Trucks hauling Marcellus drill cuttings must pass a radiation monitor

From an Article of Media News Group, The Mercury, Pottstown, PA, August 2, 2019

AUDUBON, PA — J.P. Mascaro & Sons has announced that it has been awarded more than $7.5 million in municipal waste collection and recycling contracts, as well as a renewal of its operating permit for the Brooke County Landfill in Brooke County, West Virginia.

According to Sam Augustine, director of sales for the waste service company, long-term municipal contracts for waste collection and recycling were also awarded by Muhlenberg and Hamburg in Berks County, Catasauqua in Lehigh County and Newton in Westmoreland County. “We look forward to serving these communities and their residents,” he said in a statement.

J.P. Mascaro & Sons is headquartered in Audubon, Montgomery County and has more than 50 years’ experience. “Municipal contracts are a core component of our business operations,” according to Pat Mascaro, president of J.P. Mascaro & Sons.

In other business, a J.P. Mascaro & Sons related company — Valero Terrestrial Corp. — was awarded a new five year operating permit for the Brooke County Landfill in Colliers, Brooke County, West Virginia.

The Brooke County facility is one of two Mascaro-related landfills in West Virginia; a second facility is the Wetzel County Landfill in New Martinsville.

The Brooke and Wetzel County Landfills serve as the primary disposal facilities for waste collected by the two operating divisions of Solid Waste Services of West Virginia Inc., the Mascaro-related collection company that serves municipal, commercial and industrial customers in the panhandle region of West Virginia and in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania, according to the company.

“The Brooke County Landfill is an important component of the operational infrastructure of the Mascaro-related waste service businesses in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania,” Ryan K. Inch, J.P. Mascaro director of engineering, said, in a statement. “These businesses not only serve our municipal, commercial and industrial customers, but also are important to the thriving Marcellus and Utica Shale gas development activities occurring in that three state regional area.”

For more information about J. P. Mascaro & Sons, visit www.jpmascaro.com.

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See also: Penna. Attorney General investigating wastewater case from landfill that accepts fracking waste | StateImpact Pennsylvania, Reid Frazer, May 24, 2019

The investigation comes a week after a judge barred the Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill in Rostraver Township from sending its wastewater to the nearby Belle Vernon Municipal Authority waste treatment plant for 90 days (now permanently).

The issue involves the landfill’s leachate — water that percolates through the landfill and gets collected for disposal. The landfill is permitted to send 50,000 gallons of the leachate per day to the treatment plant. But, according to a complaint filed by district attorneys in Washington and Fayette counties, the landfill had been sending 100,000 to 300,000 gallons of leachate per day.

Beginning last spring, the treatment plant started seeing levels of pollution in its discharge to the Monongahela River go up and exceed state and federal limits. The treatment plant determined the contamination was coming from the landfill, which accepts fracking waste including radioactive drill cuttings.

Beech Bottom plant site near old Wheeling Corrugating Plant location

From an Article by Warren Scott, Wheeling Intelligencer, March 4, 2015

Beech Bottom site: WV Route 2 & Ohio River

Wellsburg, WV – A New York energy company has announced it may build two gas-fired power plants on more than 100 acres north of the former Wheeling Corrugating Plant in Beech Bottom.

The Brooke County Commission on Tuesday signed two memorandums of understanding, one for each plant, that officials with the Energy Solutions Consortium said are needed to support plans to build the two plants. Company officials said each plant could bring up to 60 jobs with salaries of $80,000 as well as hundreds of jobs involved in building them.

Curtis Wilkerson, spokesman for Energy Solutions, didn’t know the amount of money that may be expended for the plants’ construction but said the plant planned for Moundsville amounts to a $615 million investment, with a projected economic impact of more than $8 billion.

Wilkerson cautioned that the company has “a long waiting game” ahead, as it must convince the PJM Interconnection of the projects’ feasibility and secure state permits, including a certificate of need from the West Virginia Public Service Commission.

