Marcellus gas well pads & wastewater impoundment in prime forest of north central Penna.

From an Article by Ad Crable, Bay Journal, 5/3/21

Pennsylvania’s robust natural gas industry has been embarrassed by three environmental scandals in 15 months. Among the fallout: temporarily closed pipelines, the state’s largest environmental fine, the elimination of streams, and the illegal burial or alteration of parts of 163 wetlands.

In one case, Texas gas company Range Resources was found to have classified spent gas wells as temporarily inactive, rather than closed, thus avoiding a requirement to plug the wells to prevent leaks of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

In another case, Chesapeake Appalachia, an arm of Chesapeake Energy and one of the largest fracking gas companies in Pennsylvania, signed a consent agreement March 24 with the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

The agreement, which included a $1.9 million civil penalty, acknowledges that Chesapeake Appalachia had, according to its own reports, filled approximately 26 acres of wetlands with dirt, rock or sand, without state or federal authorization, at 76 of its gas wells across five counties.

The company will have to restore about 11 acres of affected wetlands. To compensate for the remaining 15 acres, which are irreparably damaged, the company must create twice that many acres of new wetlands nearby, ideally in the same watershed.

Chesapeake Appalachia’s record of the damage goes back to 2013, when the EPA and Justice Department fined the company $3.2 million for violations in West Virginia. The company agreed then that it had impounded and filled in 2.2 miles of streams and smothered portions of wetlands at 27 well pad sites without required federal permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The violations were discovered by routine EPA inspections, complaints from nearby residents and reports from the gas company itself.

After that case and a management shake-up at the company, Chesapeake Energy did an internal audit of 500 gas well sites in Pennsylvania and informed state officials that it had discovered similar violations at 76 sites.

Gordon Pennoyer, a Chesapeake Energy spokesman, said of the enforcement action, “Having voluntarily disclosed these issues with the DEP and EPA seven years ago, we are pleased to resolve this legacy matter.”

Under federal regulations, Chesapeake has a choice of restoring violated wetlands or creating new ones elsewhere at double the amount destroyed. The company has submitted a plan to restore wetlands at some of the drilling sites, restore wetlands elsewhere to compensate for places where steep slopes prevent work at the original location, and conduct a combination of on-site and off-site work in some cases.

DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell applauded Chesapeake Appalachia for coming forward with its violations and called the settlement a “significant benefit to Pennsylvania’s public natural resources” because it will result in an increase of wetlands in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Diana Esher, acting administrator of the EPA’s Mid-Atlantic region, said wetlands are “critical ecological and economic resources for all Pennsylvanians.”

The Chesapeake Appalachia penalties followed another high-profile case that concluded in early 2020, when a gas pipeline company was fined an unprecedented $30.6 million by the DEP, partly for widespread wetlands and stream violations.

The case against ETC Northeast Pipeline stemmed largely from a landslide that ruptured the one-week-old Revolution Pipeline in rural western Pennsylvania on Sept. 10, 2018. The blast from ignited natural gas burned one house, caused six power transmission poles to collapse, and destroyed two garages, a barn and several vehicles, as well as forced evacuations.

The DEP found that the company, an arm of Texas-based gas pipeline builder Energy Transfer Corp., used poor construction and oversight practices in building the pipeline. But an investigation after the blast uncovered more widespread environmental harms along the 40-mile pipeline.

According to the DEP, the company’s violations included 120 altered streams, 23 “eliminated” streams, 17 buried wetlands, 70 altered wetlands, 352 cases of erosion and sedimentation, 540 cases of sediment washing into streams, and 1,359 violations of required best management practices.

That laundry list of violations prompted the DEP to take the rare step of freezing pipeline permits for Energy Transfer Corp. subsidiaries, including that of the cross-state pipeline known as Mariner East 2.

That pipeline’s construction had already amassed a list of environmental violations, including sinkholes and 320 spills of drilling fluids. One spill into a central Pennsylvania lake cost Energy Transfer a $2 million fine.

“There has been a failure by Energy Transfer and its subsidiaries to respect our laws and our communities,” Gov. Tom Wolf said at the time of the Revolution Pipeline consent order. “This is not how we strive to do business in Pennsylvania, and it will not be tolerated.”

But after a one-year freeze, the DEP allowed Energy Transfer pipelines to resume or proceed with construction. The DEP ordered Energy Transfer to restore all wetlands and stream sections where possible. Seventy of the 87 damaged or destroyed wetlands will be restored. The other 17 harmed wetlands will be atoned for with the restoration of four times as much wetlands in the same watershed.

In a much smaller case, the DEP and Range Resources agreed in February to a consent order after the DEP found that the company was trying to avoid plugging spent gas wells as required. The agency fined Range Resources $294,000 and required plugging all but one of the 42 wells in question.

“Abandoned wells can be an extreme hazard to the health and safety of people and the environment,” said Jamar Thrasher, DEP spokesman. “That contributes to air, water and soil contamination, so it’s an environmental hazard.” Abandoned wells can leak methane, a potent greenhouse gas. These were conventional gas wells dating mostly from the 1980s or older, and not new fracking wells.

The company had filed paperwork with the DEP, mostly from 2012 to 2016, saying the wells were “inactive.” But an internal memo that Range sent to the DEP three weeks before paperwork was received on one well had reported that the well “was incapable of economic production.”

The DEP then investigated other wells and found 41 more that had been improperly classified.

Trout season never looked like this in Chester County. Penna.

From an Article by Susan Phillip, StateImpact Pennsylvania, April 10, 2021

PHOTO — Sunoco construction site behind the Meadowbrook Manor development in West Whiteland Township. Muddy water continues to flow and pollute the West Valley Creek, a stocked trout stream.

It was Easter Sunday when, retired schoolteacher Libby Madarasz said, a neighbor noticed muddy water flowing from beneath a barrier to Sunoco’s Mariner East 2 pipeline construction site. The water filled a wetland behind the Chester County Library, across from Exton Square mall, where the clay-like runoff continues to pollute a tributary to West Valley Creek.

Madarasz said she and her neighbors in the Meadowbrook Manor neighborhood of West Whiteland Township are fed up with the noise from Sunoco’s trucks and construction operations, and the fear that they could lose their homes if the work causes more sinkholes.

Earlier this week, as she walked behind a row of homes through a wooded area filled with blooming buttercups covered in murky brown water, her feet sank into the ground as if into quicksand. Several blue filtration socks lined the area but failed to catch all the clay particles. Madarasz is frustrated by what she sees as a lack of accountability for a project that she feels moves “full steam ahead” no matter the consequences.

“They come into our town, an out-of-state corporation, and they’re trashing this,” she said. “And I’m sure the question for them is, ‘What’s the worst that can happen? They’ll slap us with a fine, but we’ve got to make progress. So let’s just do this.’”

