when they were threatened by police with the use of tactical force to be removed and promised only minimal charges for the protest if they voluntarily left.

Two support people were also arrested on site and charged with criminal trespass; a third support person was arrested on public property merely on suspicion of illegal activity by association.

Four Water Protectors:

Rebecca Berlin, born and raised in Yorktown where the AIM pipeline would connect to the rest of Spectra’s planned pipeline buildout, was one of the protectors who crawled inside the pipe. “Pipelines carrying filthy fossil fuels are putting communities at risk all over the United States – from North Dakota to New York and elsewhere,” she said. “The AIM pipeline must be stopped. Spectra is endangering the community I’ve lived in my entire life. Spectra is putting our wetlands, our children and our lives in danger in order to make profit from selling Liquid Natural Gas, a finite resource and fossil fuel, overseas. We cannot continue to consume so much of earth’s natural resources at the expense of our communities’ well-being. I want to stop Spectra because my community’s health, safety, and wildlife is more important than profit.”

Today’s action is the latest in an ongoing effort to stop Spectra Energy from constructing their Algonquin Incremental Market Expansion project. On August 3rd, both New York Senators wrote to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), calling for an immediate halt to construction of the pipeline. FERC denied the Senators’ request. On February 29, 2016, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo called for an immediate halt to construction while the state conducts an independent risk assessment, although this review was later revealed to be potentially compromised by gas lobbyists close to Cuomo. FERC also denied the Governor’s request. Without further support from elected officials, residents and advocates took matters into their own hands today to directly stop construction.

Mackenzie Wilkins said: “Spectra’s AIM Pipeline, like the Dakota Access Pipeline, and like all oil and gas lines, is a huge health and safety risk to the communities it passes through. If completed, the line would pass within 150 feet of schools, homes, and the Indian Point nuclear power plant and would lock us into decades more of fracking, water and air contamination, and climate destabilizing methane emissions. I am taking action to support communities along Spectra’s Pipeline that are fighting for a more just, sane, and sustainable world.”

Dave Publow said: “There is no reasonable argument for installing a gargantuan gas pipeline–in effect a perpetual pipe bomb–next to a decrepit nuclear power plant. Yet this is what Texas-based Spectra Energy and international Enbridge are doing, neither of these companies have any connection to our community. Also, we have no functioning regulatory structure that places the safety of our community first. FERC is a rubber stamp machine long removed from accountability. The state permitting process is now based on legal trickery and insider deals. And since the system has failed us, we will have to do this ourselves.”

Janet Gonzalez, a Westchester County resident said: “I’m taking action against Spectra because our country is heading into an energy crisis. We imperil our future by depending on a depleting finite resource. Fracked gas, tar sands, and deep water drilling are the bottom of the resource pyramid. We must transition to a post carbon world with renewables. Otherwise, we risk cooking the planet.”

Two support people were arrested:

Judy Allen: “Putting a 42” pipeline of fracked gas next to a nuclear plant is a mile from the junction of two earthquake faults in the Hudson River is criminally insane.”

JK Capepa: “Honored to be in solidarity on this Indigenous Peoples’ Day with those at Standing Rock and against a company that uses the name Algonquin to continue catastrophic climate change.”

FERC has the legal authority to issue a stop work order, yet continues to ignore elected officials’ repeated calls to protect public safety. Two weeks ago, more than 180 organizations representing communities across the United States called on leaders in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and House Energy and Commerce Committee to hold congressional hearings into FERC’s extensive history of bias and abuse, a proposal that has already received positive feedback from Committee Democrats.

This is the zero hour for the pipeline – Spectra Energy wants to run gas through the pipeline by November 1, which means that it has to be stopped now.

Residents and advocates are calling on Senator Charles Schumer to use his influence to stop the pipeline once and for all, and will soon be following today’s action with an action at his offices from water protectors inside the pipeline.

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Climate Activists Shut Down All US-Canada Tar Sands Pipelines

From an Article by Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams Blog, October 11, 2016

Five activists shut down all the tar sands pipelines crossing the Canada-U.S. border Tuesday morning, in a bold, coordinated show of climate resistance amid the ongoing fight against the Dakota Access pipeline.

