Join us on the Halt the Harm Network

A TEACH-IN promoted by the Halt the Harm Network

REGISTER AT: https://tinyurl.com/BreakFreeTeachIn​

This event will feature:

>>> A presentation (giving an overview of the BFFPPA bill) from Congressional aides, Dr Anja Malawi Brandon (Senator Jeff Merkley) & Shane Trimmer (Congressman Alan Lowenthal)

>>> Alexis Goldsmith: National Organizing Director of Beyond Plastics sharing how we can support the bill

>>> A short film by Stiv Wilson (creator of “Story of Plastics”) & Megan Ponder.

>>> Live Q & A session

More about A-Z Plastics: This event will not only showcase this groundbreaking legislation, but it will also kick off the A-Z series 2.0!

Last summer People Over Petro and many of its partners joined in a summer digital series and summit called Tackling the A-Z Impacts of Plastic – From Fracked Gas to Plastic Pollution in the Ohio River Valley and Beyond.

Hundreds of people joined in a social network with events, arts, and discussions around the impacts of plastic and what we can do about it.

See impactsofplastic.com for more info, to join the A-Z community, and watch recordings of past events.

More about PASUP: Pittsburghers Against Single Use Plastic is a group advocating for a systemic & equitable shift away from plastic. Learn more and get involved by visiting http://pasupnow.org/.

FYI The presentations will NOT be taped for later viewing.

Hope you can join us live!!

REGISTER AT: https://tinyurl.com/BreakFreeTeachIn​

Unconventional Natural Gas Development and Childhood Cancers

From an Announcement of SW PA Environmental Health Project, September 14, 2020

Join Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project, Tuesday, September 15 at 7PM for part two of their three-part webinar series about shale gas development and cancer.

For part two of the series, Dr. Shaina Stacy will discuss “Unconventional Natural Gas Development and Childhood Cancers.”

Dr. Shaina Stacy is a postdoctoral associate at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, where she investigates early life and environmental risk factors for childhood cancers. She received her Ph.D. and M.P.H. from Pitt Public Health’s Department of Environmental & Occupational Health.

Register here.

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The Toxic Story of Plastics with Dr. Randi Pokladnik

DATE & TIME: Wednesday, September 16th @ 6:30 p.m

Via Zoom, the Dover (Ohio) Public Library will host a program about the toxicity of plastics featuring Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition volunteer Dr. Randi Pokladnik, an expert in environmental studies.

With her “The Toxic Story of Plastics” presentation, Randi will explain the life cycle of plastic production and follow plastics from cradle to grave, examining all the externalities involved and how plastics affect human health and the environment.

To register for the program, send an email to:

srieger@doverlibrary.org

You will receive a link to join the group for the presentation.

The “life cycle” of plastic is a complicated one. In the beginning oil and gas must be extracted from the earth and refined. This material is then used to manufacture products for human consumption such as furniture, bottles, tires, to name a few. After the plastic has been used, it ends up in the waste-management system (recycling) or in the environment (landfills or oceans). No matter what stage of life the plastic is in, human beings are exposed to toxic chemicals.

Plastics and related chemicals enter people’s bodies through inhalation, ingestion and skin contact. These chemicals and particles of plastic affect every major system in the body: cardiovascular, reproductive, neurological, respiratory, gastrointestinal and endocrine.

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Air Monitoring and Emergency Systems Program

DATE & TIME: Wednesday, September 16th, 7:00 pm

The next event series listed here kicks off this Wednesday and it is titled Health and Safety in Beaver County, hosted by Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community, or BCMAC. These are folks who live near the Shell ethane cracker being constructed in Beaver County, PA. This Wednesday’s event features expert presentations on air monitoring and emergency systems and will surely become a resource.

Click here to register for Wednesday’s Zoom event,
and please help spread the word by sharing the link:

bit.ly/beavercounty2020

This kick-off event for the Health & Safety in Beaver County series will discuss air monitoring systems in the region, citizen experiences and emergency management systems designed to keep the public safe.

Don’t miss the panel of experts and important discussion!