A statement from the company says the muddy discharge is permitted by Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection —

“The water leaving the site is colored because of the clay layer through which we are currently working,” the statement from Sunoco said. “It is being filtered through approved erosion control measures. We expect the water to remain this color until we hit a different geology. Additionally, we have an environmental inspector on site 24/7 to monitor the filtration.”

PA-DEP says the company is complying with the permits, which require it to use a series of best management practices to contain the sediment. The mesh in the filtration socks, however, is not fine enough to capture the tiny clay particles, according to PA-DEP spokesperson Virginia Cain. “Despite what it looks like, there’s no clear violation,” Cain said. She added that it’s unclear why the water continues to flow, and why the remedies outlined in Sunoco’s permit are not working.

“It’s ridiculous and it’s been going on for days.” — Pete Goodman, environmental chairman for Trout Unlimited’s Valley Forge chapter.

Sunoco submitted a new plan Friday to mitigate the flow, which includes using a flocculant to force the clay particles to settle, as well as additional sand filters and sediment filter bags.

Though residents are worried about sinkholes, Cain said there is no connection between the current groundwater flow and the sinkholes that developed on site.

The area lies above limestone, or karst geology. It’s not clear what the company means when it says the water will look as it does until workers hit “a different geology.” But since construction began, sinkholes have developed in this area, including some so large they forced the company to buy several homes on nearby Lisa Drive.

The company has also run into problems with drilling through a region notorious for its complex and tricky geology, and is several years behind schedule. This stretch of the Mariner East 2 pipeline is one of the last to be completed. The line runs about 350 miles across the state carrying Marcellus Shale gas to an export terminal in Delaware County, where it gets shipped to Scotland to make plastics.

A workaround pipe, using an idled line, is carrying the gas while the new line is completed. There is also the parallel Mariner East 1 line that was laid back in the 1930s to carry gasoline to rural Pennsylvania, and has been repurposed to carry natural-gas liquids. The construction on this route is using an auger bore to create a pathway for the Mariner East 2 between the two lines.

Several sinkholes at this site have developed close to the two operating natural-gas liquids lines and at a nearby valve station. When sinkholes developed along Lisa Drive in 2018, the state Public Utility Commission forced the operating lines near the sinkholes to shut down. An exposed line is subject to cracks or leaks, potentially causing the highly flammable natural-gas liquids to explode, as the company’s Revolution pipeline did after a heavy rain event exposed the line in Beaver County in 2018.

Those incidents weigh heavily on the minds of Meadowbrook Manor residents, Madarasz said. The company’s instructions in case of a leak of the gas, which has no smell, is to run upwind. “Where would I go?” she asked. “There’s a woman living here with a 7-year-old, a 4-year-old, and an infant, you want her to run?”

In the meantime, Sunoco is sending a caravan of trucks to suck up as much water as possible. One day this week, the trucks entered a work site behind chain-link fencing covered in black plastic. “The other day, I tallied and there were 42 that drove by the front of my house,” Madarasz said. “They hold anywhere from 2,500 gallons to 5,000 gallons. It’s full speed ahead. Let’s get through here as quickly as we can, and let’s put up black fences. So if we have a sinkhole, maybe we can fill it before anybody even knows.”

The damage couldn’t have come at a worse time for trout fishermen. The season began just a day before the water started flowing, on April 3. West Valley Creek, which flows into the East Branch of the Brandywine Creek, is a trout-stocked stream. “It’s ridiculous and it’s been going on for days,” said Pete Goodman, the environmental chairman for Trout Unlimited’s Valley Forge chapter. “It’s choking out the life that lives in the stream as well as the stocked trout further down.”

Though the discharge is groundwater, and not toxic, the clay particles can smother the trout’s main source of food — macroinvertebrates. Goodman said the tiny insects, like mayflies, as well as the trout have a hard time surviving in muddy water. “From the fisherman’s perspective, why would you bother, it’s like fishing in a cup of coffee,” Goodman said. He too is frustrated by the seeming lack of regulatory authority. “I’ve watched for the past 20 years as the DEP has been defunded. I think there’s no teeth left in DEP,” he said.

PA-DEP’s Cain said that the agency is reviewing Sunoco’s new plan and so far, there have been no reported impacts to aquatic life.

The Falcon Pipeline passes through Hancock County, WV

From a Report by Erica Jackson, FracTracker Alliance, March 17, 2021

The Falcon Ethane Pipeline System is at the center of major investigations into possible noncompliance with construction and public safety requirements and failing to report drilling mud spills, according to documents obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) by FracTracker Alliance. These investigations, which are yet to be released, also uncovered instances of alleged data falsification in construction reports and Shell Pipeline Company firing employees in retaliation for speaking up about these issues.

Key Takeaways to Summarize

Shell’s Falcon Pipeline, which is designed to carry ethane to the Shell ethane cracker in Beaver County, PA for plastic production, has been under investigation by federal and state agencies, since 2019. The construction of the pipeline is nearing completion.
Allegations in these investigations include issues with the pipeline’s coating, falsified reports, and retaliation against workers who spoke about issues.

Organizations are calling on public agencies to take action to protect public welfare and the environment along the entire pipeline route through Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

These investigations reveal yet another example of the life-threatening risks brought on by the onslaught of pipeline construction in the Ohio River Valley in the wake in the fracking boom. They also reveal the failure of public agencies to protect us, as documents reveal the federal agency that oversees pipeline safety did not adequately respond to serious accusations brought to its attention by a whistleblower.

These new concerns are coming to light as people across the country are demanding bold action on plastic pollution and the climate crisis through campaigns such as Build Back Fossil Free, Plastic Free President, and Future Beyond Shell. On a local level, residents in the Ohio River Valley continue to shoulder the health burdens of the fracking industry, despite a recent ban on fracking in the eastern part of Pennsylvania, which a growing body of scientific evidence verifies. The Falcon Pipeline, which would transport fracked gas for plastic production, is directly at odds with these demands.

Shell’s attempts to cut corners while constructing this 98-mile pipeline, likely motivated by the increasingly bleak economic prospects of this project, present serious public safety concerns for the thousands of residents along its route in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio.

These allegations are serious enough to warrant immediate action. We’re calling on the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to thoroughly examine these allegations and suspend construction if not yet completed, or, in the case that construction is complete, operation of the Falcon Pipeline. Furthermore, we call on state environmental regulators to fully investigate construction incidents throughout the entire pipeline route, require Shell Pipeline to complete any necessary remediation, including funding independent drinking water testing, and take enforcement action to hold Shell accountable.

