Planning for this power plant did not involve the climate crisis

From an Article by Bob Rolley, Lock Haven Express, September 5, 2022

Renovo, Pa — Plans to build a Marcellus Shale natural gas-fired power plant here will proceed despite an Environmental Hearing Board ruling saying state-approved emission limits for sulfur dioxide (SO2) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are too high.

Some eight years in the making, Renovo Energy Center LLC proposes to build a 1,000-megawatt power plant designed to provide electricity to thousands of customers in Pennsylvania and New York.

It would be erected on 68 acres that served as a former Pennsylvania Railroad railcar repair shop and railyard.mThe firm says the project investment could top $850 million, create 700 construction jobs and upward of 30 permanent positions.

REC was granted an air quality permit by the state Department of Environmental Protection, with the plant’s emissions controls based on the best available technology. The Clean Air Council, PennFuture and Center for Biological Diversity appealed that permit approval, alleging it allows “illegal levels of air pollution.”

The Aug. 29 ruling written by Chief EHB Judge Thomas W. Renwand essentially said DEP allowed too high of emission limits without explaining “its rationale for selecting a less stringent emission limit, and that rationale must be appropriate in light of all the evidence in the record.”

Further, he wrote, DEP permit writers retain discretion to set best available control technology levels that “do not necessarily reflect the highest possible control efficiencies but, rather will allow permittees to achieve compliance on a consistent basis. The existence of a similar facility with a lower emissions limit creates an obligation for the permit applicant and permit issuer to consider and document whether the same emission level can be achieved at the (REC) proposed facility.”

“This ruling is vindication for the community,” argued Joseph Otis Minott, executive director and chief counsel of Clean Air Council. “DEP must set pollution limits to protect the public based on science and law, not on the whims of the polluter.”

The REC project has been endorsed by the local Renovo Borough Council, the Clinton County Economic Partnership and the Clinton County Commissioners.

“DEP had simply not done what the law requires to protect the community from these types of emissions,” added Jessica O’Neill, senior attorney at PennFuture. “The Board recognized this clear violation and we will continue to press the rest of our claims against this flawed permit.”

The board granted partial summary judgment on the issues of the sulfur dioxide and volatile organic compounds limits in the permits. High levels of SO2 and volatile organic compounds can cause health risks.

In its application, REC stated that “a facility with the best emissions performance for one pollutant typically cannot meet the lowest emission level for another pollutant.” Rick Franzese, REC project manager, told The Express on Sunday that, “while we’re disappointed by the ruling, we will comply with it and we look forward to commencing construction on the project in a timely manner once the appeal is resolved.”

In statements to the county commissioners during their endorsement of the project this past May, Franzese had this to say: “The REC project remains viable so long as the appeal of the project’s air permit is favorably resolved. Investor interest in the Renovo facility remains high, and increasingly so in light of current events. In particular, the war in Ukraine has highlighted the need for energy security and independence, which for the near-term in the United States can be reliably provided by domestically-sourced natural gas. Renewables, such as solar and wind, are not yet fully reliable baseload power supplies, even when augmented with the most advanced storage technology currently available.

“Increased regulation is making coal-fired generation less viable, he said, so “gas-fired plants such as Renovo are needed to replace that baseload capacity. When state-of-the-art power plants such as the REC project come online, they typically displace electricity that would otherwise have been generated by older and less efficient coal-fired and other older baseload plants with less effective pollution controls, resulting in a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions,” he added.

The groups appealing the permit disagree, with Robert Ukeiley, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, arguing that “trying to build a new methane-gas burning power plant at this point is just absurd. We need to be shifting to clean, cheap energy like solar and wind rather than dirty, expensive power plants which burn methane gas.”

XXX

US Clean Water Act contains many sections

From an Article by John McFerrin, WV Highlands Conservancy Voice, July 2022

States, including West Virginia, have gained more control over the issuance of permits under the federal Clean Water Act.

Under the federal and state Clean Water Acts, anybody who wants to undertake a wide variety of activities which have an impact upon water must have a permit. These include discharging water into a stream, filling a stream, or crossing a stream or a wetland. Most recently this requirement has meant that both the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline have been required to have permits for pipeline construction.

