Residual Waste is toxic brine, as with the diesel truck exhaust gases

From an Article by Michael Barrick, Appalachian Chronicle, September 18, 2022
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WESTON, W.Va. – We read in Ecclesiastes that there is a season for everything, including a time to be silent and a time to speak. By now, I had hoped to be silent. As a pensioner, I was hoping to hang out with my family, do some hiking, and to travel a bit. In short, I’m just trying to live a peaceful life. The only problem is that corruption and violence are so rampant that they can’t be ignored.

Silence in the face of violence is compliance with it. (To hear a beautiful take on that notion, listen to “Medicine” by the Americana band Rising Appalachia). So my season of silence is over.

For nearly a decade, before I tried to step back a few months ago, I had written more than 100 articles about the public health, safety and environmental dangers of fracking and related pipeline development. I’ve also written about Mountaintop Removal and efforts by environmental activists to protect the pristine Appalachian Mountains. What West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin and his fossil fuel cronies have inflicted upon the people and land of West Virginia and Virginia in attempting to build the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is nothing short of a violent assault upon the people and land.

In building the now-abandoned Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and the MVP, energy companies EQT, Duke Energy and Dominion and their subcontractors have been ruthless, as the articles below reveal. (Note: some links within articles may no longer be valid). This collective chronicle of the gas industry’s tactics reveal deceit, threats and destruction. The MVP remains uncompleted only because of the people in its path. A coalition of individuals and groups have stalled it primarily through successful legal and regulatory challenges, not to mention dogged determination.

These articles – the first published Aug. 4 2014 – demonstrate what a roller-coaster ride of emotions and betrayal landowners and environmentals have experienced. They succeeded in shutting down the ACP and had the MVP on the ropes. Investors were nervous.

However, it appeared that all of that work against the MVP may have been undone in a behind-closed-doors deal between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin to get Manchin’s essential vote to pass the Inflation Reduction Act. That deal was supposed to streamline the permitting process for the MVP.

However, E&E News Energy Wire is reporting that may not be enough to salvage the beleaguered and long-delayed project. According to the article, a primary obstacle may be legislation announced and sponsored by West Virginia’s other Senator, Republican Shelley Moore Capito. The Republican proposal is picking up bi-partisan support. The E&E News article details how legal and regulatory challenges could still derail the MVP should the proposal pass, as it would not allow the MVP to bypass judicial review.

Though this is hopeful news, this fight is far from over. There is simply too much money changing hands. So, keep up with this story and support any effort to thwart the shady dealings of Schumer and Manchin.

These articles would not have been possible without the cooperation of my family and the subjects of the articles. They are the brave souls willing to share their stories, allowing me insight, facts and documents to support my enterprise and investigative reporting; additionally, contributions from other writers have served to enrich our reporting.

So, while it may take you a while, please read through our past articles. You will see that the fossil fuel industry hasn’t changed tactics in over a century. Only this time, instead of using Baldwin-Felt thugs to do their dirty work as they did during the West Virginia Mine Wars in the early 1920s, today’s energy executives hatch their plots on Manchin’s “Almost Heaven” yacht moored on the Potomac River.

Methane emissions cause ozone pollution (near term) & climate change (long term)

From an Article by Michael Booth, Colorado Sun, July 25, 2022

DCP Operating Company LP settles with federal and state officials over allegations of failing to detect gases contributing to Front Range ozone. This Colorado natural gas processor will pay a $3.25 million fine in a settlement with federal and state air pollution officials, after allegations the company failed to detect and repair leaks that contributed to worsening ozone problems on the northern Front Range.

DCP Operating Company LP and five related subsidiaries will pay the fines and make repairs, in a consent decree announced by the regional Environmental Protection Agency office in Denver after allegations of leaks and failure to repair at gas processing locations in Greeley, Platteville and other Weld County locations. Weld County is part of the EPA’s northern Front Range nonattainment area for ongoing ozone violations, and state and local governments must come up with plans to cut emissions that contribute to the health-harming gas.

The decree says DCP does not admit to liability for the allegations, but will have to pay the fine and also invest millions of dollars in equipment and systems to prevent new leaks. The decree was negotiated with EPA, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Colorado Air Pollution Control Division, part of the state health department.

“Enforcement actions like this are critical to improving air quality, particularly in places facing air quality challenges like Weld County,” Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division said in a statement. Soon after the fine announcement, the state health department issued another Ozone Action Day Alert for the Front Range, one of many so far this summer, warning vulnerable residents to avoid too much outdoor activity for 24 hours.

“EPA continues to deliver cleaner air through the rigorous enforcement of the Clean Air Act,” EPA Regional Administrator KC Becker said in a statement. “This settlement will reduce emissions of over 288 tons of volatile organic compounds and 1,300 tons of methane from production areas near northern Colorado communities, a majority of which are disproportionately impacted by pollution.”

Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Executive Director Jill Hunsaker Ryan credited state inspectors and enforcement personnel from the air division’s leak detection and repair program. She said the settlement will go to the state’s Community Impact Fund, which helps pay for local environmental justice projects.

DCP will now have to bolster leak detection and repair at facilities in the Greeley, Kersey/Mewbourne, Platteville, Roggen, Spindle, O’Connor and Lucerne processing plants, and the future Bighorn plant. The requirements include new equipment that leaks less, tightening compliance with rules, repairing leaks faster, and staff training. The decree says the company will also use optical imaging technology to find and repair leaks faster.

One repair on two turbines at the Kersey/Mewbourne plant will cost $1.15 million, and is expected to reduce VOCs there by 26 tons a year, and methane by 375 tons a year, according to the agreement. Natural gas processing facilities separate impurities and liquids from the gas. Methane also contributes to global warming, multiplying greenhouse gases by dozens of times the rate of carbon dioxide emissions.

Ground-level ozone causes respiratory illness, aggravates asthma, and can worsen existing heart disease.

A related company, DCP Midstream, was fined $5.3 million by New Mexico regulators in 2020 for alleged repeated violations of state air pollution emissions rules.

EPA and state officials say they are focusing tightly on northern Front Range oil and gas operations. The EPA last year reached a $1 million settlement with Noble Energy over alleged violations from oil tank batteries in Weld County floodplains.

DCP said in an email statement that the company started working on some of the fixes in the decree as early as 2019. “The settlement agreement resolves an administrative enforcement matter with the EPA and the State of Colorado and is also in line with our commitment to responsible environmental management and sustainability,” said DCP manager of public affairs Jeanette Alberg. The agreement “is consistent with our ongoing efforts to reduce emissions within our company footprint and is a positive outcome for all of our stakeholders,” she said. DCP is also upgrading Colorado facilities not mentioned in the settlement, the company said.

Environmental groups responded with skepticism, noting a recent hearing in front of the Air Quality Control Commission where northern Front Range cities said their own studies showed emissions are not down.

“This just continues to underscore the oil and gas industry’s rampant noncompliance with clean air laws and the terrible toll that continues to be taken on air quality along the Front Range,” said Jeremy Nichols of WildEarth Guardians. “Studies have basically confirmed that oil and gas industry emissions have not decreased over the years. It’s good that regulators are pressing DCP, Nichols said, “but it doesn’t seem like industry is truly changing its ways and doing everything it can and should to comply.”

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CLEAN AIR COUNCIL Recommendation ~

Tell the EPA to finalize the strongest air pollution regulations possible. This includes a ban on gas flaring or venting unless in absolute emergencies, consistent methane monitoring at all oil and gas facilities (including smaller, leak-prone wells), and requiring “no-bleed” pneumatic controllers and pumps at all gas wells and compressor stations.

API number is a unique identification code

The Ohio River Valley Institute (ORVI) recently released a report entitled Diversified Energy: A Business Model Built to Fail Appalachia. Over the last several years, Diversified Energy has become the largest owner of oil and gas wells in the country! However, Diversified is not, for the most part, in the business of drilling new wells. It is buying up existing, declining wells and milking them now for all they are worth. But in the future thousands of their wells will not be producing enough gas to even pay to operate themselves, let alone to save the money to plug them.

Diversified already has a little more than 2000 wells in West Virginia right now that should already have been plugged! They only plugged 75 of these wells since January last year. Their disclosures to their stockholders (in Great Britain) raise a question whether thousands more that will need plugging will be coming, and whether Diversified will have the money in the future to plug somewhere around 10,000 wells in West Virginia that reach the end of their economic lives. We think they will become orphaned wells.

If you have a Diversified well on your land, and if it is not producing, please get hold of us. We would like to help to try to get it plugged while some money is still available, or by some other means, rather than have it left unplugged on you. Contact us through lawyer and co-founder Dave McMahon whose contact information is at the bottom of this blog.

Generally you will know if the well on your land is operated by Diversified because it will have Diversified’s name on it. If it does not and you still suspect it might be a Diversified well then:

There are two ways we can find out if the Diversified well on your land is producing (and if it is in fact operated by Diversified). One, you can send us your surface tax ticket or the information on it (we would need the county, district name, map and parcel number from that). Two, another more certain way to make sure we have the right well is for you to go to the well and get the API number off of the well. That number will look like 047 – 0_ _ – 0 _ _ _ _. (Other numbers that don’t look like that can be an old company well number of an equipment part number) Get us that API number. Here is a web page about API numbers. Or that page tells you how you can look up the information yourself on the West Virginia Geologic and Economic Survey website and others.

