Mothers are increasingly concerned about how fracking affects children

From a Series by Kristina Marusic, Reporter, EHN, March 1, 2021

This is part 1 of our 4-part series, “Fractured,” an investigation of fracking chemicals in the air, water, and people of western Pennsylvania. We tested families in fracking country for harmful chemicals and revealed unexplained exposures, sick children, and a family’s “dream life” upended.

WASHINGTON COUNTY, Pa.—In the summer of 2019, 13-year-old Gunnar Bjornson spent most days banging on his drums, playing video games, antagonizing his siblings, wandering outdoors, and scrounging for junk food in his home’s mostly healthy kitchen.

Gunnar is tan and blond with bright blue eyes and all the charisma required to survive being the younger of two middle children in a big family. He’s the household entertainer, constantly cracking jokes and falling into contagious giggling fits.

Gunnar lives with his mom, dad, older brothers and younger sister about 35 miles south of Pittsburgh in the aptly-named community of Scenery Hill, where narrow country roads wind through shady woods that open up onto hilltop vistas of rolling fields. The hills are peppered with farmhouses, fruit orchards, and fields of corn and squash. The roadsides are punctuated by little white churches, farm stands, and dirt driveways marked with hand-painted signs like “The Jones’s” and “Hidden Family Farm.”

Scenery Hill is in Washington County, the most heavily fracked county in Pennsylvania, with about 1,584 wells in its 861 square miles, so the idyllic country roads are also flanked with signs directing oil and gas well traffic: “No well traffic beyond this point,” “Staging area —->,” “Truck traffic: No engine breaks,” and ads that read, “We buy mineral rights!”

August 19, 2019, was a typical day for Gunnar—he played drums, took the dog outside, and argued and joked with his siblings. But unbeknownst to him and his family, Gunnar had a number of harmful chemicals coursing through his body.

A urine sample taken from Gunnar that day contained 11 harmful industrial chemicals, including benzene, toluene, naphthalene, and lesser-known chemicals linked to a range of health effects including respiratory and gastrointestinal problems, skin and eye irritation, organ damage, reproductive harm, and increased cancer risk.

These chemicals are found in things like gasoline, pesticides, industrial solvents and glues, varnishes, paints, car exhaust, industrial emissions, and tobacco smoke. They’re also commonly detected in air emissions from fracking wells.

Fracking, another name for hydraulic fracturing, is the process of extracting oil and gas from the Earth by drilling deep wells and injecting liquid at high pressure. Over the last decade, fracking has transformed the U.S. energy industry—total crude oil production more than doubled from 2010 to 2020, and natural gas, once in short supply, is now so over-abundant it’s exported overseas. But in that same time period, concerns about the health effects of fracking have escalated.

In Texas, researchers found that babies born near frequent flaring—the burning off of excess natural gas from fracking wells—are 50 percent more likely to be premature. In Colorado, the state Department of Health found that people living near fracking sites face elevated risk of nosebleeds, headaches, breathing trouble, and dizziness. In Pennsylvania, researchers found that people living near fracking face increased rates of infant mortality, depression, and hospitalizations for skin and urinary issues.

Studies of fracking communities throughout the country have found that living near fracking wells increases the risk of premature births, high-risk pregnancies, asthma, migraines, fatigue, nasal and sinus symptoms, skin disorders and heart failure; and laboratory studies have linked chemicals used in fracking fluid to endocrine disruption—which can cause hormone imbalance, reproductive harm, early puberty, brain and behavior problems, improper immune function, and cancer.

“We have enough evidence at this point that these health impacts should be of serious concern to policymakers interested in protecting public health,” Irena Gorski Steiner, an environmental epidemiology doctoral candidate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told Environmental Health News (EHN).

EHN has reported on this increasing evidence of fracking’s impacts on human health for years. But we saw a gap in the science—almost no one was checking to see if harmful fracking chemicals were actually in the bodies of people living near wells. In 2019, EHN collected urine samples, along with air and water samples, from five families in southwestern Pennsylvania, including the Bower-Bjornsons, and had them analyzed for chemicals associated with fracking.