Welcome and Overview: Bob Schmetzer
Moderator: Sr. Kari

SPEAKERS
>> Citizen Experiences: Karen Gdula and Barbara Goblick, Marcia Lehman/Chlorine Fire
>> Air Monitoring Overview: Ana Hoffman, Carnegie Mellon University
>> Shell Fenceline Monitoring: Adam Kron, Environmental Integrity Project and Karl Koerner, Clean Air Council
>> Citizen Tools: Mark Dixon (Purple Air, RAMP, AirVis VOC, Summa canisters)
>> Emergency Response: Eric Brewer, Beaver Emergency Management
>> Live Panel with Public Q&A: Sr. Kari

Click here to register for this event

www.nocrackerplantov.com

From an Article by Scott McCloskey, Staff Writer, Wheeling Intelligencer, January 19, 2020

MOUNDSVILLE — For some of the nearly 50 people who turned out to view a documentary film screening, the film not only provided a new perspective about how widespread the plastic waste problem is worldwide — but it also validated their concerns about the proposed PTT Global Chemical America plant for Belmont County.

The Ohio Valley citizens group, Concerned Ohio River Residents, made the educational documentary prerelease screening of “The Story of Plastic” available Saturday afternoon at the Grave Creek Mound Historical Site theater in Moundsville. The group invited dozens of invited local “decision makers” and politicians in an effort to showcase the global plastic pollution crisis that the world now faces, according to Bev Reed, an organizer of the group.

She said while the 90-minute film still has still not been released to the public by its creator, Deia Schlosberg, she is hopeful the film will be made available to the public as soon as possible. Reed said the film is “very eye opening,” and that the group members feel very fortunate to have access to an early viewing.

“The Story of Plastic” focuses on exposing the truth behind the plastic pollution crisis, according to its creators. In the film, footage shot over three continents illustrates the ongoing catastrophe: fields full of garbage, heaps of trash; rivers and seas clogged with waste; and skies choked with the runoff from plastic production and recycling processes.

The film shows interviews with experts and activists, and scenes which reveal the impact of the flood of plastic on ecosystems and communities around the world, and the global movement rising up in response.

Reed said the film was meant to highlight the risks such industry would pose to the region, if the proposed Dilles Bottom ethane cracker plant would come to fruition.

“It shows shots from around the world of communities that are drowning in plastic … and shows why we need to be alarmed,” Reed said. “This cracker plant would create about 3 billion pounds of plastic feed stock pellets per year — much of what would be used for single use plastics. It’s impacting our human health. It’s impacting animal health.

“By 2050 plastic will outweigh fish in the world’s oceans so it’s very worrisome,” she added.

Reed said another issue is the proposed cracker plant would be built by companies from overseas and the profits would not stay here. “The whole reason (companies) want to build this is to use our gas, that we have here in the shale, and to create this plastic — all for their profit,” she said.

A panel discussion was held in the theater following the film. Dr. Randi Pokladnik, a local retired environmental scientist/research chemist spoke about the impacts that plastic — especially single-use plastics — and petrochemicals have on health, and the cracker plant’s potential impact on the Ohio River. Upon her introduction to the crowd, Pokladnik quickly noted how disappointing it was not to have one local politician in attendance.

“Why don’t the local politicians show up and watch this? What are they afraid of — that they might learn something that is disturbing,” Pokladnik said. “If you go into the grocery store today, it’s hard to shop without finding everything you pick up is encased in plastic. When I was little, I remember a lot of things came in glass and there wasn’t any plastic. You used butcher paper for meats and things like that. I think we have to, … as a population, rethink the way we look at our lifestyles because so much of this is unnecessary. … If you look at it, at the end of the day there’s a choice we have to make — do we have this ‘throwaway’ lifestyle that we think we can manage sustainably or do we live on a liveable planet.”

Also as part of the panel discussion, which the group live-streamed via Facebook, Beaver County, Pennsylvania resident Terri Baumgardner discussed what it’s like living near the Shell cracker plant and a panelist from Texas who lives near petrochemical facility participated via video conferencing.

Shadyside Resident Susan Brown, who is a Concerned Ohio River Residents member, said she learned a lot from watching the film. She said she’s trying to learn more about the health issues that cracker plant could possibly create if it would indeed be built in Belmont County.

“It was educational in a lot of aspects — in realizing how global the issues are … and what we should be doing,” said Brown, who is also a former resident of Dilles Bottom. “For me it’s the justice of it. … I’m just trying to be involved and make other people aware of it,” she added.

She said the companies using all of these throwaway plastics need to be held accountable for their actions. Brown said she feels gas companies should not be able to just come into an area and do what they want and produce what they want to produce.

Organic farmer Mick Luber, who said he lives “in the middle of all that fracking out there” in Cadiz, said he thought the film was very good. “It was in-depth, and from every perspective from around the world,” he said. Luber said it show just how much companies need to be held more responsible for all of the plastic packaging going on around the world.