While you are there at the well listen to hear if it is making a hissing sound in the pipes. That will mean that it is producing and we may not be able to get it plugged soon, but if you have other questions about it let us know. (If it is making a hissing sound as gas is escaping out of the pipes into the air, be sure to contact us!) If there is a no sound it may not be producing and, again, let us know about it – we might be able to do something to get it plugged to stop devaluing your land or before it pollutes your surface land, groundwater, air etc,

To avoid any lawyer ethical problems, or even the appearance of impropriety, this communication is branded as “advertising material”. We also have to note that the lawyer responsible for this email is David McMahon, a co-founder of WVSORO. His number is 304-415-4288. His address is 1624 Kenwood Rd, Charleston, WV 25314. His email is wvdavid@wvdavid.net. He is the person to contact about the well on your property.

>>> Advertising Material from David McMahon, Lawyer, Charleston, WV

Reference ~ West Virginia Surface Owners’ Rights Organization, 1500 Dixie Street, Charleston, WV 25311
info@wvsoro.org 304 346 5891

Permitting, inspecting and enforcement all need updating a.s.a.p.

>>> From an Article by Zack Budryk, The Hill (Online News), 01/05/22

WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. has more than double the amount of abandoned oil and gas wells than previously thought, according to a preliminary analysis by the Interior Department.

In a memo Wednesday, the department said there are currently more than 130,000 documented abandoned, or orphaned, wells. Comparatively, a 2019 report from the Interior documented a total of 56,600 orphaned wells across 30 states. Across the entire country they found that the number of abandoned wells in that report ranged from zero to 13,226.

The bipartisan infrastructure bill President Biden signed into law in November of last year includes $4.7 billion to restore and plug orphaned wells. In December, the department released guidance on state applications for grants under the program.

Since then, the majority of states, 26, have submitted notices of intent to apply for the grants, according to the memo. Nearly every state documented contained orphaned wells.

States applying for funding included Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming, according to the memo.

The Interior Department is set to publish the full amount of grant funding each state is eligible to receive in the months ahead, according to the memo. On Thursday, the Bureau of Land Management will host a presentation on its orphaned-well reclamation program.

Plugging orphaned wells has been top priority for Interior Secretary Deb Haaland since her nomination. The White House’s budget request for fiscal 2022 also included a proposal to more than double the enacted 2021 budget for orphaned well cleanup and reclamation, which the administration said would create 250,000 union jobs.

The White House’s more ambitious climate and social spending bill — which has not passed either chamber of Congress — would also put $41 billion toward environmental remediation, including reclamation of orphaned wells.

Its path forward remains unclear after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said in December that he would not back the package.

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SEE ALSO:WV-DEP seeks support to hire gas, oil well inspectors, Lacie Pierson, Charleston Gazette, January 18, 2022

Also during the meeting, the Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Harold Ward told the committee that department officials hope to be able to hire eight new natural gas and oil well inspectors before the state receives $165 million in federal grants to manage nearly 6,300 abandoned natural gas and oil wells.

The department currently employs nine people who are responsible for inspecting about 75,000 wells, or about 8,000 wells per inspector, Deputy Secretary of Environmental Protection Scott Mandirola told Senate Finance members during a budget presentation at the Capitol.

“Right now, we’re at a very difficult crossroads,” Ward said. “To be candid with you, we have a solution, and its proposed legislation this year.” DEP officials are asking the Legislature to approve a bill that would allow them to charge a $100 permit fee to raise $1.3 million to support the return of inspectors and other staff to the department’s Oil and Gas Division.

Senators on the committee were alarmed by the ratio of wells to inspectors, raising concerns about public safety as well as the workload on inspectors, even with the potential addition of eight more inspectors. “This is a tragedy that we’ve got wells and things that we know that are leaking,” Sen. Charles Clements, R-Wetzel, said. “Something’s got to be done.”

The Ohio River Valley needs protection for the welfare of all

Notice from the Concerned Ohio River Residents (CORR), 3/27/21

The ever-present threat of oil & gas development is rearing its head again. Two proposed facilities and a new legislative revision could endanger the health of families along the Ohio River. We need your help to stop them.

1. ODNR has granted a draft permit to Powhatan Salt Company to begin constructing the Mountaineer NGL storage facility, which would store flammable, highly explosive natural gas liquids next to (and potentially beneath) the Ohio River. The agency completely ignored dozens of expert concerns about the safety and integrity of the facility. Click here to tell ODNR not to issue final permits for the Mountaineer facility.

2. The Sardis injection well in Monroe County, Ohio, threatens nearby residents with air pollution, groundwater contamination, and the risk of earthquakes. Click here to demand ODNR denies all permits for the Sardis injection well.