>>>>>>>…….>>>>>>>…….>>>>>>>

“Fractured” …… Watch a webinar with reporter Kristina Marusic about reporting by the Environmental Health Network

Public community meeting on excess cancers in SW PA

From an Article by Don Hopey & David Templeton, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 19, 2019

Environmentalists and researchers attending a panel discussion Tuesday called for studies to determine whether shale-gas drilling and fracking, or other pollution sources, could be responsible for an increasing number of childhood, teenage and young adult cancers in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Bernard Goldstein, professor emeritus of environmental and occupational health at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, moderated the discussion and talked about a handful of investigations of environmental exposures and possible “clusters” of disease.

“This situation raises important questions about public health, what’s happening to people where they live, and the lack of responsibility by the industry,” Dr. Goldstein said.

He noted that he had been involved in more than a dozen investigations of potential disease clusters and said they are invariably “frustrating and humbling.” “That’s because the science is often not good enough to give us the answers we need,” he said.

About 150 people attended the event at Bella Sera in North Strabane, Washington County. It was held in response to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s project, “Human toll: Risk and exposure in the gas lands,” that documented up to 67 childhood, teenage and young adult cancers over the past decade in Washington, Westmoreland, Fayette and Greene counties.

Those cases include 27 cases of Ewing sarcoma — a rare bone cancer with only 250 diagnoses nationwide each year.

A major concern is the Canon-McMillan School District, with a legacy of six cases of Ewing sarcoma in the past decade, along with 10 cases of other cancers, many of them rare types, among current students, including a girl who died in February from astrocytoma, a brain-spinal cord cancer.

Dee Kochirka, vice president of the Allegheny County chapter of the Izaak Walton League, said the league’s objective is to unite the state’s 80 or so environmental groups to speak with one voice on environmental health matters.

“We need to be heard. The scientific methods can take decades to prove true. It took 40 years to prove cigarettes cause cancer,” she said. “Are we going to wait until more children die to find out about shale gas drilling?”

Reports of childhood cancers continues to raise concern.

The panel raised concerns that identifying a cause of the cancers is difficult, but pollution from various sources, including shale gas development, could be responsible, said Dr. Ned Ketyer, a panelist and a retired pediatrician who now works with the Environmental Health Project. He noted that the number of Ewing sarcoma and other cancer cases is alarming.

“Only unbiased studies can lead to answers,” he said.

On Monday, more than 100 organizations and 800 individuals signed a letter to Gov. Tom Wolf and state Health Department Secretary Rachel Levine requesting an investigation of potential links between shale gas development and childhood cancers.

The group also requested that all new shale gas permitting be suspended until the health department determines whether such a link exists.

In response, the Marcellus Shale Coalition sent a letter later Monday to Mr. Wolf, terming the request “ridiculous.” It said those asking for the investigation represent “the insidious movement we are witnessing to shut down American shale gas development.”

He called the groups’ actions as “shameful” in the effort “to exploit the very real and heartbreaking issues associated with childhood cancer” that “should not be fodder to advance a political agenda.”

“The claims made by the signatories to the letter are an affront not only to the integrity of the researchers who have dedicated their lives to understanding rare cancers such as those affecting families in Southwest PA, but also to those who work in the industry, as well as the professionalism and expertise of your own environmental regulators and health professionals,” said David J. Spigelmyer, Marcellus Shale Coalition president.

Panelist Janice Blanock, whose son, Luke, died from Ewings sarcoma in 2016, said there’s no loss like the loss of a child and parents shouldn’t have to watch their children suffer, especially if it’s caused by something environmental.

“It’s time to come together as one united group of concerned citizens,” Ms. Blanock said. “It’s our right to make sure we have a healthy environment for our children. I want to ask each of you what you will do. What will you stand up for?”