While no final investment decision has been made in the proposed PTT Global Chemical America plant to be located in the Dilles Bottom area of Belmont County, the plant, if constructed, would use byproducts from fracked natural gas to make polyethylene, a component of plastic. Ethane is one of the natural gas liquids found in abundance in the local natural “wet” gas stream, particularly in the Utica and Marcellus shales. The Bechtel Corporation confirmed last June that it had been selected to oversee construction of the multi-billion dollar facility if a final decision were made to construct it.

Bechtel currently is overseeing construction of Royal Dutch Shell’s cracker plant in Monaca, Pennsylvania. The proposed PTT Global Chemical America plant at Dilles Bottom, just south of Shadyside along the Ohio River, would be of similar size and scale to the Shell plant. PTT, based in Thailand, has been studying and assessing the local market since at least late 2015, when it announced it would tap into the region’s large concentration of wet gas from Marcellus and Utica shale drilling and build an ethane cracker plant at the former FirstEnergy R.E. Burger power plant site.

See also: www.nocrackerplantov.com

Who knows what an Ethane Storage Hub looks like; use your imagination! DGN

From an Article by Rick Shrum, Washington PA Observer-Reporter, June 7, 2017

Rick DeCesar, accompanied by a rendering of a storage facility, spoke Thursday at the Appalachian Storage Hub Conference. There was a lot of salty talk at the Hilton Garden Inn at Southpointe.

Natural gas liquids storage was the focal point of the third annual Appalachian Storage Hub Conference. The proposed hub, focused in the Ohio River Valley, is a $10 billion infrastructure project that would provide a midstream hydrocarbon storage system. It is related to the oil and gas industry.

Raw-material hydrocarbons such as ethane and butane would be placed separately in underground salt or hard rock caverns – 6,000 feet down. Many of the energy and chemical professionals who were on hand, to speak or to observe, seemed to have a preference.

“Salt is best,” one corporate official said from the audience.

“Ethane is not stored in any hard rock caverns today,” said another.

A storage hub feeds ethane to cracker plants, such as the $6 billion facility that Shell is building in Potter Township, Beaver County. The plant “cracks” ethane molecules into petrochemical building blocks that can be refined to create polyethylene, a plastic used for various purposes.

Salt cavern storage, according to the website storengy: “involves a series of caverns leached out of the deep, thick layers of rock salt. The caverns are created by injecting water to dissolve the salt, which is then extracted in the form of brine. There is then room for natural gas, which is injected and stored in gaseous form at high pressure.

“Impermeable and non-porous, these caverns are remarkably waterproof.”

The six-hour session played out before a decidedly pro-industry crowd, and also featured talk about other cracker plant projects being considered across the tri-state, along with pipelines, different energy sources and opportunity zones.

Joe Barone, president of Shale Directories, and Tom Gellrich, chief executive officer of TopLine Analytics, organized the event. Barone’s website, ShaleDirectories.com, connects the oil and gas industry with local businesses. Gellrich’s firm consults with the energy industry on downstream impacts of shale gas.

Gellrich kicked off the program with a list of industry-related predictions for the next 10 years. Among the highlights: the PTTGC ethane cracker, on the verge of approval for Dilles Bottom in Belmont County, Ohio, will get the go-ahead this year; that Shell, out of space, will announce plans to expand the Beaver County cracker in 2023 and again in 2028; and that in 2030, U.S. News & World Report will include the region on its list of the Top 10 Places to Work.

Jason Stechschulte, business development manager for MPLX LP, a partner with MarkWest Energy, touted a full portfolio of energy sources. “All forms are needed and fossil fuels will continue to be the lion’s share,” he said. “Fossil fuels make our lives easier.”

Rick DeCesar, a Washington County resident for 15 years, was part of a panel discussion during the morning session. He is vice president of pipeline and midstream services at AECOM in Pittsburgh, and said his firm has been a maintenance provider for the Beaver cracker since the beginning. DeCesar said 15 to 20 percent of the Falcon Pipeline, which will transport ethane to that plant, is in the ground.

Bryce Custer, of NAI Ohio River Corridor, spoke about opportunity zones, which he called “a great gift.” He said the basic concept of these zones “is forged in a fractured economy,” and that the purpose is to drive economic development in low-income areas.

