Construction of Mariner East 2 in Penna.

From an Article by Katie Meyer, StateImpact Penna., October 17, 2019

(Harrisburg) — Democratic Governor Tom Wolf got some unexpected visitors Wednesday—or at least, the hallway outside his office did. When a crowd of about 60 protesters with the groups Halt Mariner Now and the Mama Bear Brigade gathered outside Wolf’s door to ask him to close down a major, nearly completed pipeline project, Wolf wasn’t there and Capitol police wouldn’t open the door. They rallied anyway.

There are three pipelines at the heart of the advocacy effort, which dates back several years: the Mariner East 1, 2, and 2X. All carry, or are designed to one day carry, natural gas liquids from the Marcellus Shale region in Ohio (& WV) and Western Pennsylvania to a Delaware County processing terminal.

The project has been slowed and stopped many times by issues that include a rash of sinkholes caused by construction, and mud from drilling polluting wells and waterways.

People who live in the southeast, where construction has been heavy in residential areas, are also worried that the highly flammable liquids in the line could combust.

Luke Bauerlein, an organizer with the Halt Mariner Now group, said that’s one of his big concerns. “Our community residents aren’t lying when they say this has the potential to be a bomb,” he said, adding that he doesn’t think Sunoco has given them good enough evacuation advice. “I’m not going to be able to forgive myself if I don’t stand up and there’s an accident that happens. We’ve been living on luck for way too long.”

Wolf met with the protesters in Chester County several months ago, in August of this year.

He told them while he shares some of their safety and environmental concerns, the gas liquids need to be moved and the administration is trying to keep the process safe.

“We are trying to make transmission of this stuff, and the alternatives to this, I think, are even worse,” he told them at the time. “So, we’ve got to figure out how to do a better job, I fully agree. What we disagree on [is] in terms of whether we should keep doing this or not.”

Throughout the Mariner project, Sunoco and pro-gas groups have maintained that the pipeline is safe, and that sinkholes and contamination are just a result of construction.

“Oversight of this project is ongoing and strict, as actions by regulators demonstrate,” the pro-pipeline Pennsylvania Energy Infrastructure Alliance said in a statement. “The project is legally permitted and operated, as courts have ruled repeatedly.”

The alliance added, pipeline work has provided a number of temporary union jobs in the commonwealth.

Bauerlein said he and his fellow demonstrators aren’t necessarily discouraged by Wolf’s refusal to stop the Mariner project. He merely sees it as a cue to move their protests out of the Capitol.

“I’m not sure I can speak to that today,” he said. “But stay tuned, there will be more plans to come.”

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Mariner East: A pipeline project plagued by mishaps and delays

Explainer Article by Jon Hurdle / StateImpact Penna.

A Mariner East 2 construction site in rural Pennsylvania is shown in the photo above. The Public Utility Commission lifted a ban on construction of a valve, removing one obstacle to completion of the troubled project.

Sunoco Logistics Mariner East pipeline project includes three lines — the Mariner East 1, the Mariner East 2, and the Mariner East 2X, all of which carry or will soon carry natural gas liquids (NGLs) from the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays in eastern Ohio, northern West Virginia and western Pennsylvania across the state to a processing and export terminal in Marcus Hook, Delaware.

Monroe County Gas Storage Facility Seeks Expedited ODNR Permit

From an Article by Janell Hunter, Wheeling Intelligencer, November 7, 2017

A natural gas liquids storage company based in Colorado has hired Scott Pleskonko of Moundsville to be its local development facilitator as it seeks permits from the Ohio Division of Natural Resources to build a facility in Clarington.

Pleskonko updated the Monroe County Board of Commissioners on Monday about the proposed Mountaineer NGL Storage facility, which is considered a critical component for industrial development for the region. It will be particularly important to the proposed PTT Global Chemical ethane cracker plant in Belmont County.

The project will use subsurface salt formations to store ethane, propane, butane and other products. Pleskonko said David Hooker, managing director of Mountaineer NGL Storage, has been in touch with officials at both Royal Dutch Shell and PTT Global Chemical and found that both organizations are “very interested” in using the facility.

“The Marcellus Shale and the Utica Shale below it have surprised the entire industry and are fast becoming the next super-producers of natural gas supply in this country, but there is a dire need for reliable storage solutions,” Hooker said.