CDC, state officials investigating multiple cases of rare cancer in southwestern Pa.

From an Article by David Templeton & Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 28, 2019

Many in the Canon-McMillan School District first learned about Ewing sarcoma, a rare childhood bone cancer, when Luke Blanock of the village of Cecil was diagnosed on Dec. 5, 2014.

The media did stories about the community rallying around the smart, handsome teenager and his family, then returned on Feb. 19, 2016, to cover Mr. Blanock — pale, thin and having just been told he had only two weeks to live — when he married his high school girlfriend, Natalie Britvich.

He rebounded a bit and even played a round of golf before succumbing nearly six months later on Aug. 7, from multiple tumors of the brain, spine, skull, jaw and pelvis. He was only 19.

But, as it turns out, the Ewing sarcoma scare within Canon-McMillan’s boundaries in eastern Washington County neither began nor ended with Luke Blanock.

In fact, six cases of Ewing sarcoma have been diagnosed within the school district since 2008, including two cases in the past nine months.

And only now is it being disclosed that twice that number of Ewing cases have occurred in southeastern Westmoreland County since 2011.

Only 200 to 250 cases of Ewing sarcoma — a rare cancer of the bone or nearby soft tissue — occur each year in the United States. The National Cancer Institute said the incidence for all ages is one case per million but up to 10 cases per million among those in the 10-to-19 age group.

Based on a report by a concerned resident and St. Vincent College researchers about the Ewing cases in Westmoreland County, the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched a study to determine whether these cases constitute a cluster. The state now has expanded the investigation to include the Canon-McMillan School District and Washington County.

Nate Wardle, health department spokesman, said it received more than a dozen phone calls within the last month from residents of Washington and Westmoreland counties about the Ewing sarcoma cases, and several more called this week.

Ewing Sarcoma Canon Cases mount up

The string of Ewing cases in Canon-McMillan began with the mid-2008 diagnosis of Curtis Valent, a Cecil Township resident who graduated from Bishop Canevin High School. He died on Jan. 2, 2011, at age 23, according to his obituary. His parents could not be reached for comment.

Late in 2008, Alyssa Chambers, then an 18-year-old Canon-McMillan senior living in northern Cecil Township, was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma and survived. She later became an oncology nurse at UPMC Shadyside.

Kyle Deliere, who lived about a mile from Mr. Blanock in the village of Cecil, was diagnosed with Ewing next, on Oct. 30, 2011. He lost weight, had night sweats and fevers, and developed large tumors on his hip, femur and lungs. The 11-letter high school athlete who wrestled for the University of Pittsburgh died on Nov. 15, 2013, at age 27.

Then in June 2018, David Cobb, 37 at the time, and also living in Cecil Township, was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma and now is undergoing rounds of chemotherapy.

Compounding this cancer conundrum and fueling concern, Mitchell Barton, a 21-year-old Canon-McMillan graduate now working as a technician in a local box factory, posted news on Facebook of his Dec. 27, 2018, Ewing diagnosis.

He and Mr. Blanock played baseball together in high school. Mr. Barton, now undergoing chemotherapy, still lives at home in North Strabane, where fracked natural gas wells surround him. For that reason, environmental issues crossed his mind from the moment of diagnosis.

“I worked at a golf course for four years and was exposed to a lot of chemicals, weed killers and things like that,” he said. “Our house also is in a valley surrounded by four gas wells. I heard about natural gas and my mom is concerned about methane [natural gas].”

In addition to the Ewing cases, a 14-year-old girl from Cecil Township died of astrocytoma, a brain and spinal cord cancer, in February, and as many as seven current students and two preschoolers in the Canon-McMillan School District have other types of cancer.

Those nine consist of two cases of osteosarcoma (bone); one liposarcoma (joint); one rhabdomyosarcoma (also joint); a Wilms (kidney) tumor in a child whose family has moved from the district; one liver cancer; two cases of leukemia (blood); and a 2-year-old with cancer that the parent declined to identify.