Custer said there are 320 opportunity zones in Ohio, 300 in Pennsylvania and 55 in West Virginia. Using a map, he pinpointed several areas in the Ohio River Valley. Moundsville, according to Custer, is “a great area” for development. It is essentially across the river from the PTTGC proposed cracker.

Asked about potential environmental impacts of various energy endeavors, Custer replied: “I couldn’t say. The companies that are here are out to make a profit, but they want to do it right. If you can control environmental issues, this can be a major benefit.”

He closed by saying: “We are at the beginning of an economic revolution along the Ohio River corridor.”

Risks are great for leaks, fires, explosions, and adverse health effects

From an Article by Kathiann M. Kowalski, The Conversation, May 31, 2019

A proposed petrochemical feedstock hub could expand markets for natural gas liquids in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky. Several environmental groups are considering legal options if the Trump administration approves $1.9 billion taxpayer-backed loan guarantee.

A development corporation is seeking a $1.9 billion federal loan guarantee to help build an Appalachian storage hub for natural gas liquids. The financing guarantee would come from a U.S. Department of Energy program meant to support projects that “avoid, reduce, or sequester” air pollutants or greenhouse gas emissions and feature “new or significantly improved technologies.”

The Title XVII program has never been used to finance a fossil fuel storage project, but environmental groups fear the Trump administration will bend criteria to approve the project.

“It just does not fit the legal criteria” of the federal law, said Alison Grass, research director at Washington, D.C.-based Food & Water Watch, one of several environmental groups that is considering legal options.

The proposal from Appalachia Development Group, LLC, calls for an underground storage facility to hold natural gas liquids from “wet gas,” such as ethane, which are used to make plastics and other products.

The storage facility’s site in Ohio, West Virginia or Pennsylvania hasn’t been finalized. The hub would have a web of pipelines and other infrastructure to collect and distribute feedstocks from all three states, plus possibly Kentucky.

Not on the list

Steve Hedrick, CEO of Appalachia Development Group, said the project would “significantly” reduce emissions by minimizing the distances the liquids are transported before they are turned into plastic products.

“With over half of the North American plastics converter market within 500 miles of Appalachia, the need for redundant transport is minimized while maximizing the value creation from the American resource,” Hedrick said via email. “In other words, we can significantly avoid or reduce anthropogenic emission of greenhouse gases merely through conversion of these raw materials closer to their production locations.”

Hedrick did not offer a source or calculations of the amount of presumed emissions cuts resulting from transporting materials over fewer miles.

The Title XVII statute lists ten categories of projects that can qualify for loan guarantees under the federal program. They include renewable energy systems, hydrogen fuel cell technologies, electric vehicle plants, and energy efficiency projects. Advanced nuclear facilities can also qualify, as well as some refineries for processing crude oil into gasoline. The bill even allows loan guarantees for certain pollution control equipment and advanced fossil fuel technology, such as coal gasification that would achieve specific emission reductions.

Missing from the itemized list are facilities to store and distribute hydrocarbon feedstocks from fossil fuels.

That’s not for lack of trying. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., introduced a bill in 2017 to add a facility like the Appalachian storage hub to the list. The bill did not pass.

However, the Department of Energy invited Appalachia Development Group to submit the second phase of the loan application last year while the bill was pending. It had already approved the first part of the company’s application. The department did not respond to an email and follow-up phone call seeking comments for this article.

The DOE has not yet made a final decision on the Part II application. Approval can take anywhere from roughly six months to two years, Hedrick said. He noted that the application itself is considered confidential business information.

Bipartisan support: Ohio and WV Senators Apparently Approve

Industry interests have wanted the underground storage facility and associated pipelines for several years now. One apparent aim is to increase the market and revenue for the region’s natural gas and its co-products.

Prices for natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica plays have been relatively low in recent years. A lack of infrastructure has made it hard to get it out of the region into markets where it can command higher prices. A similar lack of infrastructure has also suppressed profits from ethane, propane, butane and other liquid gas products.

Supporters also hope the storage hub would attract more chemical companies to the region to use ethane and various natural gas liquids as feedstocks for plastics and other chemicals, which could then be used by other manufacturers.

A natural gas liquids storage hub in Appalachia “would be an economic driver for the region, would expand energy infrastructure, and would increase our domestic production of the petrochemical resources we rely on,” Manchin said last month when he introduced another bill relating to the hub. It calls for a federal study on the project’s potential benefits “to national and economic security.”