The activists employed manual safety valves to shut down Enbridge’s line 4 and 67 in Leonard, Minnesota; TransCanada’s Keystone pipeline in Walhalla, North Dakota; Spectra Energy’s Express pipeline in Coal Banks Landing, Montana; and Kinder-Morgan’s Trans-Mountain pipeline in Anacortes, Washington.

The activists, who planned the action to coincide with the International Days of Prayer and Action With Standing Rock, expressed feeling “duty bound to halt the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels…in the absence of any political leadership” to address the withering goal of keeping global temperature increase beneath the 2°C climate threshold.

“I have signed hundreds of petitions, testified at dozens of hearings, met with most of my political representatives at every level, to very little avail,” said 64-year-old mother Annette Klapstein of Bainbridge Island, Washington, who was arrested just before publication. “I have come to believe that our current economic and political system is a death sentence to life on earth, and that I must do everything in my power to replace these systems with cooperative, just, equitable and love-centered ways of living together. This is my act of love.”

Fifty-nine-year-old Ken Ward of Corbette, Oregon, who was also arrested, said, “There is no plan of action, policy or strategy being advanced now by any political leader or environmental organization playing by the rules that does anything but acquiesce to ruin. Our only hope is to step outside polite conversation and put our bodies in the way. We must shut it down, starting with the most immediate threats—oil sands fuels and coal.”

The action comes two days after a U.S. federal court of appeals lifted an injunction on the Dakota Access project, to the dismay of the Indigenous water protectors and their supporters across the U.S. and Canada.

“Because of the climate change emergency, because governments and corporations have for decades increased fossil fuel extraction and carbon emissions when instead we must dramatically reduce carbon emissions; I am committed to the moral necessity of participating in nonviolent direct action to protect life,” added activist Leonard Higgins, 64, from Eugene, Oregon.

The activists are all members of the group Climate Direct Action, which is providing live updates on the coordinated shut-downs on its website and Facebook page. Others shared statements in support, as well as images and videos of the actions on social media with the hashtag #shutitdown.

Tim DeChristopher’s Climate Disobedience Action Fund is also supporting the action and has set up a legal fund for the activists’ defense.

Watch @wardken cut chain locking Tar Sands pipeline shut off valve. Yes, Ken #SHUTITDOWN! Full video at https://t.co/ACSPQSSTmT pic.twitter.com/dVAxoGSSgU

BREAKING NEWS: All tar sands oil crossing the Canada/US Border shut down by 5 brave activists. https://t.co/ww0e6Cq03Y #ShutItDown pic.twitter.com/qLHBEDy7pK

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

Pipeline routes not certain

Informational Update on Proposed 42” Mountain Valley and 42” Atlantic Coast Pipelines

Thursday, October 20, 6:00 p.m., Jackson’s Mill, West Virginia Building, Jane Lew, WV

________________________

If you live in Wetzel, Harrison, Doddridge, Lewis, Braxton, Upshur, Randolph, Pocahontas, Webster, Nicholas, Summers, Greenbrier, Monroe, your county will be affected.

What you must know in order to be protected

Topics will include: (1) Loss of Property Values and Future Land Use, (2) Effect on Insurance & Mortgages, (3) The Incineration Zone and Impact Radius,  (4) Impact on Water Supplies, (5) Do we really need two 42” Pipelines? (6) Is Any of this Gas for West Virginia? (7) How Compressor Stations Affect Your Health, (8) Why aren’t we exploring the alternatives? (9) Economic Losses to Counties, (10) Eminent Domain Abuse and Your Rights.

Expert Presenters will be available to answer YOUR questions and help you file your comments with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Public comment period is open till December 22, 2016

You may call 304-642-9436  for more information

Source: April Pierson-Keating, Buckhannon (Upshur County), WV.  304-642-9436

• >  >  >  >  >  >  >  >  >  >

Atlantic Coast Pipeline signs (tentative) construction contract

From an Article of the Staff, WHSV News 3, Richmond, September 21, 2016

Richmond, Va. (WHSV) – The Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a 600-mile natural gas transmission line proposed to run from West Virginia through Virginia to North Carolina, is one step closer to reality.