In another case, a 21-year-old Canon-McMillan graduate of North Strabane was diagnosed in early January with leukemia.

Another concentration of cases: The worries about Ewing and other forms of childhood cancer go well beyond the Canon-McMillan School District. In Westmoreland County, 12 cases of Ewing sarcoma were found to be diagnosed from 2011 through early 2018.

Maureen Grace, a Westmoreland County lawyer and teacher, began compiling a list upon hearing of one case after another in areas southeast of Greensburg. “All that I can say is that I saw beautiful children and families suffering. I asked myself, ‘What if this happened to a child in my family?’ Every child, every parent and anyone who cares about children has the right to clean, healthy, safe air, water and surroundings for their babies, little ones and teenagers to grow and become adults. I don’t know if we have this environment right now,” Ms. Grace said.

“Our children are our most precious resource. If we don’t investigate this to the very best of our abilities, who are we as a culture or community?” she added. “We need to do better for our little ones who look to us for the answers. We need to protect them above all else.”

So determined, she sought help from two St. Vincent College researchers — Elaine Bennett, professor of anthropology and public health, and Cynthia Walter, a now-retired professor of ecology and toxicology — who recruited students to help verify cases, analyze results and write a report. Ms. Grace also received help through the Healthy Child/Healthy World Organization. The research team, known as the Westmoreland County Pa. Ewing Sarcoma Project, submitted its report to the state health department and CDC in December 2017.

Working quietly, Ms. Grace finally responded to longstanding inquiries from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and stepped forward with Ms. Walter, who holds a doctorate in biology, to publicize their results. Ms. Grace said she initially documented eight pediatric Ewing cases and the health department now has expanded that total to 12, when cases involving young adults were included.

Confirming a cluster requires meeting a high statistical and analytical bar, including identifying a pollution or chemical exposure linked to that cancer, according to a Pitt biostatistician. That presents a problem because Ewing sarcoma has no known cause. What could be the cause?

The Westmoreland project presented the state with a long list of possible pollution sources, including countywide shale gas drilling and fracking operations and a Penn Township landfill that has accepted thousands of tons of radioactive drill cuttings from gas well sites. The project’s report also makes a case for how pollution exposure could lead to Ewing.

But Ms. Grace said she and the team don’t yet know if fracking, water or air pollution, or pollution from old industry, among other sources of pollution and contamination, are responsible. “We don’t want our aim to stray from seeking a scientific cause and solution,” she said.

The health department said it is reviewing cancer statistics for Washington County and for the Canon-McMillan School District, where it is only aware of four cases but has yet to incorporate 2018 cancer data into its review. In the past decade, two additional Ewing sarcoma cases have occurred in Washington County — one in Charleroi and another in or near Bentleyville — with at least two cases each in Greene and Fayette counties.

The health department also said it has been working with researchers to separately evaluate and monitor Westmoreland County statistics. Even with 12 Ewing cases, the department does not see a statistically significant excessive number in Westmoreland County, Mr. Wardle said, adding that that finding has been shared with concerned residents of the county. “But we will continue to monitor the number of cases in the area.”

He said the department is doing the statistical evaluation of the Ewing cases in Washington County and now has included all childhood cancers in the study, including those identified by the Post-Gazette.

The Ewing family of sarcoma is not one of the common cancers the department reports on annually, he said. Most cases occur in teens when they experience growth spurts, and science is limited as to what causes it.

The concerned citizens who recently called the health department wanted to know if the cancer cases are related to environmental factors, including radiation, Mr. Wardle said. Washington County has historic radiation issues related to a uranium mill tailings disposal site in North Strabane, near Canonsburg, where the U.S. Department of Energy continues to report background or below background levels of radiation.

Another concern is the widespread drilling and fracking of more than 1,000 shale gas wells, which produce waste water with radioactive components, among other pollutants. The first experimental well in southwestern Pennsylvania was fracked in 2005 in Cecil Township. The township now sits downwind from a phalanx of compressor stations and a hilltop cryogenics plant, a major source of pollution.