“The Trump Administration would also support an Appalachia hub to strengthen our energy and manufacturing security by increasing our geographic production diversity,” Energy Secretary Rick Perry said in December. His comment came with the release of a Department of Energy report, saying the hub would satisfy market needs and yield billions of dollars in economic and other benefits.

Along the same lines, President Donald Trump’s April 10 executive order on energy infrastructure calls for the DOE to prepare a report on the proposed hub, “describing opportunities, through the Federal Government or otherwise, to promote economic growth of the Appalachian region, including growth of petrochemical and other industries.”

‘Short-sighted’ Economic Development Plan

That’s a “short-sighted economic development plan,” countered Climate & Energy Program Director Mitch Jones at Food & Water Watch’s Baltimore office. “They’re rushing here to replace the coal industry with another fossil fuel industry.”

Scientists say there’s a growing urgency to curb fossil fuels to avoid some of the worst impacts of climate change. Recent reports also call for cutting down on single-use plastics, which are linked to ocean and freshwater pollution, Jones said. Appalachia would be better off focusing on the renewable energy industry, he said.

Critics also say the project could lead to a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions by boosting natural gas production in the region. “If anything, it’s going to result in a dramatic uptick in drilling and likely flaring and other emissions upstream if this thing comes online,” said Ted Auch, Great Lakes program coordinator for FracTracker Alliance.

Critics also question the propriety of having U.S. taxpayers guarantee a loan for a project that will have significant funding from Chinese investors. “I have no idea why our government would issue loan guarantees to facilitate foreign investments for product that is intended to prop up the faltering fracking industry, as well as to be shipped overseas,” said Leatra Harper, managing director for the FreshWater Accountability Project.

What’s next?

So far, the House Appropriations Committee has not added a requested budget bill provision to stop the Department of Energy from spending money to process the loan guarantee application or to grant it.

Food & Water Watch, FreshWater Accountability Project, FracTracker and dozens of other organizations requested that provision on May 7. The request could be renewed once the budget bill gets to the House floor.

Advocates are also considering other legal options if a provision isn’t in the budget bill or if the department nonetheless goes ahead and grants the loan guarantee, Jones said.

It’s conceivable that the project could still move ahead even if the loan guarantee were not granted. But it’s unclear whether that would happen.

“One would think that if the investment were as smart an investment as they’re arguing that it is, they would be able to get the loan without a federal loan guarantee, certainly,” Jones said. “What we’re seeing is the belief that this federal loan guarantee is the key that they need to secure the outside funding that they need to move forward.”

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See Also: Plastics Industry on Track to Burn Through 14% of World’s Remaining Carbon Budget: New Report, Sharon Kelly, DeSmogBlog, May 15, 2019

The plastics industry plays a major — and growing — role in climate change, according to a report published today by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL).

By 2050, making and disposing of plastics could be responsible for a cumulative 56 gigatons of carbon, the report found, up to 14 percent of the world’s remaining carbon budget.

In 2019, the plastics industry is on track to release as much greenhouse gas pollution as 189 new coal-fired power plants running year-round, the report found — and the industry plans to expand so rapidly that by 2030, it will create 1.34 gigatons of climate-changing emissions a year, equal to 295 coal plants.

Dustin White of OVEC speaks at press conference

Contacts: Dustin White, OVEC-Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, 304-541-3144, dustin@ohvec.org; Deb Smit, Breathe Project, 412-760-7677

MORGANTOWN, W.Va.—Today more than 50 people representing more than a dozen grassroots groups from West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania gathered to show their opposition to the Appalachian Storage and Trading Hub, a petrochemical mega-complex build-out proposed for the Ohio and Kanawha river valleys.

The group gathered outside the Marriott at Waterfront Place as the West Virginia Manufacturers Association was hosting the Marcellus and Manufacturing Development Conference, where the Hub was to be a main topic.

Among those gathered was Melcroft, Pa., resident Ashley Funk, a community organizer for Mountain Watershed Association, who said, “We are standing together to show the shale gas and petrochemical industries that, unlike the plastics from which they want to profit, our communities are not disposable.”

The end products of a Hub would be plastics, and its feedstock would come from an increase in regional fracking, which is already wreaking havoc in some north-central West Virginia counties. The infrastructure related to a Hub would stretch along more than 400 miles of the Ohio and Kanawha rivers, and reach into 50 counties in West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky.

