Highly corrosive brine (residual) wastewater processing facility on Mon River in Fairmont

From an Article of Your Radio Place in Ohio, June 1, 2023

LORE CITY, Ohio–Members of three area fire companies responded to the report of an oil and gas well pad explosion Thursday morning.

Around 10 am Thursday, a explosion was reported at a Utica Resources drilling site on Leatherwood Road (SR 265) near the intersection of Salem Road, located east of Lore City.

According to local fire officials, a storage tank on the site exploded for reasons yet to be determined. The blast was reported by residents nearly 15 miles away.

Members of Lore City, Old Washington and Quaker City Fire Departments responded, and per protocol, staged at the entrance to the pad site. Following the explosion, a small fire was extinguished and situation was quickly brought under control by drilling company personnel on scene.

One worker, close to the blast received minor injuries and was evaluated by Old Washington EMS personnel. The worker refused treatment.

There was no report of nearby property damage and the incident is under investigation by the ODNR, well drilling company personnel and local fire officials.

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WV-DEP: Testing after Fairmont explosion showed no signs of contamination

Articles by C. Allan, WBOY News 12, Posted: May 30, 2023, Updated: May 31, 2023, UPDATE: 5/31/2023, 1:14 p.m.

FAIRMONT, W.Va. (WBOY) — Officials with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) are still assessing the site of a fire that happened at the Fairmont Brine Plant on Tuesday.

According to an update sent to 12 News by a DEP representative early Wednesday afternoon, testing performed by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources on Tuesday showed that no first responders showed any signs of contamination. “No testing showed above background readings on their bodies,” said a DEP representative.

The representative also said that when the fire was extinguished around 4 p.m. on Tuesday, DEP staff did not see evidence of material or firefighting water leaving the site.

Crews from the DEP, Fairmont Brine Plant and Environmental Protection Agency are currently on site conducting an updated assessment.

UPDATE: 5/30/2023, 7:01 p.m.

FAIRMONT, W.Va. (WBOY) — After previous reports that no evacuation was needed after an explosion at a brine plant in Fairmont on Tuesday, officials from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) are now at the site testing for radioactive material.

According to the Marion County Homeland Security & Emergency Management Facebook page, DEP is at the Fairmont Brine Plant on AFR Drive performing various sampling tests of the air and ground. The post said that the operations are contained to the immediate affected area.

The Winfield VFD, Valley VFD, MCRS, Bunner Ridge VFD, Rivesville VFD, Barrackville VFD, Marion County Sheriff, Marion DHSEM, WV DEP, and Mon County Hazardous Response Team all responded.

ORIGINAL: 5/30/2023, 2:59 p.m.

FAIRMONT, W.Va. (WBOY) — A representative with the Department of Environmental Protection has been called following an explosion in Fairmont.

According to the Marion County 911 Communications Center, an explosion was reported at 1:53 p.m. Tuesday at the old brine processing plant on AFR Drive in Fairmont.

When crews arrived on the scene, they reported back that there were no injuries and determined it was not necessary to evacuate the area due to potential chemical leaks resulting from the reported explosion, comm center officials said.

At this time, the Department of Environmental Protection has been notified of the incident and is sending a representative to the scene, according to the comm center.

At the scene were the Winfield, Valley, Rivesville, Barrackville and Bunner Ridge fire departments, also on the scene is the Marion County Rescue Squad as a precaution, comm center officials said.

The Winfield District Volunteer Fire Department is the lead at the scene, according to the comm center. Currently, the crews on scene are following precautionary direction and instruction per the Department of Environmental Protection.

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TIMELINE for Fairmont Brine Processing

> 2009 – Facility was constructed under previous ownership
> Q4 2009 – Venture Engineering & Construction, Inc. (“Venture”) hired by previous ownership to manage construction and commissioning
> Late 2009 – Operations begin (3,500 bbl/day facility)

2010 – Facility encounters increasing and severe metallurgical issues ~ Facility shuts down due to improper materials of construction and process issues

2012 – Facility is acquired by Fairmont Brine Processing, LLC (“FBP”) ~ Venture is hired to redevelop the facility as a 4,000 bbl/day plant

2013 – Pretreatment operations commence

July 1, 2014 – Evaporation & Crystallization process operations commence

October 1, 2014 – Sold 100% of the plant capacity under two take or pay contracts (4,000 bbls /day) through end of 2016.

Fishing map of Tappan Lake, which received a $6 million upgrade

Article written by Randi Pokladnik, PhD, Tappan Lake, Uhrichsville, OH

Yellowstone National Park in Montana experienced massive flooding last week. “Water devoured roads, swept away bridges, isolated entire towns and shut down one of America’s busiest parks.” The flooding was blamed on a cool-wet spring which was equivalent to 200 percent of the normal moisture from snow melt. Warmer temperatures and more rain caused the Yellowstone River to overflow its banks with a flow of nearly 50,000 cubic feet of water per second. USGS data shows that over the past 130 years, the river only reached 32,000 cubic feet three times. This was a 1 in 500-year flood event.

