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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Falcon Pipeline to transport ethane from Ohio & West Virginia at high pressure

From an Invitation by Erica Jackson, FracTracker Alliance, April 30, 2021

Hello friends in the Ohio River Valley and beyond,

I’m writing to invite you to a virtual public meeting regarding how your health and safety may be impacted by Shell Pipeline Company’s Falcon Pipeline. It will be held online on Tuesday, May 4th, 2021 from 6:30 – 8:00pm, on Zoom. You can participate by calling in from a phone or by computer. [REGISTER HERE]

A representative of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) will be in attendance. Now is the time to make your concerns heard!

The Falcon Pipeline cuts through Washington, Allegheny, and Beaver Counties in Pennsylvania, Jefferson, Carroll, and Harrison Counties in Ohio, and Hancock County, West Virginia.

The Falcon Pipeline is putting the public & workers at risk. Whistleblowers have bravely spoken out about the Falcon’s construction, prompting state & federal investigations. Secretary of the PA Department of Environmental Protection Patrick McDonnell stated that the pipeline may have been constructed with defective corrosion coating protection, and that these issues “pose a possible threat of product release, landslide, or even explosion.”

These developments have been featured in multiple news outlets, including the Observer-Reporter, the Beaver County times, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Yet our requests for information from PHMSA, the agency that oversees this pipeline’s operation and safety, have gone unanswered.

Where is the accountability? Why aren’t government agencies providing the public with the information we need to protect our families’ health and safety?

We’re demanding more transparency. If you live in Ohio, Pennsylvania, or West Virginia and believe that you deserve answers, please join us. This meeting will consist of an information session as well as an opportunity for attendees to ask questions and share their concerns.

You can register for the meeting here: https://tinyurl.com/FalconPublicMeeting

If you have questions or require special accommodations to participate, please reach out to me, Erica Jackson, at jackson@fractracker.org or by phone at 412-229-7514.

At the event, FracTracker will provide more information about the history of concerns along the Falcon Pipeline, residents will give testimonies, and we will share resources for whistleblowers and concerned community members. Afterward, you will have the opportunities to pose questions.

Speakers include: the prominent Mariner East pipeline protester Ellen Gerhart, Adam Arnold with Government Accountability Project, Terrie Baumgardner with Clean Air Council, Bob Schmetzer with Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community, myself, and Heaven Sensky with Center for Coalfield Justice.

Please share this information with neighbors and anyone who may be interested in attending by forwarding this email or sharing the Facebook event page. This event is being hosted by the People Over Petro Coalition.

Erica Jackson, Manager
Community Outreach and Support
FracTracker Alliance

LNG leaks, accidents, explosions and fires are risks that are unacceptable in high population areas

By Hannah Chinn, WHYY, StateImpact Pennsylvania, September 11, 2020

The LNG export terminal proposed for Gibbstown, New Jersey, will have to wait a bit longer, now that the multistate Delaware River Basin Commission has postponed a vote on the project until data and documents in the case can be reviewed.

The project would involve construction of a new dock and partial dredging of the Delaware River off Gloucester County. It’s part of a plan by developer Delaware River Partners — an affiliate of New York hedge fund Fortress Investment Group — to ship liquefied natural gas from Wyalusing, in Pennsylvania’s gas-rich Marcellus Shale region, to Gibbstown, where the gas would be loaded onto ships and exported elsewhere.

To reach Gibbstown, the gas would be transported in trucks or rail cars, following federal approval last month of the nation’s first LNG-by-rail permit.

Plans for the LNG terminal were initially approved by the DRBC in June 2019, but that move was appealed by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and subsequently reviewed in a May adjudicatory hearing and public comment period. The officer overseeing that hearing ultimately recommended that the commission uphold its earlier approval.

DRBC members are required to vote publicly on whether to accept the hearing officer’s recommendation or reject it. On Thursday, they opted for a third option and delayed the decision, citing a need for more time.

“Given the size of the record, the technical nature of much extensive evidence, and the submission of briefs as recently as last week, completing a careful and thorough review by all of the commissioners by this meeting has not been possible,” the commission’s general counsel, Kenneth Warren, said Thursday. “Additional time for review and deliberation is required.”

The Gibbstown vote was not listed on the formal agenda for Thursday’s meeting, although local governments and environmental advocates hustled to oppose the decision and lobby their state’s representatives on the commission. The urgency may have stemmed, in part, from the fact that, if no action was taken, the developer could have begun constructing a dock and dredging the Delaware River as early as next week.

“Given its existing government approvals, [Delaware River Partners] could commence construction anytime after Sept. 15,” Warren said. “The commissioners may wish to preserve the status quo by staying the docket approval until the commission issues a final determination resolving the administrative appeal.”