Pipeline workers speak out

According to documents obtained through a public records request, a whistleblower contacted PHMSA in 2019 with serious concerns about the Falcon, including that the pipeline may have been constructed with defective corrosion coating. PHMSA is a federal agency that regulates pipeline operation. The whistleblower also shared environmental threats occurring within the DEP’s jurisdiction, prompting the PA DEP and Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office to get involved.

Many of the issues with the Falcon relate to a construction method used to install pipelines beneath sensitive areas like roads and rivers called horizontal directional drilling (HDD). Shell Pipeline contracted Ellingson Trenchless LLC to complete over 20 HDDs along the Falcon, including crossings beneath drinking water sources such as the Ohio River and its tributaries. FracTracker and DeSmog Blog previously reported on major drilling mud spills Shell caused while constructing HDDs and how public agencies have failed to regulate these incidents.

Falcon Pipeline Horizontal Directional Drilling locations and fluid losses

The map in the Report shows the Falcon Pipeline’s HDD crossings and spills of drilling fluid spills that occurred through 3/5/2020. To see the data sources, click on the information icon found in the upper right corner of the map header as well as under the map address bar.

PHMSA performed an incomplete investigation

Correspondence between the PA DEP and PHMSA from February 26, 2020 reveal the gravity of the situation. While PHMSA conducted an inquiry into the whistleblower’s complaints in 2019 and concluded there were no deficiencies, PA DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell wrote that his agency felt it was incomplete and urged PHMSA to conduct a more thorough investigation. Secretary McDonnell noted the PA DEP “has received what appears to be credible information that sections of Shell’s Falcon Pipeline project in western PA, developed for the transportation of ethane liquid, may have been constructed with defective corrosion coating protection,” and that “corroded pipes pose a possible threat of product release, landslide, or even explosions.”

FracTracker submitted a Freedom of Information Act request with PHMSA asking for documents pertaining to this inquiry, and was directed to the agency’s publicly available enforcement action webpage. The page shows that PHMSA opened a case into the Falcon on July 16, 2020, five months after Secretary McDonnell sent the letter.

PHMSA sent Shell Pipeline Company a Notice of Amendment citing several inadequacies with the Falcon’s construction, including:

>> inadequate written standards for visual inspection of pipelines;
>> inadequate written standards that address pipeline location as it pertains to proximity to buildings and private dwellings;
>> compliance with written standards addressing what actions should be taken if coating damage is observed during horizontal directional drill pullback; and
>> inadequate welding procedures

Shell responded with its amended procedures on July 27, 2020, and PHMSA closed the case on August 13, 2020.

Of note, PHMSA states it is basing this Notice on an inspection conducted between April 9th and 11th, 2019, when construction on the Falcon had only recently started. PHMSA has con­firmed its in­ves­ti­ga­tion on the Falcon is on­go­ing, however we question the accuracy of self reported data given to PHMSA inspectors should be questioned

The PA DEP also brought the matter to the attention of the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Ohio and West Virginia are also involved

The Falcon pipeline also crosses through Ohio and briefly, West Virginia. While we do not know how these states are involved in these investigations, our past analyses raise concerns about the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s (OEPA) ability to regulate the pipeline’s HDD crossings.

One of the focuses of the Pennsylvania DEP’s investigation is the failure to report drilling fluid spills that occur while constructing a HDD crossing. The PA DEP shut down all HDD operations in November, 2019 and forced Shell to use monitors to calculate spills, as was stated in permit applications.

PHOTO IN REPORT — A horizontal directional drilling (HDD) construction site for the Falcon Pipeline in Southview, Washington County, Pennsylvania. You can see where the drilling mud has returned to the surface in the top left of the photo. Photo by Cyberhawk obtained by FracTracker Alliance through a right-to-know request with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

PHOTO IN ARTICLE— The Falcon Pipeline’s HDD locations are often close to neighborhoods, like the HOU-02 crossing in Southview, Washington County, Pennsylvania. Photo by Cyberhawk obtained by FracTracker Alliance through a right-to-know request with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

To our knowledge, the OEPA did not enforce this procedure, instead relying on workers to manually calculate and report spills. Shell’s failure to accurately self-report raises concerns about the safety of the Falcon’s HDD crossings in Ohio, including the crossing beneath the Ohio River, just upstream of drinking water intakes for Toronto and Steubenville, Ohio.

The Shell ethane cracker is involves dangerous chemical pollution

The Falcon is connected to one of Shell’s most high-profile projects: a $6 billion to $10 billion plastic manufacturing plant, commonly referred to as the Shell ethane cracker, in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. These massive projects represent the oil and gas industry’s far-fetched dream of a new age of manufacturing in the region that would revolve around converting fracked gas into plastic, much of which would be exported overseas.

Many in the Ohio River Valley have raised serious concerns over the public health implications of a petrochemical buildout. The United States’ current petrochemical hub is in the Gulf Coast, including a stretch of Louisiana known colloquially as “Cancer Alley” because of the high risk of cancer from industrial pollution.

Construction of the ethane cracker and the Falcon pipeline have forged forward during the COVID-19 pandemic. In another example of the culture of fear at the worksite, several workers expressed concern that speaking publicly about unsafe working conditions that made social distancing impossible would cost them their jobs. Yet the state has allowed work to continue on at the plant, going so far as to grant Shell the approval to continue work without the waiver most businesses had to obtain. As of December 2020, over 274 Shell workers had contracted the coronavirus.

Weak financial outlook for Shell’s investment

While the oil and gas industry had initially planned several ethane crackers for the region, all companies except for Shell have pulled out or put their plans on hold, likely due to the industry’s weak financial outlook.

A June 2020 report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), stated that:

Royal Dutch Shell owes a more complete explanation to shareholders and the people of Pennsylvania of how it is managing risk. Shell remains optimistic regarding the prospects for its Pennsylvania Petrochemical Complex in Beaver County, Penn. The complex, which is expected to open in 2021 or 2022, is part of a larger planned buildout of plastics capacity in the Ohio River Valley and the U.S. IEEFA concludes that the current risk profile indicates the complex will open to market conditions that are more challenging than when the project was planned. The complex is likely to be less profitable than expected and face an extended period of financial distress.

Many of Pennsylvania’s elected officials have gone to great lengths to support this project. The Corbett administration enticed Shell to build this plastic factory in Pennsylvania by offering Shell a tax break for each barrel of fracked gas it buys from companies in the state and converts to plastic (valued at $66 million each year). The state declared the construction site a Keystone Opportunity Zone, giving Shell a 15-year exemption from state and local taxes. In exchange, Shell had to provide at least 2,500 temporary construction jobs and invest $1 billion in the state, giving the company an incredible amount of power to decide where resources are allocated in Pennsylvania.