A Hub would include underground storage caverns for volatile natural gas liquids, six major pipelines (new pipelines in the region have already exploded*, resulting in destroyed buildings including a home, property damage, livestock deaths and evacuations), thousands of miles of feeder pipelines, and huge polluting factories including fractionators and cracker plants, like the one being built in Beaver County, Pa.**

“It is of upmost importance that people see these current and proposed petrochemical projects in Appalachia for what they are: a scheme that the oil and gas companies are using to bail themselves out of debt. Appalachia has been exploited enough. Every stage of the life-cycle of plastic is toxic and harmful to human health and the environment—from the extraction of the natural gas liquids to the manufacture and use of the products, to the disposal of them. The tide needs to shift to alternatives to plastic, rather than creating more,” said Bridgeport, Ohio, resident, Bev Reed, who attended today’s event. She lives near the site of one component of the Hub, the planned PTTG ethane cracker plant.

Participants in the protest worried about the human health aspects of the Hub. They spoke about the warnings they are receiving from their allies who live in petrochemical regions of Louisiana and Texas known as “Cancer Alley,” and cited the recent petrochemical fires near Houston as reason enough to question the proposed Hub. They talked about Bayou Corne sinkhole, an ongoing incident in Assumption Parish, La., where residents who had been living near a collapsing storage cavern operated by Texas Brine Company and owned by Occidental Petroleum have been evacuated.

Due to the direct human health impacts and the potential for deadly and costly disasters, participants in today’s protest questioned the wisdom of government loans and tax breaks aimed at facilitating the construction of components of the Hub. Given the likelihood of a dramatic increase in regional greenhouse gas emissions from Hub-related infrastructure, participants also questioned the sanity of the Hub.

“It’s nuts for our state to bow down to another round of abuse from fossil fuel corporations,” said Dustin White, project coordinator with OVEC, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, which is based in Huntington, W.Va. “We deserve a diverse and sustainable, community-led economy that is not dependent on fossil fuels with all the associated health and safety risks. Workers deserve better than more toxic jobs.

“The ASH scheme is an unimaginative regression to 1950s era economic development. Why can’t we have real innovation? Development focused on tourism and cottage industries could allow our area to be part of real progress, toward a world we’d want our grandchildren to live in,” White added.

“West Virginia is commonly referred to as ‘almost heaven’ and I could not think of a better way to describe it myself. The places and people here are what makes West Virginia like no other, and for far too long large corporations have plundered our beautiful land and harmed its people,” said Abby Minihan with WVU Sierra Student Coalition. Another coalition member, Ethan Cade, added, “As a young West Virginian, I can say that we are tired of dealing with the negative economic, environmental, and health consequences of corporate pollution and are coming out to fight for a cleaner, better West Virginia.”

“Our oceans are drowning in plastic waste. According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, up to 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die each year from eating our plastic garbage,” said Brenda Jo McManama, a campaign organizer with the Indigenous Environmental Network. “Recycling has become a convenient myth as facilities shut down across the U.S., and other countries close their ports to our garbage. We are literally burying our future in discarded plastic. We are here to demand: No more plastics, no more petro over people! Greed and hubris is destroying any hope of a healthy and safe future for the generations to come.”

Groups involved in the planning of this event include OVEC-the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Concerned Ohio River Residents, Indigenous Environmental Network, Sierra Club WV, Sierra Club OH, Center for Coalfield Justice, Breathe Project, Mountain Watershed Association, and Climate Reality Project: Pittsburgh.

*For April 2, 2019 aerial photos of the site of September 10, 2019 Center Township, Pa., pipeline explosion

**For April 2, 2019 aerial photos of the Beaver County, Pa. Shell cracker plant construction site on the Ohio River

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For more photos and an article on the Morgantown conference see:

WV MetroNews Downstream opportunities touted at annual Marcellus and Manufacturing Development Conference. – WV MetroNews

Join in the protest of fossil fuels to climate change !!!

From Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC), www.OHVEC.org

Details — The WV Manufacturers Association is hosting the Marcellus Manufacturing Conference at the Marriott at Waterfront Place/Morgantown Event Center. The conference will promote the Appalachian Storage and Trading Hub/petrochemical complex, which would mean a huge increase of fracking in our region, six large pipelines running along the Ohio River, thousands of miles of smaller pipelines, underground storage caverns for natural gas liquids, huge, polluting cracker plants and fractionators, and other infrastructure—all for an end product of plastic.