Warren added that the decision to “stay” would not be indicative of any future choice by the commissioners to allow or deny the project.

The motion to postpone passed 3-1-1, with “yes” votes from New Jersey, New York and Delaware. Lt. Col. David Park voted “no” on behalf of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, while Pennsylvania abstained.

“I want to be clear: Delaware’s support is for us to reasonably complete the process and should not be read as anything else,” said Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Secretary Shawn Garvin, who serves as that state’s commissioner and current DRBC chair. “Our focus is and will be on those things that fall under DRBC’s jurisdiction, but at this point, we do need some extra time to make sure that we have fully and thoughtfully reviewed all of the information that was recently provided to us.”

More than 90 people tuned in to the commission’s third-quarter public hearing to hear the results of the vote. Environmental advocates praised the decision in a public comment session afterward, saying the commissioners were “making the right move.”

“As we face the future here in the Delaware River Watershed, the health of our river and its 13,000-square-mile watershed depends in large part on the big-picture decisions you make at these meetings,” Tracey Carluccio, of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, told the commissioners as she thanked them for a “thoughtful delay.”

“Any time you delay a bad project, it’s a win for the environment,” added New Jersey Sierra Club president Jeff Tittel. Plans that support fracking, or that send “bomb trains” through vulnerable communities could be devastating, he said, noting that “the more we know, the more we realize how bad it is for the environment.”

On Wednesday, representatives of both organizations had delivered flash drives to the governors of New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware, as well as the Army Corps of Engineers, which holds the fifth vote on the commission. The drives contained 50,962 petitions, resolutions from local governments along the proposed LNG shipping routes, and multiple letters from community groups, scientists, and environmental groups opposing the LNG export terminal.

Among others participating in the petition campaign were 350 Philly, Better Path Coalition, Catskill Mountainkeeper, Clean Air Council, Clean Water Action, Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, Empower NJ, Food and Water Action, Friends of the Earth, Mark Ruffalo for Move.On, Natural Resources Defense Council, Protect Northern PA, and Surfrider NJ and NY. A group of health professionals and 133 environmental group representatives, as well as actor-activist Ruffalo, also submitted letters to DRBC calling for a no vote on the project.

That public opposition appears to be mounting, as local government units including Lehigh County, Kutztown Borough, and Clarks Summit in Pennsylvania and Runnemede Borough in New Jersey have passed legislation opposing the transport of LNG through their communities. Several Philadelphia City Council members have indicated similar concerns, noting that a rail route through the city would expose Black, brown and low-income communities to the most intense zones of impact in the event of a derailment or explosion.

And then there are the people of Gibbstown, who would be directly affected. “I’m just a mom,” said Vanessa Keegan, one of the last to offer a comment at the meeting Thursday. She turned the camera to her 3-year-old son, Theo.

“Those signs in the Pennsylvania report that just came out, kids with the bloody noses and problems, that’s going to be us. And I am begging you to save my family — and that’s all I really wanted to say today, is that there are real people here, and I hope you protect us.”

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

See also: GENERAL COUNSEL REPORT AND VOTE ON GIBBSTOWN ADMINISTRATIVE APPEAL, September 10, 2020

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See also: Marcellus LNG “Bomb Trains” Approved for Travel thru Philadelphia to New Jersey, FrackCheckWV, December 11, 2019

Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline in Lancaster County PA

From an Article by Ad Crable, Lancaster OnLine, October 4, 2018

Natural gas will begin flowing through the controversial Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline underneath Lancaster County on Saturday, according to the pipeline builder.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Thursday morning gave Oklahoma-based Williams Partners the green light, saying the company has “adequately stabilized the areas disturbed by construction and that restoration is proceeding satisfactorily.”

Williams had originally asked to put the pipeline in service by Sept. 10, but flooding damage along the rights of way in August delayed that startup date.

Williams said it will begin full service on Saturday, moving natural gas collected from Marcellus Shale wells in northeastern Pennsylvania through the 42-inch pipeline — the industry’s largest — to markets as far south as Alabama. Some of the gas will be exported overseas as well.

The pipeline goes through 37 miles of western Lancaster County.

“This project makes the largest-volume pipeline system in the country even larger, further executing on our strategy to connect premier natural gas supply areas with the best markets in the country,” Alan Armstrong, Williams’ president and chief executive officer said in a press release.

“The project is significant for Pennsylvania and natural gas-consuming markets all along the East Coast, alleviating infrastructure bottlenecks and providing millions of consumers direct access to one of the most abundant, cost-effective natural gas supply sources in the country.”

Gene Barr, president of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry added, “Atlantic Sunrise has been a tremendous economic boom that will no doubt yield benefits, both economic and environmental, for the commonwealth for decades to come.”