3. A proposed legislative change could place the health of Ohio’s frontline communities at risk. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) is seeking a revision to Ohio law that would allow for the automatic extension of air permits-to-install (PTI) for major polluting facilities, potentially threatening local air quality and eliminating opportunities for public input. We fought for a 30-day extension to the public comment period—and won. That gives us more time to tell USEPA to deny automatic extensions to Ohio air permits. Click here to let them know where you stand.

Keep reading to learn more about each of these dangerous threats to our community. It only takes a minute to add your name to the fight for Ohio Valley families. Your voice makes a difference!

Contact Us @ CORR Website: www.concernedohioriverresidents.org

Address: Concerned Ohio River Residents, P.O. Box 135, Bridgeport, OH 43912

Email: general@concernedohioriverresidents.org
Phone: (740) 738-3024

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1. Mountaineer NGL Storage Facility’s Solution Mining Permits

This February, more than one thousand community members contacted the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to submit their concerns about Powhatan Salt Company’s permit applications to begin constructing the Mountaineer NGL storage facility, which would store flammable, highly explosive natural gas liquids in salt caverns next to the Ohio River. (Read more about the risks of natural gas liquid storage here.)

Legal experts also outlined fifty-eight technical deficiencies with the solution mining well applications, pointing out their failure to prove the wells would meet all safety standards and industry-recommended practices for NGL storage in solution-mined salt caverns.

Yet, despite overwhelming public concern and glaring technical deficiencies in the company’s application, on March 11, 2021, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) issued a draft permit to Powhatan Salt Company. The official draft permit addressed only eight of the fifty-eight concerns raised by legal experts. Forty-two comments on the safety and technical integrity of the proposed solution mining wells received absolutely no response from ODNR.

ODNR’s failure to respond to — or even acknowledge — dozens of technical deficiencies with Powhatan Salt Company’s solution mining well permits undercuts our right to transparent public information about this project and jeopardizes the health and water access of the five million people who rely on the Ohio River for drinking water.

Click here to tell ODNR not to issue final permits for the Mountaineer facility’s solution mining wells.

See the Comments at www.FrackCheckWV.net for the other current issues.

Above ground storage tanks need rules & regulations

Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC) Action Alert, February 19, 2021

Action Alert Comments. … be sure to respond as soon as possible!

The WV Legislature and industry lobbyists have brought back the bill for exemptions to the Aboveground Storage Tank Act as HB 2598, reintroduced this week and expected to make the House Energy and Manufacturing Committee agenda on Tuesday morning, February 23.

Long story short, the bill would deregulate certain aboveground tanks that store hazardous oil and gas waste near public drinking water intakes. For a deeper dive and more information check out West Virginia Rivers’ Fact Sheet.

We need you to take action before the House committee meets at 9 a.m. on Tuesday!

WV Rivers has set up a tool to send all committee members an email, and we suggest also pairing that with a phone call to both the Committee and its Delegates. If you aren’t already on your cell phone, make the switch now so you can just click to dial!

Here’s the example script:

“Hello, my name is _________ and I’m calling to ask you to please say no to HB 2598. All citizens deserve access to safe, clean drinking water, and HB 2598 exempts certain oil and gas tanks closest to our public drinking water intakes from the Aboveground Storage Tank Act, which requires regular inspections and crisis response plans.

Please say no to HB 2598.“

And below is who you can call on the House of Delegates Energy and Manufacturing Committee:

There are a lot of them. We suggest prioritizing delegates from your district or close-by, followed by the chairs and vice chairs.

Happy dialing, and stay warm out there!

-– Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition —

>>>>>…..>>>>>…..>>>>>…..>>>>>

Chair: Del. Bill Anderson: 304-340-3186; Vice Chair: Del. John R. Kelly: 304-340-3394

Minority Chair: Del. Ed Evans: 304-673-2969; Minority Vice Chair: Del. Dave Pethel: 304-775-5472

Stored Underground NGL Fire and Explosion Hazards for Two Counties in OH and Marshall County in WV

From the Concerned Ohio River Residents, January 25, 2021

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources is currently considering a permit application to construct the Mountaineer natural gas liquids (NGL) storage facility 2.5 miles from Clarington, OH, along Ohio Route 7 in Salem Township. The facility would store up to 3.25 million barrels of highly flammable, explosive natural gas liquids (NGLs) in underground caverns near dozens of frack wells and adjacent to the Ohio River, posing a significant threat to our region’s public health and natural resources.

Last Thursday, CORR and a coalition of advocacy groups hosted a community meeting on the the Mountaineer facility. We outlined the specific threats posed by the facility’s construction, including groundwater contamination, air pollution, subsidence, and an increase in fracking and fracking waste. Other underground storage facilities have seen serious and even deadly incidents caused by inadequate regulation, including fires, explosions, chemical leaks, earthquakes, and sinkholes.