Academic studies done in Pennsylvania and Colorado have found higher rates of childhood cancers in areas where fracking is occurring but with no links to Ewing sarcoma.

The Marcellus Shale Coalition, the trade organization representing the shale gas industry in Pennsylvania, issued a statement citing a review of medical data by the American Cancer Society that found “no known lifestyle-related or environmental causes of Ewing tumors ….”

In a statement, David Spigelmyer, coalition president, said attempts to link the incidence of Ewing sarcoma and other childhood cancers to the shale gas drilling industry were without scientific or medical support.

###########################

See also: Study Finds Higher Risk of Brain Tumors in Appalachia, January 17, 2019

Fines plus restorations become more expensive

Information Compiled by FrackCheckWV, Primarily From SkyTruth, Shepherdstown, WV

>>> PA Permit Violation Issued to Cnx Gas Co Llc in South Franklin Twp, Washington County
Description: Administrative violation issued on 2019-01-30 to Cnx Gas Co Llc in South Franklin Twp, Washington county. 78.55(a) – CONTROL AND DISPOSAL PLANNING – Operator failed to prepare and implement a plan under 25 Pa. Code Section 91.34 for the control and disposal of fluids, residual waste and drill cuttings, including tophole water, brines, drilling fluids, additives, drilling muds, stimulation fluids, well servicing fluids, oil, and production fluids from the drilling, alteration, production, plugging or other activity associated with oil and gas wells.

>>> PA Permit Violation Issued to Cnx Gas Co Llc in South Franklin Twp, Washington County
Description: Environmental Health & Safety violation issued on 2019-01-30 to Cnx Gas Co Llc in South Franklin Twp, Washington county. 78.57(a) – CONTROL, STORAGE AND DISPOSAL OF PRODUCTION FLUIDS – Operator failed to collect the brine and other fluids produced during operation, service and plugging of the well in a tank, pit or a series of pits or tanks, or other device approved by the Department or Operator discharged brine or other fluids on or into the ground or into waters of the Commonwealth.

>>> PA Permit Violation Issued to Cnx Gas Co Llc in South Franklin Twp, Washington County
Description: Environmental Health & Safety violation issued on 2019-01-30 to Cnx Gas Co Llc in South Franklin Twp, Washington county. 78.54 – GENERAL REQUIREMENTS – Operator failed to control and dispose of fluids, residual waste and drill cuttings, including tophole water, brines, drilling fluids, drilling muds, stimulation fluids, well servicing fluids, oil, and production fluids in a manner that prevents pollution of the waters of the Commonwealth.

##########. ###########. ##########.

>>> PA Permit Violation Issued to Rice Drilling B Llc in Franklin Twp, Greene County
Description: Administrative violation issued on 2019-01-22 to Rice Drilling B Llc in Franklin Twp, Greene county. OGA3211(H) – WELL PERMITS – LABELING – Failure to install, in a permanent manner, the permit number on a completed well.

>>> PA Permit Violation Issued to Rice Drilling B Llc in Franklin Twp, Greene County
Description: Environmental Health & Safety violation issued on 2019-01-22 to Rice Drilling B Llc in Franklin Twp, Greene county. CSL 401 – PROHIBITION AGAINST OTHER POLLUTIONS – Discharged substance of any kind or character resulting in pollution of Waters of the Commonwealth.

>>> PA Permit Violation Issued to Rice Drilling B Llc in Franklin Twp, Greene County
Description: Environmental Health & Safety violation issued on 2019-01-22 to Rice Drilling B Llc in Franklin Twp, Greene county. CSL 402(b) – POTENTIAL POLLUTION – Conducting an activity regulated by a permit issued pursuant to Section 402 of The Clean Streams Law to prevent the potential of pollution to waters of the Commonwealth without a permit or contrary to a permit issued under that authority by the Department.