Pleskonko said the project continues to move forward, although at a slower pace than expected. He said an underground injection control program permit has been filed but has not yet been approved by ODNR.

“Right now we are into the project with about $20 million of expenditures — engineering, test wells, land acquisition, all those things,” Pleskonko said. “Where we are at really now is trying to resolve the rest of the permit issues.”

The permitting for the brine impoundment was initially rejected by the ODNR, but steps are being taken to correct the issues that led to its rejection, according to Pleskonko.

“Most of the issues are getting resolved. It takes some time to work through those. Clearly, three of the four are resolved, and the fourth issue is we need to supply them with some data on the type of soil above the impoundment to make sure there are no problems with a potential hillside slip.”

The company has identified sites for core boring to supply the needed data and plans to resubmit the permit for the impoundment by late November. Plesonko said the company hopes the permits will be in place by the second quarter of next year, at which time construction could begin.

“Tentatively, if things go well, we would have a 2019 startup date,” he said.

Monroe County Economic Development Representative Jason Hamman said he would draft a letter for the commissioners to sign that would be sent to ODNR in support of expediting the permit.

These secret trains keep rumbling thru ...

Hard Look at Oil on Rail Tanker Cars

Investigative reporter Marcus Stern of Inside Climate News was interviewed on NPR’ Fresh Air, on Wednesday, February 24, 2014. Here is the audio recording of that broadcast. If you listen to this thru, you will be shocked! He discusses the crude oil train wrecks in Quebec, Alabama, North Dakota, Virginia and West Virginia, the latter on February 16th.

Duane Nichols, www.FrackCheckWV.net

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Bomb Train Traffic is up 4000 % …… With Explosive Results!

What do Quebec, Alabama, North Dakota, Virginia and West Virginia all have in common?

These were all sites where trains carrying fracked crude oil derailed and exploded over the last two years, with the derailment in West Virginia occurring just last week.

The derailments, explosions, fires, and oil spills in these locations killed 47 people, threatened the lives and safety of entire communities, and led to the evacuations of many thousands of people, while polluting waterways and poisoning drinking-water supplies.

Ribbons of railroads lace most of our country, running through our cities and towns and over or next to our nation’s waterways, making it very likely that one of these bomb trains is rolling through or near your neighborhood right now.

Fracking has caused a 4000% increase in crude-by-rail transport. And 85% of the railcars the industry uses are outdated and unsafe DOT-111’s that cause the lighter, more volatile fracked Bakken crude oil to explode and burn in an accident.

Adding to this growing threat is the fact that the rail industry is looking to double the speed at which these trains travel, from 30 mph to 60 mph. But the train that derailed, exploded, and spilled thousands of gallons of oil into Virginia’s James River was only traveling at 24 mph!

These bomb trains are disasters waiting to happen that must be stopped now!

And that’s why I’m writing and asking for your help today. Please help Waterkeeper Alliance fight these bomb trains and other frontline threats to our public health, communities, waterways, and environment. Please help us STOP these deadly bomb trains.

Thank you in advance for your passion and generosity!

Sincerely, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., President, Waterkeeper Alliance

Chesapeake has been under the eye of Senator Joe Manchin and others;  but,  claims of over 700 local workers provides few clues about the number of local workers in the future.  Are qualified local workers hard to find, or does it depend upon what qualifications are required? 

Drilling rigs and fracking crews are still in demand, pipeline projects for gathering lines and transmission lines continue to be developed, and new gas separation/processing plants are under construction.  Of these, the gas processing plants offer the greatest long-term employment outlook, giving a working crew of perhaps 55  plant employees jobs for decades.  These processing plants can separate ethane, propane, butanes and natural gasoline from the “wet” gas of the local Marcellus wells.

 The Hastings plant of Dominion in Wetzel County has operated for decades, currently producing some 560,000 gallons per day of natural gas liquids.  Caiman Energy has just completed one of three plants at Ft. Beeler in Marshall County.  And, Dominion has just announced a new plant for the Natrium site north of New Martinsville on the Ohio River to process 300 million cubic feet of “wet” gas per day.  The surge in employment during the drilling and construction phases will likely moderate to a few hundred jobs in operations, and this is dependent upon the price of natural gas and the by-product natural gas liquids.