But Lancaster County was the focal point for the strongest opposition to the pipeline, with dozens of arrests during protests and work blockages.

Lancaster Against Pipelines co-founder Mark Clatterbuck of Martic Township issued this statement in reaction to the pipeline opening: “From start to finish, Williams has shown nothing but arrogance and contempt toward our community while forcing the ASP through Lancaster County.

“That continued this past Monday, as we watched in horror as pipeliners for Williams tore down a giant cross and prayer labyrinth on land owned by the Adorers of the Blood of Christ. Site supervisors mocked us with their grins as one of the Sisters sat weeping at the outdoor chapel, bulldozers drowning out her quiet sobs.

“The ASP has been a huge wake-up call for Lancaster County. As FERC gives final approval for this dangerous pipeline, grassroots efforts are just beginning to dismantle the system that allows pipelines to keep terrorizing our communities and environment. Local resistance is springing up all over Pennsylvania, which is the industry’s greatest fear.”

The $3 billion project includes 198 miles of new pipeline, almost all in Pennsylvania, two new compressor stations and compressor station modifications in five states.

FERC had authorized construction of the project in February 2017.

Why does Dominion Energy have SO MUCH MONEY?

From an Article by Sarah Rankin, Associated Press, March 8, 2018

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Civic leaders in town after town along the 600-mile (966-kilometer) route of a proposed natural gas project have posed for similar photographs, smiling and accepting poster-sized checks from the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

Dominion Energy says it’s being a good neighbor by handing out $2 million in grants of around $5,000 to $10,000 in communities affected by its joint venture with fellow energy giants Duke Energy and Southern Co.

But critics say Dominion is buying support on the cheap to outflank opponents of the project, which would carry fracked natural gas from West Virginia into Virginia, North Carolina, and potentially further south at a cost that’s swelling to as much as $6.5 billion.

“It continues to astonish me how tiny these grants are and how ready people are to sell their souls,” said Hope Taylor, executive director of Clean Water for North Carolina, a nonprofit fighting the pipeline.

Documents obtained by The Associated Press as well as interviews with company officials, supporters and opponents, show the considerable lengths Dominion has gone to as it builds support for its largest capital project. The company says its grant program is charity, and not part of what it calls its largest outreach program in Dominion history.

“We wanted to make sure our side is adequately told,” said Bruce McKay, who as senior energy policy director for Richmond-based Dominion oversees the project’s public affairs. He calls the outreach necessary in part because of the pipeline’s complex, multijurisdictional nature and growing opposition to fossil fuel infrastructure.

Dominion is the leading percentage owner of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, responsible for its construction and operation. So far, only some trees have been cleared, but the project aims to go online as early as late 2019, according a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Supporters say the pipeline will meet a critical need for natural gas — primarily for power generation — in a region with constrained supplies. They say it will create jobs, boost economic development and support a shift from coal.

Opponents say it will harm the environment, and contend developers are overstating the need to build a project for which regulators will allow them to recoup a handsome return on their investments.

Even federal regulators (FERC) were divided on whether it’s in the public interest, voting 2-1 for approval in a rare split decision.

Publicly announced in September 2014, the pipeline quickly gained bipartisan backing. By 2015, one executive with a pipeline partner told South Carolina’s regulators at a commission hearing that the public support was “about as good as you can get.”

But Dominion was just getting started: It says its largest-ever outreach program has included 225,000 direct-mail pieces; community meetings; TV, radio and print ads; and social media use to reach more than 35,000 followers, according to an October presentation posted on Dominion Energy Transmission Inc.’s website.

McKay, who wouldn’t reveal the program’s overall cost, delivered some “lessons learned” in the presentation, including this advice: “Must create and maintain a political environment which allows permitting agencies to do their work,” and, “If you want fair media coverage you need to pay for it.”

McKay also denies any quid pro quo for campaign donations, saying Dominion simply gives to candidates who support sound energy policy.

The five Virginia lawmakers who signed a letter last year urging regulators to approve the pipeline have together taken more than $1 million from Dominion for themselves or their PACs during their careers, according an AP accounting of records maintained by the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project.

Dominion also has worked closely with local officials and generated plenty of local media coverage through its Community Investment Program. In an interview, McKay insisted the grants to health foundations, land trusts, charities and other local groups shouldn’t be considered lobbying.

But at least some communications have acknowledged the optics.

Gary Brown, economic development director of Northampton County, North Carolina, emailed a pipeline public-relations manager working on the grant program to suggest that a poster-size check should show three grants’ combined total.

“As it is a show piece, how about a prop check written to ‘Northampton County’ for the total of all grants — larger total — bigger image — greater perceived impact,” Brown wrote in an email obtained by the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League through a public-records request and provided to AP.