How can we be sure a similar disaster wouldn’t happen to Mountaineer? Get the facts they won’t tell us:

Click here to view a recording of our Mountaineer Community Meeting.

Concerned about the Mountaineer NGL Storage Facility? You can help make a difference. Submit a public comment to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources today. You can use our draft template to quickly submit a blanket list of comments to ODNR, but we encourage you to add a few sentences about any specific concerns you may have about the facility. Unique comments carry more weight in the permit evaluation process. How would storing explosive natural gas liquids near the Ohio River affect you and your family?

Click here for more information on how to submit public comment.

Get the Facts on the Mountaineer NGL Storage Facility:

Powhatan Salt Company LLC has applied through the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for three solution mining well permits to begin creating storage caverns in the Salina salt formation, just 2.5 miles north of Clarington, OH along the Ohio River in Monroe County, so that its sister company, Mountaineer NGL Storage LLC can store natural gas liquids (NGL) next to and potentially beneath the Ohio River.

The Mountaineer NGL storage facility would store natural gas liquids like ethane, propane, and butanes extracted from fracking, supporting the industry proliferation and increasing the massive amount of toxic, radioactive waste it generates. To create these storage caverns, Powhatan Salt Company would inject millions of gallons of fresh water underground at high pressures to carve out salt cavities. Powhatan would withdraw approximately 1,928,000 gallons of fresh water each day from the Ohio River to carve out the first storage cavern. More caverns could be constructed to increase storage capacity, each of which would require approximately 380,200,000 gallons of freshwater.

We believe the existing application materials for these wells do not contain enough information for anyone to evaluate the safety of these operations. The applications do not fully consider the possibility of contaminants migrating to underground sources of drinking water, and they include no real emergency response plan. How will we find out if the caverns leak? What will we do if they leak? Without a doubt, local residents will be the ones to suffer the consequences.

Take action today. Click here to submit your concerns to ODNR.

Contact Us:

CORR’s website: www.concernedohioriverresidents.org

Email: general@concernedohioriverresidents.org

§ Concerned Ohio River Residents P.O. Box 135 Bridgeport, OH 43912

Photo from West Whiteland Residents for Pipeline Safety

From an Article by Frank Kummer, Philadelphia Inquirer, August 11, 2020

Drilling fluid used in Sunoco Pipeline LP’s Mariner East project in Chester County leaked into Marsh Creek Lake in a state park of the same name on Monday — one of three incidents in recent days along the pipeline construction project route.

Virginia Cain, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, said the agency is investigating the three incidents, which occurred at two project sites, in West Whiteland and Upper Uwchlan Townships.

The PA-DEP said the first leak occurred on the 100 block of Shoen Road in West Whiteland on Saturday. Both the PD-DEP and the Fish and Boat Commission responded and tested water to see if it contained drilling fluids. Drilling was stopped to await an analysis of the liquid.

If the liquid is found to be that used for drilling, which typically contains bentonite clay and water, the site will be shut down until an application to restart is filed. Usually, the liquid is injected into a bore during the horizontal drilling process. The mixture is not normally hazardous, though environmental groups say it could contain other chemicals.

On Sunday, the same agencies were called after discharges related to the same site were reported “at multiple areas in the West Whiteland Apartment Complex.” The PA-DEP is reviewing permits and plans Sunoco filed pertaining to the location to see if regulations were followed.

Then, on Monday, the PA-DEP was called to another drill site off Green Valley Road in Marsh Creek State Park in Upper Uwchlan. There, drilling fluid leaked into wetlands and a tributary to Marsh Creek Lake, then finally into the lake. Sunoco is working on a cleanup in coordination with the two state agencies.

Environmental groups and residents who have been battling the pipeline for years were outraged. When complete, the pipeline will transport gas liquids, such as propane, ethane, and butane.

The Clean Air Council estimated that 1,000 gallons of the drilling fluid were released into Marsh Creek Lake, which also serves as a drinking water reservoir. The nonprofit environmental organization said the fluid contains chemical additives and can “smother aquatic life.” The group said photographs show “a large plume of gray water snaking hundreds of feet into the lake.”

The potential impact on the overall health of the lake was not immediately clear as of Tuesday. Environmental groups in the past have urged the PA-DEP to prevent Sunoco from drilling near the park because of the risk of spills. “Sunoco again has failed to take seriously the danger its construction poses to drinking water supplies and other water resources,” the Clean Air Council said in a statement.

Alex Bomstein, an attorney at Clean Air Council, said a Sunoco geologist had included in a previous report before drilling began that there was a “moderate to high risk of a spill” in the area.

West Whiteland Residents for Pipeline Safety, a citizens group, posted a picture of muddied water and what it identified as Sunoco workers at the scene.