We want to show up for two reasons. First, to stand in opposition to the petrochemical hub and the threat to human health it would bring to our region. Second, the WV Manufacturers Association is responsible for pressuring the WV Legislature to pass state water quality standards without making important updates to protect human health.

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Press Conference 12:00pm-12:30pm – Behind the WVU Visitors Resource Center

Join us as we start the action with a press conference at 12:00pm at the Singing Tree of Diversity mosaic, behind the WVU Visitors Resource Center (beside the Marriott) along Caperton Trail. We will have speakers from WV, OH, and PA who are fighting the petrochemical threat.

Protest Action 12:30pm-3:00pm – In front of Marriot at Waterfront Place along Don Knotts Blvd.

After the press conference, we will move to the sidewalk out front of the Marriott/Event Center along Don Knotts Blvd. for a visible protest with signs, etc.

Co-Hosts Include: Center for Coalfield Justice, Indigenous Environmental Network, Sierra Club, Breathe Project, Mountain Watershed Association, Climate Reality Project, and more!

Some ideas for signs: Honk if you *heart* Water/Air, People Over Petro, People Over Profit, People Over Plastic, Keep Your Greed Out Of Our Water/Air, Every body deserves clean water, No Cancer Valley, No Petrochem Poison, No Toxic Jobs

** Since the purpose of this monster petrochemical complex is to make more new plastics in a world already drowning in plastic pollution, make your own monster from plastic trash to bring too! Find ideas here.

Schedule · Tuesday, April 9, 2019 — 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Press Conference – Behind WVU Visitors Resource Center (Tree of Diversity Mosaic), Noon to 12:30 PM

Protest – In front of Marriott at Waterfront Place along Don Knotts Blvd. 12:30 – 3:00 PM

Action Network Page: https://tinyurl.com/april9action

See also: https://www.facebook.com/events/morgantown-marriott-at-waterfront-place-hotel/actionpress-conference/690196644733959/

Natural gas liquids (NGL) projects and plans in the Marcellus - Utica region

From an Update of Kallanish Energy News, March 22, 2019

NORTH CANTON, Ohio — Ohio-based Marathon Petroleum is exploring the possibility of an underground liquids storage facility in eastern Ohio’s Utica Shale, Kallanish Energy reports.

The company is looking at utilizing underground salt caverns for ethane, butane and propane storage, said Jason Stechschulte, commercial development manager for Marathon Pipe Line LLC. The site would be near the company’s Hopedale fractionation facility in Harrison County.

Core samplings in 2018 looks promising

The company last year conducted core sampling and the site has potential, he said Thursday at the day-long Utica Midstream conference sponsored by the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce and Shale Directories. The event drew roughly 130 people to Walsh University in North Canton.

Marathon is talking with potential customers, but there are no firm plans, price estimates or timetables, Stechschulte said. Any timetable would be driven by customer interest and permitting, he said. He described the plan as a “multi-year project.” No applications have been filed for the project, except for the coring work done in 2018.

What the company is envisioning is a storage facility that would provide a solution for the entre industry in the Appalachian Basin, he said. Natural gas liquids would be stored under pressure with the ethane, butane and propane all being segregated in different salt caverns, he said.

The facility would be close to numerous pipelines in the area where Ohio, West Virginia and western Pennsylvania come together. Storage is needed as Shell Appalachia continues to build its ethane cracker plant at Monaca, Pennsylvania, northwest of Pittsburgh.

Waiting on PTT Cracker in the Ohio River valley —-

PTT Global Chemical is still looking at building a similar cracker at Dilles Bottom in Ohio’s Belmont County. A final investment decision has been expected for some time.

A private company, Colorado-based Mountaineer NGL Storage, hopes to develop a storage facility in salt caverns at Clarington in Ohio’s Monroe County. It would be designed to handle up to 3.5 million barrels of natural gas liquids. Natural gas liquids are also flowing via pipelines to eastern Pennsylvania for export.

Rio Pipeline work wrapping up —-

In other news, Marathon Pipeline is completing the finishing touches to expanding its Rio Pipeline to move Utica Shale liquids from Lima, Ohio, to Robinson, Illinois. That required adding three pumping stations on the 250-mile, eight-inch line.

Stechschulte told the audience the pipeline will move roughly 55,000 barrels per day, starting within the next 10 days. The company is also working to move Utica normal butane and isobutane to refineries and storage in the Midwest, a project that will be completed by mid-2020. The two projects together will cost Marathon about $150 million, he said.