Would the state have asked Shell for more than 2,500 construction jobs if it knew these jobs could be taken away when workers spoke out against life-threatening conditions? Will the politicians who have hailed oil and gas as the only job creator in the region care when workers are forced to hide their identity when communicating with public agencies?

States fail to adequately regulate the oil and gas industry

The PA DEP appears to have played a key role in calling for this investigation, yet the agency itself was recently at the center of a different investigation led by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro. The resulting Investigating Grand Jury Report revealed systematic failure by the PA DEP and the state’s Department of Health to regulate the unconventional oil and gas industry. One of the failures was that the Department seldom referred environmental crimes to the Attorney General’s Office, which must occur before the Office has the authority to prosecute.

The Office of Attorney General is involved in this investigation, which the PA DEP is referring to as noncriminal.

The Grand Jury Report also cited concerns about “the revolving door” that shuffled PA DEP employees into higher-paying jobs in the oil and gas industry. The report cited examples of PA DEP employees skirting regulations to perform special favors for companies they wished to be hired by. The watchdog research organization Little Sis listed 47 fracking regulators in Pennsylvania that have moved back and forth between the energy industry, including Shell’s Government Relations Advisor, John Hines.

National attention on pipelines and climate

The Falcon Pipeline sits empty as people across the nation are amping up pressure on President Biden to pursue bold action in pursuit of environmental justice and a just transition to clean energy. Following Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline, Indigenous leaders are calling for him to shut down other projects including Enbridge Line 3 and the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Over a hundred groups representing millions of people have signed on to the Build Back Fossil Free campaign, imploring Biden to create new jobs through climate mobilization. Americans are also pushing Biden to be a Plastic Free President and take immediate action to address plastic pollution by suspending and denying permits for new projects like the Shell ethane cracker that convert fracked gas into plastic.

If brought online, the Falcon pipeline and Shell ethane cracker will lock in decades of more fracking, greenhouse gasses, dangerous pollution, and single-use plastic production.

Just as concerning, Shell will need to tighten its parasitic grip on the state’s economic and legislative landscape to keep this plant running. Current economic and political conditions are not favorable for the Shell ethane cracker: financial analysts report that its profits will be significantly less than originally presented. If the plant is brought online, Shell’s lobbyists and public relations firms will be using every tactic to create conditions that support Shell’s bottom line, not the well-being of residents in the Ohio River Valley.

Politicians will be encouraged to pass more preemptive laws to block bans on plastic bags and straws to keep up demand for the ethane cracker’s product. Lobbyists will continue pushing for legislation that imposes harsh fines and felony charges on people who protest oil and gas infrastructure, while oil and gas companies continue to fund police foundations. Shell will ensure that Pennsylvania keeps extracting fossil fuels to feed its ethane cracker.

The Falcon pipeline is at odds with global demands to address plastic and climate crises. As these new documents reveal, it also poses immediate threats to residents along its route. While we’re eager for more information from state and federal agencies to understand the details of this investigation, it’s clear that there is no safe way forward with the Falcon Pipeline.

Royal Dutch Shell has been exerting control over people through the extraction of their natural resources ever since it began drilling for oil in Dutch and British colonies in the 19th Century. What will it take to end its reign?

>>>>>>>>>>……….>>>>>>>>>>……….>>>>>>>>>>

See also: Federal, state agencies probing Shell’s Falcon ethane pipeline after whistleblowers’ allegations | Anya Litvak, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 17, 2021

PHMSA con­firmed that its in­ves­ti­ga­tion into the proj­ect was on­go­ing. “We looked into the con­cerns raised by the PA-DEP but the re­sults are not yet avail­able,” the agency said.

Even to­day, as the pipe­line is al­ready com­pleted, bur­ied and wait­ing for the Shell petro­chem­i­cal plant to be­come op­er­a­tional some­time in 2022, the PA-DEP’s in­ves­ti­ga­tion of the Fal­con proj­ect con­tin­ues.

Work underway in Marsh Creek State Park

From an Article by Joe Brandt, NBC News (Philadelphia), September 11, 2020

More than 8,100 gallons of drilling fluid spilled into Marsh Creek Lake, Chester County, PA, in August of this year.

An natural gas liquids pipeline under construction in Pennsylvania will be rerouted after thousands of gallons of industrial waste spilled into a creek last month.

The PA state Department of Environmental Protection ordered Sunoco to reroute the Mariner East II pipeline and divert it around the Marsh Creek Lake and wetlands, a PA-DEP news release says.

In August, more than 8,100 gallons of drilling fluid spilled into a tributary of the lake before flowing into the lake itself. Some 33 acres of the lake were closed off from boating and other recreational uses after the spill.

Sunoco has proposed adjusting the pipeline route so it would cross under the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Conestoga Road.

Secretary Patrick McDonnell of the PA-DEP called the spill “yet another instance where Sunoco has blatantly disregarded the citizens and resources of Chester County with careless actions while installing the Mariner East II Pipeline.”

“We will not stand for more of the same,” McDonnell added in the news statement. “An alternate route must be used. The department is holding Sunoco responsible for its unlawful actions and demanding a proper cleanup.”

The department says Sunoco hasn’t turned over plans on how it will remediate the impacts of drilling fluid spills and sinkholes. The company told the state that spills are “readily contained and cleaned up with minimal affect to natural resources.”

Cleanup is still underway with state supervision.

The pipeline runs through Chester and Delaware counties and feeds into the Marcus Hook refinery. Drilling in the booming Marcellus Shale and Utica Shale fields – and shipping natural gas liquids through Mariner East pipelines and Marcus Hook – have helped the U.S. become the world’s leading ethane exporter, the Associated Press reported in 2019.

Marsh Creek State Park is one the most visited state parks and the lake is a key habitat for migrating birds, according to a state document on the pipeline.

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1975 TANKER COLLISION RESULTED IN EXPLOSIONS & FIRE —

NOTE: Some “25 Reported Missing and 2 Dead In Pennsylvania Tanker Wreck,” Multiple Explosions & Fire at Marcus Hook — The New York Times, February 1, 1975

Path of Mariner East II Pipeline borders many private residences

From an Article by Scott DiSavino, Stephanie Kelly, Reuters News Service, November 28, 2018

MEDIA, PA — Energy Transfer LP and its Sunoco pipeline subsidiary have racked up more than 800 state and federal permit violations while racing to build two of the nation’s largest natural gas pipelines, according to a Reuters analysis of government data and regulatory records.

The pipelines, known as Energy Transfer Rover and Sunoco Mariner East 2, will carry natural gas and gas liquids from Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, an area that now accounts for more than a third of U.S. gas production.

Reuters analyzed four comparable pipeline projects and found they averaged 19 violations each during construction.