Approval from the PJM Interconnection, a regional transmission organization that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of 13 states, could take several months, he said.

Wilkerson and Brian Helmick, attorney for Energy Solutions, both noted the company hasn’t ruled out other potential sites for the plants in Ohio and Pennsylvania. But Matt Dorn, an owner of the company, told the commissioners, “This is the first step. It’s a big step, and we’re going to do everything we can to make these projects happen.”

The commissioners and leaders of the Business Development Corp. of the Northern Panhandle said they are optimistic about the endeavor. Commission President Tim Ennis praised the efforts of BDC leaders Pat Ford and Marvin Six in bringing four businesses to the former corrugating plant within a few years and in attracting Energy Solutions to build north of it.

Six, the BDC’s assistant director, stressed the new plants won’t supplant businesses operating in the corrugating plant.

Bill D’Alesio, chairman of the BDC’s board of directors, and fellow board member John Frankovitch also credited Hackman Capital Partners of Los Angeles – which bought the property through bankruptcy proceedings for Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel and sold it to the BDC for future development – and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which awarded a $225,000 grant for the property’s rehabilitation.

Commissioner Jim Andreozzi said the site’s proximity to two natural gas lines, the Ohio River and affordable barge transportation needed during the construction have been selling points for the project.

Notes: The upper Ohio River valley in West Virginia is a very depressed area economically so industrial development is welcomed whole-heartedly.  But, the continued use of fossil fuels while the officials of the State suppress the development of alternative energy is shameful.  Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere now exceed 400 ppm and the scientific studies on the effects of global warming are alarming. DGN

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

ATEX Ruptures, Limiting Key Appalachian Ethane Deliveries

From an Article by Jamison Cocklin, NGI News Daily, January 26, 2015

A section of Enterprise Products Partners LP’s (EPP) Appalachia-to-Texas Express (ATEX) pipeline, which entered commercial service a year ago, ruptured and caught fire early Monday, limiting service on a critical ethane outlet that serves the Marcellus and Utica shales, a company spokesman said.

The incident occurred at about 10:40 a.m. EST on a 20-inch diameter section of the pipeline in Brooke County, WV, roughly 50 miles west of Pittsburgh, said EPP spokesman Rick Rainey. According to local news media reports, residents in the area reported seeing a large fireball burst into the sky. Although emergency responders from several different agencies in the region had responded and managed to gain control of the blast, the fire was still burning Monday afternoon. Authorities planned to let the fire extinguish itself.

“Our controllers detected an abnormal pressure drop at a pump station in Brooke County, WV, and then shortly afterward it was confirmed we did have a rupture on the pipeline,” Rainey said. “We then began to immediately isolate the pipeline and dispatched personnel to work with local emergency responders to secure the area.”

The 1,265-mile ATEX began commercial service in January 2014. It originates in Washington County, PA, in a liquids-rich portion of the Marcellus Shale and terminates at EPP’s Mont Belvieu, TX, complex. It has a capacity of 125,000 b/d, and at the time it was commissioned, EPP said that 65,000 b/d were already contracted.

The pipeline has four injection points and two were impacted by the blast. Rainey said deliveries are still being made downstream of the rupture site, but those coming from Washington County have been limited. He added that it was unclear what caused the rupture. The section that exploded, Rainey said, was part of a 369-mile segment that was only recently built for the system.

West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Kelley Gillenwater said the agency had dispatched an inspector to the scene, but added that the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has jurisdiction because ATEX is an interstate line. PHMSA officials could not be reached to comment.

No injuries were reported in the blast and the Brooke County Sheriff’s Department said only one nearby home was evacuated as a precaution. Rainey said EPP has mobilized equipment and personnel that “will commence repairs once it’s safe to do so” and after PHMSA allows it.

NOTE:  West Virginia Gas Pipeline Explodes, Marking Fourth Major Pipeline Incident This Month

See also:  www.FrackCheckWV.net