These permits are issued by federal agencies. Under the law as it historically existed, even when federal agencies issue permit decisions, states still had a role. Under Section 401 of the federal Clean Water Act, federal agencies could not authorize projects in a state unless that state certifies (called a 401 Certification) that the project will not violate state water quality standards.

Our most recent experiences with this are the Mountain Valley Pipeline and the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. With those two pipelines, or any other project where federal agencies issue water permits, West Virginia could have stopped the project by refusing the 401 Certification. If it did not want to refuse the 401 Certification outright, it could have conditioned its approval on the pipeline developers taking certain steps to protect water quality.

The reason for this requirement of state certification were explained during the original debates on the federal Clean Water Act. Senator Muskie explained on the floor when what is now §401 was first proposed: “No polluter will be able to hide behind a Federal license or permit as an excuse for a violation of water quality standard[s]. No polluter will be able to make major investments in facilities under a Federal license or permit without providing assurance that the facility will comply with water quality standards. No State water pollution control agency will be confronted with a fait accompli by an industry that has built a plant without consideration of water quality requirements.”

In the spring of 2020, the United States Environmental Protection Agency issued a new rule dramatically reducing the authority that states have to refuse certification or demand conditions on permits. This was in response to complaints about other states imposing too many conditions upon pipeline construction or refusing certifications altogether. For the reasons mentioned below, there were no complaints about West Virginia authorities.

Now the United States Environmental Protection Agency has changed the rule back to what it was historically. The states once again have the authority to review federal permits and certify that a project will not cause a violation of water quality standards. If a project needs conditions to protect state waters, states can demand those conditions.

Does West Virginia really care?

If recent experience is any guide, regaining this authority will not make any difference to West Virginia. Both the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline had to have permits to cross streams and wetlands in West Virginia. Through the 401 Certification process, West Virginia could have prevented the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission from finally approving the pipeline as well as the United States Army Corps of Engineers from approving the stream crossings, etc. that the pipeline will entail until we had assurance that West Virginia’s water would not be damaged. West Virginia had the opportunity to either stop the project entirely or, more likely, place conditions upon it that would make it less damaging to West Virginia waters.

Instead of reviewing the projects and either rejecting them or placing conditions upon them, West Virginia waived its right to do so. For the details, see the stories in the December, 2017, and January, 2018, issues of The Highlands Voice.

While the restoration of authority might make a difference in some states, it is not clear that it will make any difference in West Virginia. When the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection had the authority before, it did not use it. There is nothing to indicate that having it back will make any difference. The current West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has no interest in using the right which the Clean Water Act grants it anyway.

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The West Virginia Highlands Conservancy is a non-profit corporation which has been recognized as a tax exempt organization by the Internal Revenue Service. Its bylaws describe its purpose:

The purposes of the Conservancy shall be to promote, encourage, and work for the conservation — including both preservation and wise use — and appreciation of the natural resources of West Virginia and the Nation, and especially of the Highlands Region of West Virginia, for the cultural, social, educational, physical, health, spiritual, and economic benefit of present and future generations of West Virginians and Americans.

Will you let this happen (again & again)?

It’s Not Water Under the Bridge

Editorial, Morgantown Dominion Post, February 27, 2015

You better believe history has a way of repeating itself. Take for instance our state leaders, and agencies, long history of allowing industry to have its way with our natural resources.

Never mind the collateral damage done to our environment, especially our water resources. At least it was that way until March 8, 2014, or so we thought.

That was the date when the state Legislature unanimously approved Senate Bill 373 in response to a massive chemical spill into the Elk River. That spill contaminated the water supply of 300,000 state residents in a nine-county region resulting in a tap water ban for nearly a week. But soon after that legislation was passed, some warned that protecting our water does not end with passing a bill.

Industry never sleeps and would keep the pressure on government through its well-financed lobby. As one WVU law professor put it at the time, “While you’re not paying attention, they are.” Guess what? We have not been paying attention.

This week the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously advanced legislation to the Senate floor that basically guts SB 373. Though the new legislation — Senate Bill 423 — still requires all above-ground storage tanks to be registered with the state, it drops practically all regulation for about 36,000 of those 48,000 tanks.

The new bill purportedly targets tanks in zones of critical concern and a newly defined zone of peripheral concern to public water intakes, rather than protecting groundwater in general.