>>> PA Permit Violation Issued to Rice Drilling B Llc in Franklin Twp, Greene County
Description: Environmental Health & Safety violation issued on 2019-01-22 to Rice Drilling B Llc in Franklin Twp, Greene county. 78.54 – GENERAL REQUIREMENTS – Operator failed to control and dispose of fluids, residual waste and drill cuttings, including tophole water, brines, drilling fluids, drilling muds, stimulation fluids, well servicing fluids, oil, and production fluids in a manner that prevents pollution of the waters of the Commonwealth.

>>> PA Permit Violation Issued to Rice Drilling B Llc in Franklin Twp, Greene County
Description: Environmental Health & Safety violation issued on 2019-01-22 to Rice Drilling B Llc in Franklin Twp, Greene county. 78.57(a) – CONTROL, STORAGE AND DISPOSAL OF PRODUCTION FLUIDS – Operator failed to collect the brine and other fluids produced during operation, service and plugging of the well in a tank, pit or a series of pits or tanks, or other device approved by the Department or Operator discharged brine or other fluids on or into the ground or into waters of the Commonwealth.

SkyTruth, P.O. Box 3283, Shepherdstown, WV 25443
(304) 885-4581, info@skytruth.org

#########################

US Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs

Note the Ohio River (at risk) at upper left

U. S. and West Virginia Reach Settlement With Antero Resources Corporation for Clean Water Act Violations at 32 West Virginia Sites

The Department of Justice, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) announced that they have reached a settlement with Antero Resources Corporation resolving alleged violations of Section 404 of the Clean Water Act (CWA) at 32 sites in Harrison, Doddridge, and Tyler Counties in West Virginia.

The settlement filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia requires Antero to pay a civil penalty of $3.15 million and to conduct restoration, stabilization, and mitigation work at impacted sites. Antero will also provide mitigation for aquatic resource impacts.

“The Department of Justice is pleased to join with the EPA and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection in reaching this settlement and will continue to work with its law enforcement partners to hold corporations accountable for violating the nation’s environmental laws,” said Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark of the Environment and Natural Resources Division.

“This settlement seeks to rectify harm done to U.S. waters from unauthorized activities undertaken by Antero, and demonstrates that federal and state regulators are committed to pursuing violations that threaten human health and the environment,” said EPA Regional Administrator Cosmo Servidio.

Impacts to aquatic resources will be partially offset at a 51.5-acre permittee-responsible mitigation site that will restore, enhance, create, and preserve over 11,500 linear feet of streams and more than 3 acres of wetlands. The EPA-estimated value of the proposed mitigation and restoration is $8 million.

The violations involved the unauthorized disposal of dredged and fill materials into waters of the United States at or near sites where Antero had constructed well pads, compressor stations, impoundments, pipeline crossings, access roads, and other structures associated with Marcellus Shale natural gas extraction by means of hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking.

While each of the 32 sites varied regarding the extent of the impact to wetlands and streams, the unauthorized activities impacted more than 19,000 linear feet of streams and over four acres of wetlands and included:

>> Stream impoundments;
>> Filling wetlands and streams for compressor station pads;
>> Realigning and culverting stream segments; and
>> Failing to fully restore “temporary” impacts.
>> Approximately half of the sites were identified by Antero through a self-audit. Several of the sites were associated with construction failures or “slips” from access roads and pads.

The proposed settlement which is subject to a 30-day public comment period is available at: https://www.justice.gov/enrd/consent-decrees

For more information about Clean Water Act Section 404 protection of wetlands and waterways, visit: https://www.epa.gov/cwa-404

Fire on 24” Revolution Natural Gas Pipeline in Southwest PA

From an Article by Tony LaRussa and Tom Davidson, Pittsburgh Tribune Review, August 10, 2018

An explosion from a natural gas pipeline operating for only a week sparked a fire early Monday that destroyed a Beaver County home and two garages and prompted authorities to evacuate about two dozen other homes in the area.