Ginny Kerslake, a member of the West Whiteland group, said she was at the lake Monday night and again Tuesday. “I have seen it firsthand,” she said of the spill. “Like many people, we frequently enjoy that lake. It’s devastating this has been allowed to happen.”

Marsh Creek State Park is in north-central Chester County. The 1,784-acre park contains the 535-acre Marsh Creek Lake, widely used for fishing and boating.

The pipeline has caused a number of incidents over the years. In July, inspectors found a new series of sinkholes that have opened up along the pipeline’s route in Chester County after cracks were reported in the pavement of Business Route 30 in Exton.

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See also: Paddle protest at Marsh Creek Lake calls for Mariner East shutdown, Susan Phillips, StateImpact Pennsylvania, August 11, 2020

As cleanup crews worked to remove thousands of gallons of drilling mud from a Chester County lake on Wednesday, residents gathered to protest the Mariner East pipeline project, citing a litany of environmental damage.

Construction on the line caused about 8,000 gallons of drilling mud to seep into a stream that feeds the lake, which is popular for boating, fishing and birding.

Following a rally on the banks of the 530-acre Marsh Creek Lake, several dozen protesters paddled out to the site of a plume of muddy water caused by nearby horizontal directional drilling (HDD). HDD uses bentonite clay, often referred to as drilling mud, to lubricate a large drill bit that bores beneath the surface, making way for the 20-inch pipe. The project, which is mostly complete, includes three separate pipes that carry natural gas liquids from the shale fields of western Pennsylvania to an export terminal in Delaware County.

Construction of the line has hit several snags in Chester County, where the karst, or limestone geology, creates difficulties for large-scale industrial projects that use underground drilling.

Theresa Terry stayed in this “tree house” for three weeks protesting the MVP

From an Article by Mason Adams, Mother Jones Magazine, 5/25/20

“Life in these mountains ain’t always been easy, so people around here take a stand when they see something they don’t agree with—and I’m one of them,” says walrus-mustached Jammie Hale in his thick southwestern Virginia mountain accent. “People that grow up in places like this, seeing their environment destroyed, it stirs them, it causes people to want to get involved, and that’s why I’m here.”

In a documentary-style video produced by Unicorn Riot, a left-wing media collective, in 2018, Hale explains his decision to join a protest movement taking on the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a 303-mile long, nearly 42-inch-wide pipeline intended to move natural gas from the fracking fields of northern West Virginia to a terminal in southern Virginia that connects to markets and export terminals on the East Coast.

Settled in among the hardwood trees on Peters Mountain, near where he’s been occupying an aerial platform with another (pseudonymous) activist known as Nutty, he talks of his family’s 150-plus years in Giles County, Virginia, and how that history motivates him to do all he can to prevent the pipeline from crossing the Appalachian Trail.

Yellow Finch, as the encampment has come to be called, is giving its full-time activists, most of whom are in their 20s, an on-the-ground education in Appalachian direct action. They’re learning how to talk to media, to establish and maintain a defensible blockade in the forest, and to survive a winter in the mountains, all in a region written off by much of the US as “Trump country.”

Less explored is the region’s significant history of activism that brought together outsiders and locals to resist corporate exploitation, from the labor organizing by Mary Harris “Mother” Jones on behalf of West Virginia miners in the 1910s and ’20s, to the Mountain Justice campaign against mountaintop removal coal mining a century later. Some veterans of the latter campaign are now working with the folks at Yellow Finch, applying lessons learned in the current fight against fossil fuels.

The camp lies at the base of the steep Blue Ridge Plateau; to reach it, you must drive carefully up a twisting mountain backroad and then back down a dirt road that follows a stream. Steep slopes rise up on either side, and the contrast between sides of the hollow stand as a testament to the activists’ success in delaying pipeline construction. On one side, the forest has been stripped bare, replanted with grass, and shored up with silt fences and green, mulch-stuffed fabric socks to prevent erosion. The other side of the hollow, home to the Yellow Finch encampment, remains wooded.

The camp is set about 50 yards up from the road, firmly planted into the hillside. A couple of hastily erected plywood buildings covered in handmade art and cardboard signs serve as a sleeping area and pantry. Tarps nailed to the side of the bunkhouse and nearby trees cover a makeshift kitchen, scattered with dishes, cooking gear, herbal tinctures, nutritional yeast, and other supplies.

The number of activists that call the camp home fluctuates with the weather and the need for additional people to sustain the camp. A 27-year-old activist called Gator fondly describes the camp’s occupants as “a bunch of badass queer anarchists that held it down for a long period of time.” They come from all over and vary in age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and family backgrounds, but they’re united in their desire to protect the mountains.