What that means is, if you rely on a private groundwater well or other such water supply you had better hope there are no above-ground storage tanks nearby. It also drastically reshapes how many industries need to apply for permits, allowing them to opt out of the separate permit process for their storage tanks if they already fall under some other regulatory tool.

Some have estimated that as a result of this provision, fewer than 100 tanks will be subject to the regular strict inspections.

The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) secretary was quick to point out recently that the bill the governor sought last year — SB 417 — was not as stringent as the one lawmakers ultimately passed. That was the legislation whose opening paragraphs talked about protecting industry, rather than our water resources. It was the one that died a quiet death once the public got a look at it and started to make some noise.

Something tells us the public needs to start making some more noise again — at SB 423. And if they don’t hear you now, you can always get their attention at the ballot box on November 8, 2016.

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WV-DEP Public Notice of Intent to Approve Permit R13-2896B

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WV-DEP, Friday, November 22, 2013
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AIR QUALITY PERMIT NOTICE —  Notice of Intent to Approve

On August 21, 2013, Blue Racer Natrium, LLC applied to the WV Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Air Quality (DAQ) for a permit to modify a natural gas processing facility located off of State Route 2 at 14787 Energy Road, Proctor, Marshall County, WV at latitude 39.757031 and longitude - 80.858747.  A preliminary evaluation has determined that all State and Federal air quality requirements will be met by the proposed facility.  The DAQ is providing notice to the public of its preliminary determination to issue the permit as R13-2896B.

The following increase in potential emissions will be authorized by this permit action:  Particulate Matter less than 10 microns, 1.18 tons per year (TPY); Sulfur Dioxide, 0.08 TPY; Oxides of Nitrogen, 10.41 TPY; Carbon Dioxide Equivalents, 10,139 TPY.

The following decrease in potential emissions will be authorized by this permit action:  Carbon Monoxide, 13.87 tons per year (TPY); Volatile Organic Compounds, 58.48 TPY; Total Hazardous Air Pollutants, 5.09 TPY.

Written comments or requests for a public meeting must be received by the DAQ before 5:00 p.m. on Monday, December 23, 2013.  A public meeting may be held if the Director of the DAQ determines that significant public interest has been expressed, in writing, or when the Director deems it appropriate.

The purpose of the DAQ’s permitting process is to make a preliminary determination if the proposed modification will meet all state and federal air quality requirements.  The purpose of the public review process is to accept public comments on air quality issues relevant to this determination.  Only written comments received at the address noted below within the specified time frame, or comments presented orally at a scheduled public meeting, will be considered prior to final action on the permit.  All such comments will become part of the public record.

Jerry Williams, P.E.
WV Department of Environmental Protection
Division of Air Quality
601 57th Street, SE
Charleston, WV  25304
Telephone:  304/926-0499, ext. 1223
FAX:  304/926-0478

Additional information, including copies of the draft permit, application and all other supporting materials relevant to the permit decision may be obtained by contacting the engineer listed above.  The draft permit and engineering evaluation can be downloaded at:

www.dep.wv.gov/daq/Pages/NSRPermitsforReview.aspx

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This “letter to the editor” of the Morgantown Dominion Post is by Larry Harris, as published on November 5^th:

 Rules of the game not being enforced …

The controversy over replacement NFL referees showed how important good regulators of the game’s rules are to that sport. A quick resolution came in the wake of widespread public objections to poor referees. I’m wondering why there’s not the same kind of outcry about a situation much more important to us than a game: Our health and safety. 

I speak of the poorly regulated gas industry that’s drilling an alarming number of wells in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. There is now adequate information indicating that air, water and land pollution is associated with the hydro-fracking industry. 

Cancer-causing chemicals are being used in this process and reports of illegal dumping of wastewater on roads and into streams are reported. 

In New York, the situation is markedly different. First, they put a moratorium on hydrofracking until it was certain regulations were in place that protected the environment. The city of New York utilizes reservoirs for its water supply and citizens there made such an outcry that a decision on fracking was postponed again. Why are citizens here so complacent about an industry that endangers their water supply, their air quality and the land rights they lose when a driller obtains their mineral lease? 

As an environmental appointee of the Department’s Environmental Protection’s Public Advisory Council, I observed the agency develop a reasonable set of rules only to have the Legislature defeat it. 
We eventually got regulations but Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s set of rules did not go far enough to protect us. We got a few more regulators to enforce the rules, but again not enough to adequately cover the number of wells being drilled. 