On Wednesday, Dominion announced that the company has signed a construction contract with Spring Ridge Constructors, LLC, which is a joint venture of leading natural gas pipeline construction companies.

The venture is comprised of four companies: Price Gregory International, Inc., a Quanta Services, Inc. company; U.S. Pipeline, Inc.; SMPC, LLC; and Rockford Corporation, a Primoris Services Corporation company.

Spring Ridge Constructors are signed on as the lead construction contractor for the pipeline project, though the pipeline has yet to be approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

If the pipeline is approved, Dominion has construction scheduled to begin in the fall of 2017.

Dominion says that economic impact studies show construction of the pipeline would generate more than 17,000 jobs, $2.7 billion in total economic activity and $4.2 million in average annual tax revenue for cities and counties in the project area.

Studies sponsored by the Southern Environmental Law Center and Appalachian Mountain Advocates say existing pipelines can supply more than enough fuel through 2030, but Dominion points out a growing demand for natural gas in the states affected by the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

Dominion selected Spring Ridge Constructors (SRC) after an extensive bidding process conducted by Atlantic Coast Pipeline, LLC. They say the four companies encompassed by SRC account for a significant portion of the large-diameter natural gas pipeline construction spread capacity in the U.S.

“We are excited to work with SRC, which has assembled four of the nation’s leading and most-qualified pipeline builders for this project,” said Diane Leopold, president of Dominion Energy. “These companies have extensive experience in building large-scale, complex projects like the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, and their commitment to safe construction practices and best-in-class standards align with our expectations for the project.”

“The selection of our lead construction contractor is another significant milestone for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and represents one more step toward making this project a reality and securing the energy future of our region,” Leopold added.

“SRC is pleased to have been selected by ACP as the constructor of this vital project which serves to strengthen the nation’s energy infrastructure,” said Dan Plume, SRC project director. “The members of SRC are aligned in purpose with the common goals of safe construction practices, a commitment to environmental stewardship and quality construction. The SRC team leads the industry with a combined 200 years of expertise and leadership in the construction of large diameter pipelines that encompass all regions and terrains across North America. We are also excited about the positive economic impact this project will have in communities across these three states, where SRC and its subcontractors expect to hire thousands of local workers and enlist the services of many local businesses.”

In what Dominion calls “another significant milestone for the project,” the FERC issued a ‘Notice of Schedule’ in early August, which establishes a timeline for the remainder of the project’s federal environmental review process.

Based on that schedule, Atlantic Coast Pipeline, LLC expects to receive a FERC certificate in the late summer or fall of 2017, and they would begin construction shortly after. Following that same timeline, the pipeline would be completed and in service by late 2019.

The company is working with its contractors to try and find ways to complete construction even sooner.

Atlantic Coast Pipeline, LLC is composed of four major U.S. energy companies – Dominion, Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas and Southern Company Gas. The joint venture partners plan to build and own the $4.5 billion-to-$5 billion pipeline, which would help meet the growing clean energy needs of Virginia and North Carolina by providing direct access to low-cost, abundant supplies of natural gas being produced in the nearby Marcellus and Utica shale basins of West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

The pipeline has been a major source of contention among people living in counties where it will pass through, like Augusta and Nelson Counties, and WHSV has covered protests, studies, debates, and far more in connection with the pipeline throughout recent years.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

Editorial Opinion: “Accurately Map Pipelines” Please in PA (& WV)

From the Editorial Board of the Scranton Times-Tribune, August 6, 2015

Pennsylvanians need look no further than the legacy of coal mining to understand the hazards of inaccurately mapping underground infrastructure. Official mine maps often do not reflect the actual extent of underground voids, and sometimes misidentify the location of some mine chambers.

Over the decades, the inaccurate information has caused an array of problems, from buildings being constructed over unmarked voids to problems with utility lines.

Now, the Wolf administration estimates that the natural gas industry will construct about 30,000 miles of natural gas pipelines over the next 20 years to gather gas from wells and carry it to main pipelines and then to market.