The 24-inch pipeline’s owner, Dallas-based Energy Transfer Corp., said it was investigating but an early assessment of the explosion site showed there had been “earth movement in the vicinity of the pipeline.”

Center police Chief Barry Kramer attributed that to heavy, continuous rain over the weekend, but he said he’d leave determining the exact cause “up to the experts.”

Nearly 5 inches fell between Friday night and Monday morning, according to the National Weather Service.

An orange glow lit up the dark-morning sky after the fire began along Center Township’s Ivy Lane around 5 a.m.

“It was just a huge fireball. My house was shaking,” said Ivy Lane resident Toni DeMarco, 54.

Another Ivy Lane resident, 64-year-old Karen Gdula, heard what she said sounded like an 18-wheel tractor-trailer idling outside her bedroom window before the blast. “The ground shook,” Gdula said. “It looked like it was noon and it was 5 a.m. The flames were shooting higher than the pine trees.”

Residents of between 25 and 30 homes on Ivy Lane and Pine Drive were evacuated to a nearby fire social hall along Brodhead Road and were being assisted by the American Red Cross.

Authorities closed busy Brodhead Road, which is connected with Ivy Lane, and Interstate 376 between the Center and Aliquippa interchanges. Brodhead reopened to traffic by about 10 a.m. and the highway, known locally as the Beaver Valley Expressway, reopened by midday.

About 1,500 people lost power after the explosion brought down six high-tension electrical towers, according Kramer. Central Valley School District also canceled classes.

One of the few vehicles allowed onto Ivy Lane while the fire burned was a trailer used to remove several horses. Authorities relocated them to a safe area.

Energy Transfer spokesman Christopher Koop said the fire extinguished itself about two hours after it began. The pipeline’s monitoring system detected a problem and closed valves located about 15 miles apart to keep methane gas from flowing into the damaged part of the pipeline, Kramer said.

Ultimately, Kramer said, “The fire burned itself out.”

The methane gas line runs between northern Butler County and northern Washington County, and is part of what Energy Transfer calls its Revolution pipeline. It went online September 3, Kramer said.

It is not associated with Peoples Gas, the natural gas utility that serves the area, or the multibillion-dollar Shell ethane cracker plant being built in nearby Potter Township. Workers from Peoples were inspecting their gas service lines in the area to make sure they weren’t damaged Monday, but Kramer said it did not appear as if those lines were compromised.

Multiple agencies will be investigating, including the state Department of Environmental Protection and Public Utilities Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Kramer said.

Kramer said the incident needs to be investigated to determine how it happened and if other, similar pipelines in the area that are in-service or under construction pose similar threats.

“I think that’s a question that should be asked to the pipeline industry: Why did this occur?” Kramer said. “Is that something that we can go forward rest assured that this isn’t going to happen again. I can’t answer that other than I am concerned and I would like answers to those questions probably like everybody in this room. We still would like answers moving forward with this,” Kramer said.

########################

Mountain Valley to Stop Work on Pipeline

From Virginia Dept. Of Environmental Quality, September 10, 2018

Construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Virginia has stopped until the storm passes. All activity is focused on stabilization of the right-of-way, and maintenance and enhancement of erosion controls. With a state of emergency now in effect across Virginia, all resources in the Commonwealth have been directed to environmental maintenance and hurricane preparedness, including the securing of materials and equipment for potential wind impacts.

########################

NOTICE FROM THE WEST VIRGINIA RIVERS COALITION

Free Webinar 9/13 – Learn to Detect and Report Pollution from Pipelines http://wvrivers.org/2018/08/visualassessment/

Action Alert – Comment on WVDEP’s Proposed Changes to Stream Crossing Permit http://wvrivers.org/2018/09/nationwide12factsheet/

>>> Autumn Crowe, Staff Scientist
West Virginia Rivers Coalition
304-992-6070, WVRivers.org