The company is also looking at a possible arrangement to move Utica liquids from Cadiz and Scio in eastern Ohio, to Bells Run on the Ohio River for river transport, he said. That might be an arranged in cooperation with EnLink Midstream.

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See also: New Warnings on Plastic’s Health Risks as Fracking Industry Promotes New ‘Plastics Belt’ Build-Out, Resilience & DeSmog Blog, March 5, 2019

Dilles Bottom is in a deep valley with many residential areas nearby

From an Article of WTOV News 9, Steubenville, OH, November 10, 2018

The Ohio EPA is asking for input regarding the draft air permit for the potential construction of a billion-dollar ethane cracker plant in Belmont County.

The cracker plant would be built in Dilles Bottom. (This is in the Ohio River valley directly across the river from Moundsville in Marshall County, West Virginia.)

If approved, the permit would allow construction of the PTTGCA Petrochemical Complex that would use six ethane cracking furnaces and manufacture ethylene and polyethylene.

The EPA says different gases and pollutants could be emitted, however, its goal is to ensure air quality, and the maximum air emissions would be limited.

There will be a public hearing hosted by the Ohio EPA at 6 p.m. on November 27 at Shadyside High School to discuss the air permit.

The permit application may be viewed online here by entering permit number P0124972 or at the Ohio EPA Southeast District Office, 2195 Front St., Logan. See the PDF version of the draft air permit here. Call for an appointment: (740) 380-5245.

Ohio EPA values public input. Comments will be accepted both verbally and in writing at the hearing and may be submitted through December 11, 2018.

Written comments may be sent by mail to Kimbra Reinbold, Ohio EPA, DAPC Southeast District Office, 2195 East Front Street, Logan, Ohio, 43138 or emailed to kimbra.reinbold@epa.ohio.gov.

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PTTGCA Petrochemical Plant Complex — Permit Description

Initial installation permit for a world-scale petrochemical complex composed of ethylene and ethylene-based derivative plants to manufacture high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low-density polyethylene/HDPE (LLDPE/HDPE) with the following design capacities: Ethylene Plant: 1,500 KT/year; HDPE Units: two (2) trains of 350 KT/year for each train; and LLDPE/HDPE Units: two (2) trains of 450 KT/year for each train. The petrochemical complex will also involve onsite railcar and truck loading, supporting utilities, infrastructure, storage tanks, logistics facilities, and facilities to produce and/or provide required natural gas, water, air, nitrogen, steam, and electricity to support the operation of process units.

Chemical process equipment moves on Ohio River barges

From an Article by Shelley Hanson, Weirton Daily Times, August 26, 2018

Photo: Pieces of the ethane cracker plant being built in Monaca, Pa., made their way up the Ohio River near Shadyside on Thursday evening.

MARTINS FERRY — Motorists who travel along Ohio Route 7 and W.Va. Route 2 may have noticed very large pieces of equipment traveling via barge on the Ohio River last week. The parts are being shipped to the construction site of the ethane cracker plant at Monaca, Pa.

Pike Island Locks & Dam officials confirmed the shipments were headed to Monaca and moving through their locks on the river. One piece came through Wednesday afternoon, while another load arrived at the locks at about 11 p.m. Thursday.

Thursday night’s pieces, which appeared to be two large, white tanks on top of a barge-like container, were being pushed north by a vessel owned by Louisiana-based McDonough Marine Service.

The $6 billion Monaca plant is being built by Shell Chemical with construction expected to last for a few years before it is complete.

The plant is expected to manufacture 50 different products, all of which are types of plastics for manufacturing. Planned construction of the Monaca plant was announced in 2016 with work getting underway about 18 months later.

Meanwhile, residents of Belmont County and beyond are awaiting news on PTT Global Chemical’s final decision on whether to build a similar plant at Dilles Bottom south of Shadyside.

Preparations have been underway for the possibility of a cracker in Belmont County, including the purchase of land in the area of Dilles Bottom. The first announcement about potential construction of the plant by Thailand-based PTT came about three years ago. In January, word was released that South Korea’s Daelim Industrial Co. was partnering with PTT on the project — a collaboration that was officially announced in March.

The federal government also has committed $16 million to upgrade railroad tracks in that area. It also recently was announced that there would be major water infrastructure improvements made in the county that could help make the area more attractive to the plant developers.

Belmont County’s commissioners said during a town hall meeting in July that they hope to learn the fate of the project by the end of the year.