StateImpact Pennsylvania, which covers the economics and environmental aspects of the gas industry, has detailed that mapping of existing pipelines is inexact and often inaccurate. It noted that a heavy equipment operator was badly injured July 15 in Armstrong county while clearing a right-of-way for a new pipeline. His bulldozer struck an existing unmarked, unmapped pipeline, which exploded. His company had received a go-ahead from a state clearinghouse that keeps track of underground infrastructure.

As the gas industry took off in Pennsylvania, the state Legislature gave the Public Utility Commission the authority to regulate gas pipelines. But there are different categories based on size and population density in the areas that they traverse. Some lines are lightly regulated or not regulated.

The general locations of most pipes are known because companies must acquire rights-of-way from property owners. But in many cases the exact locations of the pipes within those rights-of-way are not known.

The Legislature should expand the PUC’s authority over all classifications of pipelines. And it should require companies to provide exact data for every pipeline so that contractors will be able to avoid them and first responders will know exactly what they are dealing with in emergencies.

NOTE: This above request goes out to the State of West Virginia as well. See also the August 18 protest rally in Pt. Marion, PA, at 12:30 pm and 6:30 pm over interstate pipelines: “Hands Across Our Land”

Texas City Pipeline Fire 1/14/15

America’s Disastrous History of Pipeline Accidents Shows Why the Keystone XL Vote Matters

From an Article by Noah Greenwald, Center for Biological Diversity, Huffington Post, January 18, 2015

It’d be easy to discount the Senate vote over the Keystone XL pipeline as mere political theater but that’d be a mistake. Build Keystone XL and you build on a long and disastrous history of pipelines in America.

A new analysis of federal records reveals that in just the past year and four months, there have been 372 oil and gas pipeline leaks, spills and other incidents, leading to 20 deaths, 117 injuries and more than $256 million in damages.

The new data adds to a June 1, 2013 independent analysis of federal records revealing that since 1986, oil and gas pipeline incidents have resulted in 532 deaths, more than 2,400 injuries and more than $7.5 billion in damages.

Check out this new time-lapse video that includes every “significant pipeline” incident in the continental United States — along with their human and financial costs — from 1986 to October 1, 2014. On average one significant pipeline incident occurs in the country every 30 hours, according to the data.

So what would happen if Keystone XL is built? The U.S. State Department estimates Keystone XL could spill up to 100 times during its lifetime.

One difference between Keystone XL and the vast majority of other pipelines that have spilled is that it will be carrying tar sands oil, which has proven very difficult, if not impossible, to clean up. A 2010 spill of tar sands oil in the Kalamazoo River in Michigan, for example, has yet to be cleaned up despite four years of effort. Another tar sands spill in 2013 fouled an entire neighborhood in Arkansas. Federal regulators have acknowledged that Keystone XL, too, will spill.

TransCanada’s existing Keystone I tar sands pipeline has reportedly leaked at least 14 times since it went into operation in June 2010, including one spill of 24,000 gallons. The State Department’s environmental reviews have pointed out that spills from Keystone XL are likely. The pipeline will cross a number of important rivers, including the Yellowstone and Platte, as well as thousands of smaller rivers and streams.

Yes, politicians are looking to score political points in their vote on Keystone XL. But in the rest of the world, this is no game and if Keystone XL moves forward, the losers will be streams, rivers, wildlife, water, our climate, and, ultimately, all of us who depend on them.  << See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net >>

Brooke County WV Ethane Pipeline Explosion

Frack Sand Truck Accident

Fracking’s biggest safety threat is on rural roads

From an Article by John Finnerty, CNHI State Reporter, December 25, 2014

Editor’s note: As Ashtabula County works to begin fracking in the county, the following is part of a series about fracking in neighbor Pennsylvania. [Ashtabula County is the largest county in Ohio, on Lake Erie it borders Penna., and grows 65% of the grapes grown in Ohio.]

HARRISBURG, Pa. — One of the first things a firefighter or police officer must know when rushing to a heavy truck crash in the heart of Marcellus Shale country: Don’t believe what it says on side of the truck.

“We’ve had accidents where it said ‘fresh water’ on the side of the truck,” said Craig Konkle, energy development emergency services coordinator for Lycoming County. “But when it started leaking black liquid, we knew we weren’t dealing with fresh water.”