They found the camp through a variety of paths; several cut their teeth in other movements, organizing against the mining of frac sand, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, mass incarceration, and police violence. They discovered Yellow Finch through word of mouth, on news sites popular with anarchists like It’s Going Down and Unicorn Riot, and Appalachians Against Pipelines, the campaign’s quasi-official Facebook page. Several came after seeing the video that featured Hale.

§ To be continued as Part 2.

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See also: Judge dismisses lawsuit that contested Mountain Valley’s power of eminent domain — Article by Laurence Hammack, Roanoke Times, May 14, 2020

Legal action has failed, once again, to undo the taking of private land for a natural gas pipeline through Southwest Virginia. “This case presents the latest trickle in a veritable flood of litigation” against the Mountain Valley Pipeline, U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg wrote in an opinion last week dismissing the lawsuit.

Three couples with land in the pipeline’s path had sued Mountain Valley and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, alleging that the commission should not have given a corporate venture the right to seize their property by eminent domain.

HOWEVER, LEGAL CASES HAVE RESULTED IN THE FOLLOWING:

Three sets of permits — for the pipeline to pass through the Jefferson National Forest, to cross hundreds of streams and wetlands, and to be built in a way that does not jeopardize endangered species — were set aside after lawsuits were filed by environmental groups.

Construction is currently stalled as Mountain Valley works to regain permits from a variety of federal agencies. Executives with EQM Midstream, the lead partner in a joint venture of five energy companies building the pipeline, said in a conference call Thursday that there was still a “narrow path” to their goal of completing the project by the end of the year.

Drilling, fracking and production operations involve methane emissions

From an Article by Kristina Marusic, Environmental Health News, April 23, 2020

Methane emissions are vastly undercounted at the state and national level because we’re missing accidental leaks from oil and gas wells, according to a new study.

Methane is a greenhouse gas that, when initially released, is about 87 times more potent than carbon dioxide at driving global warming (it doesn’t last as long in the atmosphere, however, so when averaged over a century methane is about 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide at driving global warming). Methane causes about 25 percent of human-driven climate change according to the Environmental Defense Fund, and the oil and gas industry is the leading emitter of methane. Last year, global atmospheric methane reached a 20-year high.

The new study, conducted by researchers at Cornell University and published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, looked at 589,175 operator reports on methane leaks from both fracking and conventional oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania from 2014-2018. The researchers found that methane emissions in the state are at least 15 percent higher than previously thought—and they believe a similar under-counting is happening at the national level.

“Another 15 percent of methane going into the atmosphere that we didn’t know about is very significant for climate change in the short term,” Tony Ingraffea, professor emeritus of engineering at Cornell and the study’s lead author, told EHN.

Ingraffea also authored a groundbreaking study in 2011 that determined methane emissions from fracking accelerate global warming more than carbon dioxide emissions from either coal or conventional oil and gas. Pennsylvania is the second largest producer of natural gas in the country after Texas. Ingraffea’s study comes on the heels of a study published this week by Harvard researchers that found methane emissions in the Permian basin in Texas and New Mexico are more than two times higher than federal estimates.

Methane exposure is rarely a threat to human health except under extreme circumstances, but “as a climate change exacerbator,” Ingraffea said, “it affects the health of every human on the planet.”

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) has required all oil and gas well operators in the state to measure the amount of methane leaking from producing wells once per quarter since 2014. Fracking wells are required to submit quarterly reports on their findings, while conventional wells must submit reports at least once a year. No other state has such extensive methane leak monitoring, and this study, which took three years to complete, marks the first time the data has ever been analyzed.

While other studies have estimated methane leaks from oil and gas, such as flying over gas wells in aircrafts with methane detection equipment, this is the first to use data that’s been self-reported by oil and gas well operators.

“This is a profoundly important database,” Ingraffea said. “There’s nothing comparable happening in any other part of America.”

Ingraffea and his colleagues found that the Pennsylvania oil and gas wells that reported methane leaks over the five year period emitted an average of about 56 gigagrams (or 56 billion grams) of methane into the atmosphere every year. These emissions are not currently included in the state’s methane emissions inventory.

PA DEP director of communications Neil Shader told EHN the agency is still reviewing the study’s findings and can’t yet speculate about what actions it may take in response.

A series of studies conducted by the Environmental Defense Fund previously estimated that around 10 teragrams (or 10 trillion grams) of methane are leaking from the oil and gas sector across the country each year. “The amount of methane coming from leaks in Pennsylvania is a relatively small subset of that,” Ingraffea said. “But if we take a wild guess and extrapolate what we’re seeing in Pennsylvania to all of America, we’re looking at three million wells and 20 times the methane emissions we saw in the Pennsylvania data.”