The Rover and Mariner violations included spills of drilling fluid, a clay-and-water mixture that lubricates equipment for drilling under rivers and highways; sinkholes in backyards; and improper disposal of hazardous waste and other trash. Fines topped $15 million.

Energy Transfer also raised the ire of federal regulators by tearing down a historic house along Rover’s route.

The Appalachia region has become a hub for natural gas as it increasingly replaces coal for U.S. power generation, creating an urgent need for new pipelines. But the recent experience of residents and regulators with the two Energy Transfer pipelines has state officials vowing to tighten laws and scrutinize future projects.

“Ohio’s negative experience with Rover has fundamentally changed how we will permit pipeline projects,” said James Lee, a spokesman for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

Problems with Mariner prompted Pennsylvania legislators to craft bills tightening construction regulations, which have drawn bipartisan support. “Any pipeline going through this area is going to face resistance which it would not have faced before,” said Pennsylvania State Senator Andy Dinniman, a Democrat.

Energy Transfer spokeswoman Alexis Daniel said the firm remained committed to safe construction and operation and at times went “above and beyond” regulations for the two projects.

Construction of the 713-mile, $4.2 billion Rover started in March 2017 and was planned to proceed at about 89 miles a month, while work on the 350-mile, $2.5 billion Mariner East 2 started in February 2017 and was planned at 50 miles a month, according to company statements on construction schedules. Both were targeted for completion late last year.

Regulators and industry experts said the pace of both projects far exceeded industry norms.

The four other projects examined by Reuters were mostly completed at a pace averaging 17 miles per month. Reuters selected the projects for comparison because, like Rover and Mariner, they cost more than $1.5 billion, stretched at least 150 miles and were under construction at the same time.

Construction on both Energy Transfer pipelines was ultimately slowed when state and federal regulators ordered numerous work stoppages after permit violations. Energy Transfer completed the last two sections of Rover in November and said it expects to put Mariner East 2 in service soon.

In February, Pennsylvania fined the company $12.6 million for environmental damage, including the discharge of drilling fluids into state waters without a permit. After further problems, including the sinkholes, a state judge in May ordered work halted on Mariner East 2.

Administrative Law Judge Elizabeth Barnes wrote that Energy Transfer’s Sunoco unit “made deliberate managerial decisions to proceed in what appears to be a rushed manner in an apparent prioritization of profit over the best engineering.”

While pipeline construction schedules vary, the planned timelines for Rover and Mariner were ambitious, said Fred Jauss, partner at Dorsey & Whitney in Washington and a former attorney with the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which regulates interstate gas pipelines.

“They aren’t taking their time … we’re all concerned about it,” said Pennsylvania State Senator John Rafferty, a Republican, referring to other state politicians, constituents and first responders.

Energy Transfer spokeswoman Lisa Dillinger told Reuters the schedules were “appropriate for the size, scope, and the number of contractors hired.”

Other companies that planned slower construction of comparable projects have finished mostly on schedule with almost no violations. Canadian energy company Enbridge Inc., for instance, recently finished a $2.6 billion, 255-mile pipeline – following a path similar to Rover through Ohio and Michigan – with just seven violations. Enbridge did not respond to a request for comment.

HAZARDOUS SPILLS

Energy Transfer, now one of the nation’s largest pipeline operators, encountered large protests led by Native American tribes and environmental activists over the route of its Dakota Access crude oil line in North Dakota in 2016 and has seen protests of Mariner East 2 in Pennsylvania, where opponents have highlighted its safety record on existing pipelines.

The company has had a relatively high incidence of hazardous liquid spills and other problems, according to a Reuters review of data from the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).

Energy Transfer’s Sunoco unit ranked third worst among all pipeline companies in average annual incidents between 2010 and 2017, according to the PHMSA data. In total, Energy Transfer and its affiliated companies released more than 41,000 barrels of hazardous liquids causing more than $100 million in property damage, PHMSA data shows.

Bibianna Dussling of Media, Pennsylvania, joined a group of activists protesting Mariner East after learning the project’s route would pass near her daughter’s elementary school. “The violations are really meaningless to them,” she said. “You do so much to protect your children day-to-day, and to face something like this, that you feel is so much out of your hands.”

Energy Transfer’s Dillinger said incidents have been sharply reduced since the merger of Sunoco Logistics and Energy Transfer Partners into one company, Energy Transfer, in the spring of 2017. Incidents this year are “trending below industry average,” she said.

HISTORIC HOUSE DEMOLITION

The Rover pipeline attracted additional federal scrutiny when Energy Transfer demolished a historic house along its route.

After Energy Transfer bought the 1843 Stoneman house in Ohio, FERC staff in February 2016 required the firm to come up with a plan to prevent adverse effects on the property, according to a staff’s environmental report.

Instead, the company tore down the house in May 2016 without notifying FERC or the Ohio State Historic Preservation Office. That led FERC to deny Energy Transfer a so-called blanket certificate that would have allowed the company to construct Rover with less oversight, noting the demolition convinced regulators the company “cannot be trusted” to comply with environmental regulations.

Energy Transfer said in a statement that it had “resolved all outstanding issues” with the demolition and donated more than $4 million to the Ohio preservation office.

DAMAGED WETLANDS

Once Energy Transfer started building Rover, FERC and West Virginia regulators required the company to halt work on parts of the project after violations, including the release of an estimated 2 million gallons of drilling fluid into wetlands near the Tuscarawas River in Ohio in April 2017.

>>> For a breakdown of Rover’s 681 federal violations, see: tmsnrt.rs/2PUGmYr

In Pennsylvania, Mariner East 2 has received more than 80 notices of violation from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, mostly for accidental release of drilling fluids. Drilling fluids can impair the natural flow of streams and rivers and harm an area’s ecosystem, said Lynda Farrell, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Coalition.

The Ohio Attorney General filed a lawsuit in November 2017 seeking about $2.6 million from Rover and some of the construction companies building the pipeline for the alleged illegal discharge of millions of gallons of drilling fluids into state waters, among other things. That lawsuit is ongoing.

Energy Transfer’s Dillinger said the company was “disappointed” that the Ohio AG sued after the company tried to resolve issues amicably and that it would continue cooperating with regulators. “We continue to work closely with both state regulators to resolve any outstanding issues related to our construction,” she said.

Kayakers join protest near Paw Paw, WV

From an Article by Patricia Sullivan, Washington Post, August 6, 2017

HANCOCK, MD — Activists with the Potomac Riverkeeper Network set up at Paw Paw Tunnel Campground near Oldtown, Md., for a weekend paddle and protest over TransCanada’s planned natural gas pipeline.

The pipeline that TransCanada wants to build is short, 3.5 miles, cutting through the narrowest part of Maryland. It would duck briefly under the Potomac River at this 1,500-resident town, bringing what business leaders say is much-needed natural gas to the eastern panhandle of West Virginia.