So we are in the same boat as having replacement referees: Even the regulations we have are not enforced. When a referee makes a bad call, the decision may affect that one game but the teams will play again. 

With fracking, a bad call is permanent, with long lasting environmental damage. We deserve better enforcement, better protection. Is not the health and safety of our families just as important as a football game?

>>>   Larry Harris is a member of the WV Department of Environmental Protection’s Public Advisory Council and a resident of Morgantown, WV. <<<

State Hiring Regulations Are Problematic Regarding Experience and Pay Rates

Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said it’s on pace to hire more gas well inspectors following the passage of the Natural Gas Horizontal Well Control Act. But two hiring obstacles still remain: Low pay and an experience prerequisite. Higher permitting fees in the new legislation, DEP spokesman Tom Aluise said, were intended to generate money to hire 14 new Office of Oil and Gas (OOG) staffers — including four inspectors. So far, two inspector positions have been filled, with five left — which includes some previous vacancies. DEP expects to fill them within the next six months. “We knew it was going to take a while,” Aluise said.

They expected it to take about a year, though it might run a bit longer based on the six-month projection. When all the spots are filled, Aluise said, DEP will have 21 inspectors and two supervisors. The OOG staff list now shows 14 inspectors. Inspectors work certain areas — a single county or group of counties. A new hire is working the Brooke-Hancock-Ohio county region of the Northern Panhandle, while another is working Marshall County. Openings remain for Dodd, Tyler, Mingo-Wayne-Cabell, Lewis and Braxton counties. Inspectors have to meet certain qualifications and pass a test, Aluise said. Despite the new legislation intended to increase the candidate pool, “the application numbers haven’t been great,” Aluise said. The current applicant list has 12 qualified people.

The Horizontal Well Control Act raised starting pay to $35,000 for inspectors and $40,000 for supervisors, but it’s still not competitive with industry pay, Aluise said. During the months of negotiations on the Act, industry and DEP officials often said people with the same qualifications can start at $60,000 to $70,000 a year. Inspector qualifications were also subject to intense negotiations. The Act whittled it down from the previous six years’ industry experience to two — with one year credit for those with a bachelor’s degree in science or engineering, an associate degree in petroleum technology or relevant environmental experience.  Even one year of experience is still a hiring hurdle, Aluise said. Someone with a four-year degree can’t get a job. They have discussed asking the Legislature to lift that requirement. “We feel like we could train people,” Aluise said.

The Dominion Post asked OOG Chief Jim Martin if the new hires would be sufficient to monitor all the state’s gas wells — conventional and unconventional. Martin said the new hire numbers are specific to act requirements. Whether it’ll be adequate for the big picture is “something we’ll have to look at down the road.” They need to get them all on board and see how it pans out. “The activity level at the time is a critical component,” he said. 

During Joint Select Committee discussions of the legislation, some said there are too many wells for too few inspectors. Others said that while there are a lot of wells, not all of them need regular, or even annual, monitoring. According to OOG data, 50,586 active gas wells of all types are in the state — 952 of them Marcellus wells. It gets complicated, because not all horizontal wells are controlled by the Act, which covers wells that disturb three acres or more of land and use 210,000 gallons or more of water in a 30-day period.

In 2010, DEP issued 504 vertical well permits and 445 horizontal. In 2011, the numbers were 275 vertical, 542 horizontal.  So far this year, DEP issued 271 permits for horizontal wells covered by the Act — called 6A wells for the portion of the new legislation containing the Act: Section 22 Article 6A.

OOG charts the number 6A permits issued each month. The numbers were 0 in January and February, three each for March and April, 37, May; 56, June; 57, July; 60, August; 55, September. Aluise noted that doesn’t reflect all gas well permitting for the year. For instance, in January and February, DEP issued 32 total vertical permits and 92 total horizontal permits not covered under the Act. Aluise confirmed that the 0 6A permits in January and February stems from an adjustment period following the December 2011 legislation.

A “Gas Well Study” report for 2011 has been prepared by George Monk and Molly Shaffnit for Kanawha and Putnam Counties in WV. Examined were surface owner issues and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s responses to problems and complaints.