Meanwhile, the Trump Administration has proposed rolling back existing methane regulations at the federal level through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA’s rule, which is not yet finalized, aims to lift rules from the Obama Administration that required companies to detect and fix methane leaks. In a statement, EPA Administrator said the revisions would remove “unnecessary and duplicative regulatory burdens from the oil and gas industry.”

“EPA is moving in the wrong direction,” Ingraffea said, adding that a major part of the problem is a failure to accurately measure our current methane emissions.

“Missing 10 to 15 percent of methane emissions would be like saying we’re off about carbon dioxide emissions by factor of two,” he added. “No one would accept that. Everyone would be saying, ‘We’re in big trouble.’ Being off this much in our methane accounting is just as important.”

Unreliable reporting has been the norm

Marcellus Shale rig and gas well operation in Jackson Township, Pennsylvania. (Credit: WCN 24/7/flickr)

Ingraffea noted that their calculations are likely on the low end of true methane emissions from oil and gas well leaks in Pennsylvania.

There are around 132,000 operating oil and gas wells in the state, but fewer than half of those reported data on methane leaks to the PA DEP as required. Of the some 60,000 wells that submitted reports, about half of those didn’t actually include any data, citing various reasons they couldn’t take measurements on methane leaks (like inability to access the well site). The study also only looked at data from wells that are actively producing—it didn’t account for methane leaks from abandoned wells or wells that were still being actively drilled or fracked (and not yet producing).

Shader said that the wells missing data are conventional wells, not fracking wells, and include things like home-use wells and wells from small operators. “DEP often receives data from these operators on paper, and it must be entered manually, which can cause delays in making the data available electronically,” he said, “however, DEP has and will continue to take enforcement actions against operators that do not comply with the reporting requirements.”

The Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (PIOGA) declined to comment on whether the industry is working to resolve these issues with reporting.

The researchers also noted some major issues with the reliability of the data. For example, some wells that reported large quantities of methane leaks for several years in a row would suddenly report none after being purchased by a different operator the following year. One likely reason for this is a lack of consistency in testing techniques, Ingraffea said. Operators aren’t all required to use the same testing equipment or methods.

“Not only is much of the data unreliable,” he said, “but I will go on record as saying that some of the data being reported to the state is downright fraudulent.”

There’s also no minimum reporting requirement, so some operators would note that the emissions were too low to report, but the researchers have no way of knowing what threshold they used to determine that. All of these factors likely mean the reported emissions the researchers analyzed are underestimates.

Ingraffea said there should be a requirement to measure and report on methane leaks in a consistent manner and “super emitters” should be targeted and required to fix leaking equipment.

“Most wells aren’t leaking,” he said. “If they’re operating correctly, they shouldn’t leak. Maybe just 10 percent of all unconventional wells are leaking, for example, but they’re not all leaking the same amount, either. Some leak just a little, and some, the super emitters, leak like sieves. DEP should require those to be fixed.”

Many of those super emitters are coalbed methane wells, most of which are located in the Southwestern part of the state where a majority of the state’s fracking also occurs.

“DEP is also concerned with these ‘super emitters,’ Shader said, “and is exploring ways to identify them, as well as being interested in suggestions for identifying them.”

He added that DEP is aware that methane leaks are also a problem at abandoned wells (which were not looked at as part of the Cornell study), but that the agency “has very few resources to devote to plugging,” and hopes initiatives like Governor Wolf’s Restore PA initiative, which would provide funding for critical state infrastructure including plugging abandoned wells, will help address the leaks.

Lack of regulations, lack of accounting

In December, Pennsylvania’s Environmental Quality Board voted in favor of a new set of regulations aimed at reducing emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) like benzene, toluene, and other chemicals linked to cancer and other health effects from fracking sites. The rule is slated to be enacted following a 60-day public comment period, which the PA DEP said is expected to occur sometime this year, “likely next month.”

Governor Tom Wolf’s office, which drafted the regulations, claimed the new rule would also indirectly reduce methane emissions by more than 75,000 tons (about 68 gigagrams) per year, but environmental advocates expressed frustration that the rule doesn’t directly address methane leaks.

“We have known for years that PA DEP’s emissions inventory, which relies on industry-reported data, significantly understates the actual emissions coming from the Pennsylvania oil and gas sector,” Joseph Otis Minott, executive director and chief counsel for Philadelphia-based advocacy group Clean Air Council, told EHN. “We are encouraged to see that DEP estimates its proposed existing source rule will reduce over 75,600 [tons per year] of methane emissions and would respectfully urge the Department to open a public comment period on the proposal as soon as possible.”

Ingraffea said there have been “hundreds of reports and papers looking at methane emissions published since my first paper came out in 2011…and the scientific consensus is that what EPA is reporting to all of us, and to Congress, and to the President significantly underestimates the actual methane emissions from the oil and gas industry.”