But environmentalists say that brief stretch could jeopardize the water supply for about 6 million people, including most of the Washington-metropolitan area.

That’s why dozens of protesters have gathered each weekend this summer at various points along the upper Potomac, part of a growing national movement that opposes both oil and natural gas pipelines and wants businesses and governments to embrace green energy instead.

Inspired by the Dakota Access oil pipeline protest at Standing Rock, N.D., and the broad wave of demonstrations that has energized the left since President Trump’s inauguration, the protesters hope to persuade Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and his environment secretary to stop the pipeline, which got an enthusiastic green light from West Virginia.

“It’s got me worried,” said Andy Billotti, 53, who wore a T-shirt from April’s Peoples Climate March in Washington as he erected his tent at the Paw Paw Tunnel Campground near Oldtown, Md., for one recent protest. “If something were to happen, that fracked poison would come down the river . . . right into our wells.”

Opponents gathered at the ­McCoys Ferry campsite in Clear Spring, Md., over the weekend and will be at Taylors Landing next weekend. The protest at Taylors Landing, near Sharpsburg, Md., is slated to include state Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. (D-Montgomery), a gubernatorial candidate and the latest of a handful of politicians to take part.

The activists want Hogan, who this year banned fracking in Maryland, to deny TransCanada a water quality permit to cross the Potomac. Environment Secretary Ben Grumbles said the state has sought additional information about the project from the company and will schedule a public hearing on the permit application in coming weeks.

About 40 other permits are also needed, including ones from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the National Park Service, because the pipeline would also go under the C&O Canal.

Industry and economic development officials say the pipeline is safe and sorely needed to attract new employers to the West Virginia panhandle.

“There are hundreds, if not thousands, of miles of gas lines like this in the Washington, D.C., area,” Eric Lewis, president of the Jefferson County Development Authority (JCDA), told about 60 protesters in July at a town council meeting in Shepherdstown, W.Va. “If people have issues with fracking, they should take it up somewhere else.”

West Virginia’s Public Service Commission already granted its utility, Mountaineer Gas, approval to begin building the distribution pipeline from Berkeley Springs to Martinsburg. Bulldozers are at work. The utility plans to eventually extend that line to Charles Town and Shepherdstown.

The natural gas that runs through the area’s existing pipeline is entirely spoken for since the opening of a Procter & Gamble manufacturing plant near Martinsburg, Mountaineer Gas officials said.

“You’ve got to have an industrial base to provide employment,” said West Virginia Commerce Secretary H. Wood Thrasher. “Without gas service, we are dead in the water.” He said the state has lost a “significant” number of companies interested in moving to the eastern panhandle because of the lack of natural gas service.

The JCDA has been working on getting natural gas service to the region for “decades,” said John Reisenweber, the authority’s executive director. More recently, it has encouraged the development of renewable green energy, such as wind and solar. But manufacturers, commercial and some residential developers insist on natural gas, he said.

While gas pipelines have crisscrossed the country since the 1920s, the number of approved interstate lines has spiked in recent years, driven by the boom in natural gas extraction through hydraulic fracturing. Protests have spiked, too.

New Yorkers convinced their state environmental agency twice in the past two years to deny a water quality certificate for natural gas pipelines. Federal authorities shut down a much-criticized Ohio pipeline in May, after 18 leaks spilled more than 2 million gallons of drilling fluid, adversely impacting the water quality. Catholic nuns near Lancaster, Pa., have built an outdoor chapel in an attempt to stop another pipeline.

In Virginia, two disputes over much larger proposed pipelines have become a hot-button political issue in the governor’s race.

The nation’s 2.3 million-mile pipeline network is considered the safest way to move oil, and the only feasible way to transport natural gas. Natural gas pipeline leaks are down 94 percent since 1984, the industry says. But accidents do happen — an average of 299 significant incidents in each of the past five years, according to federal data.

TransCanada spokesman Scott Castleman noted that his company and its predecessors have a century of experience in the region. The proposed eight-inch diameter pipeline would be buried up to 100 feet beneath the riverbed, with walls twice as thick as required, and constant monitoring for leaks and surges. A dozen TransCanada pipelines safely cross the Potomac River elsewhere in Maryland, Castleman said.

“More and more, people realize that each of these [pipeline] projects deepens our commitment to fossil fuels, locking us in for 40 or 50 more years,” said Bill McKibben, a well-known environmentalist and author. “The scientific verdict on natural gas has changed, and changed dramatically, in the past half-decade.”

The major component in natural gas is methane, which is significantly more efficient at trapping heat — and warming the planet — than carbon dioxide. A study published last year by Harvard University researchers found that emissions from methane have increased significantly since fracking began, although the researchers said they could not readily attribute the increase to fracking.

Members and friends of the Potomac Riverkeeper Network attended the July paddle to raise awareness about the pipeline project. Environmentalists also point to the geology of the upper Potomac. The land beneath the river in this region is karst, a term for a terrain that is full of fractures, caves and pools, where special precautions are needed when building pipelines to avoid spillage of chemicals or gas into the water supply.

“Unless you have an X-ray of the ground, you never know where the water goes, or where it comes from,” said Stephanie Siemek, a doctoral student at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s Appalachian Laboratory in Frostburg, Md., who led a tour of the Paw Paw Tunnel for the environmentalists camping nearby in July. “You don’t know how old it is, or where it’s derived. It might start from a mountaintop, but we don’t know how it gets to a spring.”

Potomac River in eastern WV panhandle

Example of Drilling Mud Spill for Pipeline

From an Article by Joe Fisher and Maya Weber, Platts News Service, August 9, 2017

Houston — Energy Transfer Partners’ beleaguered Rover Pipeline natural gas project is expected to be in service by the end of November or early December, with full commercial service in January, company executives said Wednesday.

>>> Phase 1A of Rover — from Cadiz to Defiance, Ohio — is nearly done, with completion expected by the company in the coming days, executives said during a second-quarter earnings conference call. When finished, Rover will seek US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission permission to place those facilities into service.

>>> Phase 1B is awaiting FERC approval for one directional drill. With that approval in hand, the drill should be completed in about 40 days, and in-service authorization will be sought immediately after that, executives said.

>>> Rover Phase 2 is held up at FERC as well.

“Assuming quick resolution by FERC regarding Phase 2, we expect to be in service by the end of November or early December with full commercial service in January,” Energy Transfer CFO Tom Long said.

Rover has faced regulatory setbacks after drilling releases into Ohio wetlands and demolition of a farmhouse that had been eligible for listing on a national historic registry. FERC initiated investigations related to both matters and ordered a stop to some directional drilling. The Ohio EPA has also proposed fines related to environmental mishaps and ordered remediation. And West Virginia regulators last month halted some operations in light of erosion and runoff problems.