Kansas is one of the major cattle-producing states in America. Farmers witnessed cattle dropping dead as heat spiked from 79 degrees on June 9th to 101 degrees on June 11th. Over 2000 cattle were lost in the intense heat wave triggered by climate change.

These recent events along with the storms that hit Ohio last week are proof that the climate is changing and severe weather will soon be the new norm. Still, politicians like Ohio CD 6 Representative, Bill Johnson, and the oil and gas industry continue to cling to the very fuel that is driving this climate crisis. It is estimated that in 2021, extreme weather caused by climate change cost US taxpayers close to $100 billion dollars.

We know from scientific studies that global methane levels have significantly increased since fracking exploded in North America. Also, low producing wells that are allowed to leak contribute to the large amounts of methane emissions in North America. Tracy Sabetta of Ohio’s Moms Clean Air Force said, “If you look at prices from 2019, there’s more than $700 million in wasted natural gas. That is enough to supply over 3.6 million homes in the U.S. annually, or to power every single home in Ohio.”

Fracking is fueling the climate crisis but this fact is ignored by many including the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District. The MWCD recently signed a lease agreement with Encino Energy to frack 7,300 acres of property at Tappan Lake in Harrison County. The deal will place $40 million dollars into the MWCD coffers. The MWCD has a long history with oil and gas extraction, leasing thousands of acres for Utica shale drilling and selling water from MWCD lakes to be used by drillers for fracking. It was once stated that the MWCD is the “number 1 beneficiary of drilling in Ohio.”

The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District includes parts or the entirety of 27 Ohio counties. All of these counties have seen some impact from oil and gas development, however, the counties of Carroll, Harrison, Belmont, Noble, and Guernsey have been significantly impacted.

The watershed made $200 million on Utica Shale wells from 2009 to 2015. Even though local citizens expressed concerns about water sales, in 2012, the MWCD sold 11 million gallons of water from Clendening Lake in Harrison County to Gulfport Energy. Water has also been sold to the oil and gas industry from Seneca Lake and Piedmont Lake.

Gordon Maupin, the President of the MWCD Board of Directors, said this recent lease agreement reflects “our desire to renew and increase our focus on improving the watershed and water quality and protecting our resource by requiring enhanced environmental protections”. Those “enhanced environmental protections” Maupin speaks of are superficial at best and include walls to block noise and visuals, some water testing and erosion protection. It is impossible to protect land, air and water from the pollution of fracking since this industry is basically exempt from all major federal environmental laws and regulations such as: Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, National Environmental Policy Act and Emergency Planning and Community Right-to Know Act.

Citizens living near oil and gas activities have expressed concerns about drilling operations which include: the chemicals/additives used to drill/frack, the radionuclides brought up to the surface in produced water, drilling in ecologically sensitive areas, contamination from spills, leaks, blowouts, and deliberate releases, subsurface migration of contaminants among aquifers, and increased levels of radon gas in homes near fracking.

Workers and nearby residents can be exposed to air contaminants like nitrogen oxides, benzene, ozone, toluene, methane, and fine particulate matter during the fracking process. Run-off of toxic compounds from the well pads can enter Tappan Lake, the drinking water source for Cadiz, Ohio. Should the lake become impaired, where will Cadiz get its water supply?

The U.S. EPA and Department of Energy said that an average of seven million gallons of water and over 70,000 gallons of chemicals are used for each well fracked. Over 80 percent of these compounds have never been reviewed by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Many of those reviewed are known carcinogens and hormone blockers.

Accidents happen. The XTO Energy well blowout in Belmont County in February 2018 spewed out 120 tons of methane an hour for twenty days. Methane is 84 times as potent a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide.

You cannot claim to be a good steward of the land and ignore all the externalities visited on the landscape from fracking. I live on Tappan Lake and have seen the effects of fracking in the county. Pipelines crisscross the forested hills, fracking trucks congest the rural roadways, water is being withdrawn from local creeks, and even the night skies are obliterated by fracking flares.

I can see the new $6 million dollar Tappan Lake Marina from our boat docks and wonder how profitable that marina would be should the lake become contaminated. How much will our property values decrease? Will the fish from the lake be safe to eat if frack wastes as well as brine from fracking contaminates the watershed of the lake?

How can the MWCD justify financing improvements by allowing the fossil fuel industry to destroy the very landscape they (MWCD) are supposedly conserving? The definition of conservancy is: a body concerned with the preservation of nature, specific species or natural resources. The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District is no conservancy.