While environmental concerns dominate much of the debate about the effect of gas drilling in rural Pennsylvania, Konkle said the single greatest threat to public safety is on the roads.

The fast expansion of drilling activity has created a surge in traffic. Trucks carry water – often polluted from the drilling process – to and from wells. They also haul sand, as well as solids extracted during drilling and chemicals used to force open gas reservoirs beneath the surface.

Often truck cargo isn’t labeled. Much of the byproduct from drillers’ fracking process — including the briny, chemically laced water — is classified as “residual waste.” Drilling waste has been exempt from federal hazardous waste rules since the 1980s, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. So there are rarely placards on the trucks.

While trucks pass without markings, there is little doubt about the volume of material that’s being shipped over the state’s roads. Drillers generated 32 million barrels of liquid waste and another 1.3 million tons of solid waste last year, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Some of that went over the border into Ohio, where drillers shipped 3 million barrels of liquid waste, according to state records. They were on pace to export a similar amount this year.

The passage of those trucks is often fraught. Many drivers hail from Texas or Oklahoma – places without the snow-slicked mountains typical of Northern Tier winters, said Chris Smith, with Lycoming County’s Community Traffic Safety Project. And accidents are more and more common.

Collectively, the state’s five-busiest drilling counties recorded 123 more heavy truck crashes in 2011 than they did just two years earlier, when the gas boom started, Department of Transportation data shows. That’s a 107 percent jump. (The number of deaths in those crashes grew modestly, from 75 to 79 during the same period)

One fatal crash in 2011 took the life of John T. Jones III. He was driving a Subaru Legacy in Susquehanna County when a Mack truck came barreling down a hill, went through a stop sign and rolled over on top of his car.

Documents from a lawsuit filed by Jones’ widow show that the truck driver, who came to the Marcellus region from Texas, had expressed misgivings about the safety of his truck but was ordered to take it because it was the only one available that day.

Jones’ daughter, Allison Jones, was in the car but survived the crash. She said she doesn’t blame the driver. “It’s not like he made the decision to drive the truck, even though it was a bad truck,” she said in a deposition. Jones’ family settled with Southeast Directional Drilling in 2012. Terms were not disclosed.

The number of heavy truck crashes has since fallen from its 2011 high, but it’s still 58 percent higher than in 2009.

Smith said safety practices vary by company. Most are responsible, but not all. “There are some contractors who feel that it’s more important to get to the site” than take precautions in bad weather, she said. Smith said she spoke to one driver who told her: “I was hoping that the State Police would pull me over to get the truck I was driving off the road.”

Truck crashes pose other dangers — to areas where cargos are spilled and to emergency workers who often can’t be sure what’s inside. Truckers are supposed to carry manifests of their loads, Konkle said. But during an emergency, accessing the paperwork in the cab might be difficult, or the driver may be too injured to talk.

Rescue workers are trained to focus first on protecting nearby streams or waterways, he said. Generally, the immediate threat from gas wastewater is extremely high levels of saline, he said. But local fire companies may be at a loss for someone on duty who’s up-to-speed on handling a complicated spill, especially in the rural areas where these crashes often happen. “For your local guys, it’s tough to be trained up on everything,” he said. Or, if an expert is available, sometimes they cannot get there in time.

Last April, a tanker carrying diesel fuel failed to stop at a red light and slammed into two trucks hauling fracking water. The Washington County episode sent 400 gallons of fracking water and 1,300 gallons of diesel into a nearby stream.

Smith said local officials have tried to respond to the dangers posed by fracking truck traffic. Her safety project gets a $94,000 grant, about half of which is used to forge connections between public safety officials and local gas industry companies that encourage safer driving.

In addition, Lycoming County uses a portion of its $5 million in well impact fees to prepare firefighters for emergencies involving trucks that haul chemicals for fracking or waste from drilling sites. While Pennsylvania doesn’t tax drillers for the gas they extract, companies must pay a $50,000 fee per well. Much of that money goes to local governments where drilling takes place.

So far, Lycoming County’s classes, run through Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport, have trained 148 firefighters, said David Pistner, director of energy initiatives for the college.

See also:  www.FrackCheckWV.net