Any signoff to bring parts of the project into service will require first satisfying FERC. The agency on July 12 gave Rover a substantial list of environmental restoration work it would require before allowing Mainline A of the project to enter service.

In addition, FERC has said that prior to authorizing future HDDs, commission staff “anticipates the development of a set of protocols to prevent future drilling and mud contamination.”

Cleanups to ‘resolve themselves pretty quickly’

Matt Ramsey, Energy Transfer’s chief operating officer, said Rover has been working with Ohio EPA and fully complying with its order for a cleanup project at the Tuscarawas River where an inadvertent release of drilling mud occurred. Cleanup is expected to be completed by mid-August, he said.

“Those issues are going to resolve themselves pretty quickly,” Ramsey said.

The drilling mud discharge contained diesel fuel of an unknown origin.

Energy Transfer maintains it does not know where the diesel could have come from. ETP executives do not expect FERC’s investigation into the matter to hold up bringing Rover into service, they said Wednesday.

In one positive development for the Rover project Wednesday, West Virginia’s Department of Environmental Protection lifted a cease and desist order it had issued in mid-July halting work on two supply laterals and a compressor station in Doddridge and Tyler counties. An inspection Wednesday determined that violations had been corrected, the DEP said. The agency had previously flagged failures to maintain erosion control devices needed to keep sediment out of waterways.

Energy Transfer recently announced the sale of a large stake in Rover to private equity firm Blackstone for $1.57 billion. Closing of the deal is not dependent upon the full in-service of Rover, executives said. Closing with Blackstone is expected in October.

Construction of the Rover-related Revolution project is expected to be completed during the fourth quarter, executives said Wednesday. The Revolution Pipeline originates in Butler County, Pennsylvania, and will extend to ETP’s Revolution Plant, a new cryogenic gas processing plant in Western Pennsylvania.

Mariner 2 Drill Approvals

Energy Transfer’s Mariner East 2 NGL pipeline project also has been bedeviled by regulatory and/or environmental issues. According to Long on Wednesday, about 80% of the pipeline has been strung and more than 70% has been welded. More than half of the pipeline has been lowered into its trench and backfilled.

Long said Wednesday that a halt on horizontal directional drilling in Pennsylvania instituted in July had been partially resolved.

“Over the last several days, the [Pennsylvania Environmental] Hearing Board has authorized ME2 to proceed with 16 drill locations,” he said. “We are working for approval to complete the remaining drills,” he said of the 39 drill sites where works remains stopped.

Mariner East 2 is expected to be in service during the fourth quarter, according to Energy Transfer.

The company has been in talks with potential partners that would provide capital for Mariner East 2 through a joint venture. Mackie McCrea, ETP’s chief commercial officer, said the company prefers a partner in the project that would bring long-term demand charges or long-term purchases.

Energy Transfer has been working on extending and restructuring “the vast majority” of agreements related to Mariner East 2. Rover is key to Mariner East 2 as well as the Revolution project, executives said.

The company is looking forward to a stronger balance sheet as these and other projects come online and begin generating revenue, and leverage comes down, executives said. Once earnings catch up with three years’ worth of project funding, its equity overhang will go away and there will be a “totally different balance sheet,” Long said.

During the second quarter, Energy Transfer Partners net income was $292 million, and adjusted EBITDA was $1.6 billion. Adjusted EBITDA increased $229 million compared to the year-ago quarter, “reflecting significantly higher results from the midstream and crude oil transportation and services segments,” the company said.

Mariner East 2 Pipeline from WV to Delaware River

From an Article by Kirk Jalbert, PhD, MFA, July 26, 2017

ME2 pipeline and spills map by Kirk JalbertLast week, a judge with the PA Environmental Hearing Board granted a two week halt to horizontal directional drilling (HDD) operations pertaining to the construction of Sunoco Logistics’ Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline. The temporary injunction responds to a petition from the Clean Air Council, Mountain Watershed Association, and the Delaware Riverkeeper Network. It remains in effect until a full hearing on the petition occurs on August 7-9, 2017.

ME2 is a 350-mile long pipeline that, when complete, will carry 275,000 barrels of propane, ethane, butane, and other hydrocarbons per day from the shale gas fields of Western Pennsylvania to a petrochemical export terminal located on the Delaware River.

The petition relates to a complaint filed by the three groups detailing as many as 90 “inadvertent returns” (IRs) of drilling fluids and other drilling related spills along ME2’s construction route. IRs refer to incidents that occur during HDD operations in which drilling fluids consisting of water, bentonite clay, and some chemical mixtures used to lubricate the drill bit, come to the surface in unintended places. This can occur due to misdirected drilling, unanticipated underground fissures, or equipment failure.

What is Horizontal Directional Drilling?

An illustration of an “ideal” horizontal directional drilling boring operation is seen in the first graphic below (image source). The second image shows what happens when HDDs go wrong (image source).

Mapping Inadvertent Returns

me2_ir_legendThe Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) posted information on potential regulatory violations associated with these IRs on the PA Pipeline Portal website on July 24, 2017. This original file listed 49 spill locations. Our original map was based on those locations. As part of their legal filing, volunteer at the Clean Air Council (CAC) have parsed through DEP documents to discover 90 unique spills at these and other locations. On July 31, 2017, the DEP posted a new file that now lists 61 spill locations, which account for some of these discrepancies but not all.

Working with the CAC, we have created a map, seen below, of the 90 known IRs listed in the DEP documents and from CAC’s findings. Also on the map are the locations of all of ME2’s HDD boring locations, pumping stations, and workspaces, as well as all the streams, ponds, and wetlands listed in Sunoco’s permits as implicated in the project’s construction (see our prior article on ME2’s watershed implications here). Open the map full-screen to see many of these features and their more detailed information.

View map fullscreen | How FracTracker maps work

Analysis Results for ME2

From our analysis, we find that, conservatively, more than 202,000 gallons of drilling fluids have been accidentally released while constructing the Mariner East 2 pipeline in Pennsylvania since the first documented incident on May 3rd. We say conservatively because a number of incidents are still under investigation. In a few instances we may never know the full volume of the spills as only a fraction of the total drilling muds lost were recovered. A full breakdown by county and known gallons spilled is seen below.