The last paragraph, in the Conclusions section, is worthy of consideration:

Violations are rare in West Virginia according to the DEP. That’s wishful thinking. The state abandons citizens whose domestic water supplies are compromised by improperly cased and cemented wells. Families have to buy drinking water, pay for medical expenses (the family near 47-039-06155 is receiving treatment for heavy metal poisoning), and are sometimes forced to leave their homes because of catastrophic health consequences  brought about due to drillers’ activities.

The opportunity exists for volunteers in each county of West Virginia to organize an effort to monitor the existing permit applications, active drilling operations, completed new gas wells as well as the thousands of legacy wells throughout the State.  It was reported today by Randy Huffman, Cabinet Secretary, Department of Environmental Protection, that State-wide in 2010, 23 % of the natural gas came from 517 wells while the remaining 77 % of the produced natural gas came from some 60,000 other gas wells in West Virginia.  This is a staggering figure, to realize that we have of the order of 60,000 wells active (or inactive but still unplugged) spread throughout our 55 counties.

The “Gas Well Report” by Monk and Shaffnit is available for download at:

 http://members.citynet.net/sootypaws/gws/documents/2011gws.pdf

Additional photographs of the well sites that were visited last year in Kanawha & Putnam Counties are at the following web-site:

http://members.citynet.net/sootypaws/Woods/gaswell/comments/otherwells/2012/index.html

Caiman Energy was recently slapped with a $224,000 fine.  The offending incident occurred last year, when a subcontractor of theirs improperly constructed a stream crossing involved with pipeline construction.  ”A sludge blanket” was the result of the stream pollution.

Despite this, a spokeswoman of Caiman said that the company, “believes in respect for people and the environment.”  So hopefully Caiman will do a better job at choosing its subcontractors for its planned investments in processing infrastructure.

In Marshall County, Caiman Energy currently has the capacity to process 200 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.  The company plans to increase that to 920 million cubic feet of gas per day by the end of 2013.  This would involve improving their Fort Beeler cryogenic plant, as well as building a new plant. In addition to this, they’re planning a fractionation facility along the Ohio River which will be able to separate 42,000 barrels of ethane daily by October 2012.  Until a cracker plant is built in Appalachia, the ethane will be put in a pipline to Canada.

Read the full article in the Wheeling Intelligencer…

Cranberry Glades, one of the many opportunities for recreation and part of the thriving tourism industry in Pocahontas County

As reported in a previous post, on September 22nd, Pocahontas County Commissioners traveled roughly four hours across the state of West Virginia for a five hour tour of the Chesapeake Energy gas fields of Wetzel County.

After speaking with landowners and visiting well sites and compressor stations, are the commissioners still concerned about the potential of shale gas drilling in their county? “Gravely”– according to the letter they sent Tuesday to the West Virginia DEP.  While Judge Susan Tucker ruled against the fracking ban in Morgantown on the grounds that the State has exclusive control over drilling, the Pocahontas County Commissioners see the reverse: that local rights should not be usurped by state government.  According to Commissioner Martin M. Saffer, the Pocahontas County Commission does “not believe it is right or proper for the Legislature to pre-empt our right to protect our citizens and to prevent a public nuisance.”

This issue of state regulation (adequate or no) versus the right of municipalities to enact local ordinances has also been a point of contention in Pennsylvania, where Governor Tom Corbett has sidestepped a decision one way or the other as his administration prepares a Marcellus Shale agenda for release on Monday.

Secretary of State Natalie Tennant approved the emergency rules set forth by the DEP last week, officially beginning a 15 month temporary regulation of Marcellus Shale gas drilling in West Virginia until legislators are able to complete the law making process.  One of the major criticisms of the temporary rule is the lack of protection for surface owners.  The West Virginia Association of Counties has its own list of grievances regarding the negative effects of drilling– enough so that it created a Marcellus Shale Study Committee when the group met in Charleston on August 16th.

At the same time that West Virginians are pushing their state senators to take action on regulation, US energy companies are pushing for increasingly better technology to treat contaminated wastewater.  Earlier this month, the National Energy Technology Laboratory (with offices in Morgantown, Wv and Pittsburgh, Pa) announced it will spend $10.3 million over the next three years on projects testing the performance of new water treatment technologies and evaluating well casings.  One of these funded projects, Obsorb, removes 99% of oil and greases and 90% of BTEX from wastewater.