Brown, who testified in favor of the pipeline at public hearings, is board president of an automotive research center that received a $1,680 grant, the progressive news outlet NC Policy Watch reported.

In at least three other instances, grants have gone to organizations run by or affiliated with pipeline boosters.

For example, after the Boys & Girls Club of Lumberton received a $10,000 grant that helped repair hurricane damage, Executive Director Ron Ross testified in support of the pipeline at a North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality meeting. He said his support had nothing to do with money. “We didn’t ask them if they wanted to give us money — they asked us,” Ross said.

In one North Carolina county, Dominion representatives planned a helicopter tour of a northern Virginia compressor station for two commissioners, documents obtained by AP show. In another, the county manager and other “supporters” were invited to dinner at a swanky former plantation, emails show.

Other emails obtained through a public-records request show an administrator in Buckingham County, Virginia, frequently alerted a Dominion employee to news or complaints. In one, the administrator predicted an outspoken pipeline critic would “be a problem.”

Another email says Dominion wrote a letter for a county supervisor to sign supporting the conversion of conservation easements — which are supposed to forever protect land from development — for use for the pipeline. The emails suggested printing it on Buckingham County letterhead for a Dominion worker to hand-deliver to the decision-making agency.

McKay says opposition from organized, well-funded environmental groups made all this outreach necessary.

David Pomerantz, executive director of the Energy and Policy Institute, said that’s a false comparison. He said: “What ties all of these stories together is, Dominion is trying to con people, trying to con their own customers and policymakers and legislators, because the arguments don’t stand up on the merits.”

Wetzel County has Severe Road Issues

West Virginia Delegates Want Fracking Money For Road Repairs

From an Article by Casey Junkins, Wheeling Intelligencer, January 16, 2016

Wheeling, WV – West Virginia leaders collected about $18 million from leasing mineral tracts beneath the Ohio River and state parks for fracking, but a bipartisan bill in the House of Delegates would require money from future projects to fund road repairs.

In 2014, officials with the state Department of Commerce began soliciting bids from companies to drill and frack on state-owned land under the river in Marshall, Wetzel and Tyler counties. Eventually, state officials signed drilling contracts with Noble Energy, Antero Resources, Statoil and Southwestern Energy Co., according to documents at the commerce department’s website.

The money for these leases went to the Division of Natural Resources, an arm of the commerce department, for improving state parks. However, a number of legislators – many of them from the Northern Panhandle – want funds generated from any future mineral leases beneath the river to help repair roads.

“It will be hard to get to the parks if the roads leading to them are in bad shape,” said Delegate Erikka Storch, among the bill’s co-sponsors.

The legislation, House Bill 2977, states that lease and royalty revenue gained from mineral leases for property beneath the state’s rivers and streams that were entered after July 1, 2015 will go to the State Road Fund. Money obtained for agreements entered before this date would stay with the DNR, the bill states.

Others signing on as co-sponsors of HB 2977 are Delegates David Evans, R-Marshall; Ryan Weld, R-Brooke; Mark Zatezalo, R-Hancock; Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio; Mike Ferro, D-Marshall; Marty Gearheart, R-Mercer; and Gary Howell, R-Mineral,

Northern Panhandle lawmakers have long complained about the condition of state roads and bridges. Trucks carrying oversized loads – including natural gas, equipment, chemicals, pipelines or other materials involved in the fracking industry – regularly use these roads.

Some roads that see the largest impact from natural gas industry include Dallas Pike Road, GC&P Road, Stone Church Road, and Oklahoma Road in Ohio County; W.Va. 88, W.Va. 67, and Apple Pie Ridge in Brooke County; U.S. 250, W.Va. 88, Walnut Grove Road, Greenfield Ridge Road, Roberts Ridge Road, Fork Ridge Road and Fish Creek Road in Marshall County; and Macedonia Road, St. Joseph Road, W.Va. 89, Brock Ridge Road in Wetzel County.

“I think it’s reasonable to ask that we use some of this money to fix our roads,” Storch added.

Upon introduction, the bill went to the Committee on Roads and Transportation for consideration. It would also need to go to the Finance Committee before heading to the full House for a vote.

[[ In other matters Friday, in a party-line vote, a Republican-led Senate panel has cleared a push to make West Virginia the 26th right-to-work state.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the measure Friday to prohibit requiring paying union dues as a condition of employment. Democrats and unions say the bill undermines unions without any clear benefit. Republicans say it's about worker freedom and trying to create jobs in one of the country's most struggling states.

On Friday, state Commerce Secretary Keith Burdette said West Virginia should instead focus on addressing critical problems, including lack of flat land, infrastructure problems and an undereducated workforce.

Hundreds of union employees protested the legislation Wednesday at the Capitol, the first day of the 60-day legislative session. The full Senate may vote on the bill next week. ]]