A few important notes on our methods and the available data we have to work with:

CAC obtained spill locations from DEP incident reports, inadvertent return reports, and other documents describing spills of drilling fluid that have occurred during Mariner East 2 construction. Those documents reflected incidents occurring between April 25, 2017 and June 17, 2017. In reviewing these documents, volunteers identified 61 discrete spills of drilling fluid, many of which happened at the same or similar locations. Unfortunately, separate coordinates and volumes were not provided for each spill.
When coordinates were not provided, approximate locations of spills were assigned where appropriate, based on descriptions in the documentation. Two IRs have no known location information whatsoever. As such, they are not represented on the map.
Spill volumes were reported as ranges when there was inconsistency in documentation regarding the same spill. The map circles represent the high-end estimates within these ranges. Of the 90 known spills, 29 have no volume data. These are represented on the map, but with a volume estimate of zero until more information is available.

All documentation available to CAC regarding these spills was filed with the Environmental Hearing Board on July 19, 2017. DEP subsequently posted a table of inadvertent returns on its website on July 24, 2017. Some of those spills were the same as ones already identified in documents CAC had reviewed, but 29 of the spills described on the DEP website were ones for which CCAC had never received documentation, although a subset of these are now listed in brief in the DEP spreadsheet posted on July 31, 2017. In total then, the documentation provided to CAC from DEP and spreadsheets on the DEP website describe at least 90 spills.

HDD Implications

The DEP’s press release assures the public that the drilling fluids are non-toxic and the IRs are “not expected to have any lasting effects on impacted waters of the commonwealth.” But this is not entirely the case. While the fluids themselves are not necessarily a public health threat, the release of drilling fluids into aquifers and drinking wells can make water unusable. This occurred in June in Chester County, for example.

More commonly, drilling fluid sediment in waterways can kill aquatic life due to the fine particulates associated with bentonite clay. Given that HDD is primarily used to lay pipe under streams, rivers, and ponds (as well as roads, parks, and other sensitive areas), this latter risk is a real concern. Such incidents have occurred in many of the instances cited in the DEP documents, including a release of drilling muds into a creek in Delaware County in May.

We hope the above map and summaries provide insights into the current risks associated with the project and levels of appropriate regulatory oversight, as well as for understanding the impacts associated with HDD, as it is often considered a benign aspect of pipeline construction.

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)

Sabal Trail Pipeline Project (AL-GA-FL)

Gas pipeline project headed to Suwannee River leaks into Georgia waterway; sparks environmental worries

From an Article by Steve Patterson, Jacksonville News, November 14, 2016

A leak in the shaft for a natural gas pipeline beneath a Georgia river has reinforced environmental worries at Florida’s Suwannee River and other waterways in the pipeline’s path.

The leak into the Withlacoochee River near Valdosta, Ga. underscored earlier concerns about twin hazards from the Sabal Trail pipeline: that pipeline shafts could leak contaminants into rivers, and let river water escape through cracks in the area’s sinkhole-riddled bedrock.

“What they said couldn’t happen did happen,” said John Quarterman, president of the WWALS Watershed Coalition Inc., a group fighting work on the 515-mile pipeline planned to cross three states.

The aquifer feeding North Central Florida’s signature rivers and springs already faces long-term supply strains, and pipeline critics argue that underground drilling could compound those if it accidentally opened routes for water to drain into underground voids and caverns.

The leak last month didn’t cause any harm, but the pipeline was already controversial.

Fourteen people – five from the Jacksonville area – were jailed over the weekend in Gilchrist County, west of Gainesville, after a demonstration protesting the project’s use of water from the Santa Fe River.

Another demonstration, opposing both Sabal Trail and the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota, is planned Tuesday outside the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers office on Jacksonville’s Southbank.

A contractor for Sabal Trail Transmission, the company building the pipeline, told Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division last month that material it described as “drilling mud” appeared in the Withlacoochee west of Valdosta, Ga., while workers were drilling a pilot hole under the river, a first step toward installing the pipeline.

Drilling mud is made with bentonite, a clay containing aluminum that’s used in some constuction for waterproofing. But it wasn’t waterproof enough last month.

As a crew drilled Oct. 20 under the Withlacoochee, near U.S. 84 between Valdosta and Quitman, Ga., an environmental contractor emailed regulators that “some kind of substance” floated to the river’s surface, and workers put up a barrier to keep it from moving downstream. The next day, the same contractor told the state drilling mud was found on the riverbed in about 2 feet of water.

A Sabal Trail Transmission spokeswoman, Andrea Grover, said the state and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission “have reviewed and are satisfied that the work and containment is appropriate.”

Quarterman said he learned of the contractor’s emails Friday, when a state employee working through the Veteran’s Day holiday forwarded them to him as part of a public records request.

Quarterman said he didn’t know how the state reacted to the leak last month, but that two members of his organization checked the river Saturday and found a barrier still looping around a section of the waterway that was discolored.

The contractor’s emails to the state said drilling for the pilot hole was about 400 feet short of being complete on Oct. 21, but a construction progress report filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said that by Oct. 30 the pilot hole had been completed.

The report to the commission, which regulates gas pipelines, didn’t mention a leak. “There was never any danger to human health or safety, and no harm to the environment,” Grover said. But pipeline opponents had warned about risks before and said the leak shouldn’t have happened.

“I am so angry because this is what we said would happen and we were assured the rivers wouldn’t be affected because they were drilling under them,” Deanna Mericle, a member of WWALS, said in a release from the group describing the river Saturday.

“… We told them it was likely because of our karst geology and we got patronized and patted on the head. You can guarantee they will downplay it and just drill another hole,” Mericle said in the weekend statement.

Karst geology is the pattern of limestone bedrock and unpredictable voids that happens in a lot of Florida where water has gradually washed away porous rock. That process leads to sinkholes, and water management officials questioned whether underground drilling for the pipeline could create problems.

“We were considering the crossings of the rivers. … The porosity in the area is pretty high,” Carlos Herd, director of the Suwannee River Water Management District’s water supply division, said during a videotaped hearing last year about a challenge WWALS brought last year to fight approval of the pipeline by Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection.

An administrative law judge concluded the group, which advocates for several watersheds near the Florida-Georgia border, didn’t show it had legal standing for the challenge. The judge said concerns the group’s members couldn’t enjoy rivers like the Suwannee or Santa Fe if they were damaged was “speculative.”

A spokeswoman for Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection said the federal commission will regulate the pipeline, but state regulators inspected work as it progressed, the most recent time being last week. No problems were found, said the spokeswoman, Dee Ann Miller.

State officials will examine the Santa Fe by boat this week for water-quality violations or problems with construction runoff or other debris making the river too cloudy, Miller said.

Demonstrators arrested over the weekend were protesting the fact that water from the Santa Fe was being loaded into trucks for work on the pipeline project.

Protesters blocked a truck as it tried to move into a work area, with some climbing onto the trailer truck or getting under it, said Gilchrist County chief deputy Jeff Manning. He said one person used a bicycle lock around his neck to attach himself to the truck.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net