Trucks hauling Marcellus drill cuttings must pass a radiation monitor

From an Article of Media News Group, The Mercury, Pottstown, PA, August 2, 2019

AUDUBON, PA — J.P. Mascaro & Sons has announced that it has been awarded more than $7.5 million in municipal waste collection and recycling contracts, as well as a renewal of its operating permit for the Brooke County Landfill in Brooke County, West Virginia.

According to Sam Augustine, director of sales for the waste service company, long-term municipal contracts for waste collection and recycling were also awarded by Muhlenberg and Hamburg in Berks County, Catasauqua in Lehigh County and Newton in Westmoreland County. “We look forward to serving these communities and their residents,” he said in a statement.

J.P. Mascaro & Sons is headquartered in Audubon, Montgomery County and has more than 50 years’ experience. “Municipal contracts are a core component of our business operations,” according to Pat Mascaro, president of J.P. Mascaro & Sons.

In other business, a J.P. Mascaro & Sons related company — Valero Terrestrial Corp. — was awarded a new five year operating permit for the Brooke County Landfill in Colliers, Brooke County, West Virginia.

The Brooke County facility is one of two Mascaro-related landfills in West Virginia; a second facility is the Wetzel County Landfill in New Martinsville.

The Brooke and Wetzel County Landfills serve as the primary disposal facilities for waste collected by the two operating divisions of Solid Waste Services of West Virginia Inc., the Mascaro-related collection company that serves municipal, commercial and industrial customers in the panhandle region of West Virginia and in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania, according to the company.

“The Brooke County Landfill is an important component of the operational infrastructure of the Mascaro-related waste service businesses in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania,” Ryan K. Inch, J.P. Mascaro director of engineering, said, in a statement. “These businesses not only serve our municipal, commercial and industrial customers, but also are important to the thriving Marcellus and Utica Shale gas development activities occurring in that three state regional area.”

For more information about J. P. Mascaro & Sons, visit www.jpmascaro.com.

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See also: Penna. Attorney General investigating wastewater case from landfill that accepts fracking waste | StateImpact Pennsylvania, Reid Frazer, May 24, 2019

The investigation comes a week after a judge barred the Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill in Rostraver Township from sending its wastewater to the nearby Belle Vernon Municipal Authority waste treatment plant for 90 days (now permanently).

The issue involves the landfill’s leachate — water that percolates through the landfill and gets collected for disposal. The landfill is permitted to send 50,000 gallons of the leachate per day to the treatment plant. But, according to a complaint filed by district attorneys in Washington and Fayette counties, the landfill had been sending 100,000 to 300,000 gallons of leachate per day.

Beginning last spring, the treatment plant started seeing levels of pollution in its discharge to the Monongahela River go up and exceed state and federal limits. The treatment plant determined the contamination was coming from the landfill, which accepts fracking waste including radioactive drill cuttings.

Marcellus & Utica shales are being drilled in Ohio

From an Article by Sara Welch, Shale Gas Reporter, July 3, 2019

Since its publication and redistribution, a University of Toledo study that links the presence of radon in homes to proximity to fracking wells has been disputed by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for using incorrect numbers in its evaluation.

The University of Toledo initially published its study midway through April. However, it wasn’t picked up by science and research websites, and even the Shale Gas Reporter, until the end of June. As its distribution spread, the data behind the study was questioned even less. It wasn’t until The Athens News took a closer look at the numbers to compose a local snapshot of the study that discrepancies were pointed out and the ODNR began working with the university to correct the errors.

After taking a closer look at the numbers referenced in the study, it’s clear they were predominantly derived from a singular source. The ODNR Division of Oil & Gas map the researchers pulled their data from contains accurate information; however, it doesn’t appear to have been read correctly.

From the map’s default view, only fracking wells appear to be marked. When you zoom in three times to take a closer look every well that has been permitted — even ones that have not been drilled — appears. One theory is that the University of Toledo researchers who worked on the study may have incorrectly counted the dots on the map, accidentally including more than just fracking wells in the data from which their study draws its conclusion.

If you’re interested in finding out more about fracking activity in your area, you can find up-to-date data on well drilling and permitting on the ODNR Division of Oil & Gas Resources Shale Well Drilling & Permitting page.

Resources for this Article:

The Athens News > ODNR: Study linking radon to fracking in Ohio uses incorrect numbers
Frontiers in Public Health > Impact of the Hydraulic Fracturing on Indoor Radon Concentrations in Ohio: A Multilevel Modeling Approach (University of Toledo study)
Ohio Department of Natural Resources > Shale Well Drilling & Permitting (ONDR data on fracking wells only)
Ohio Department of Natural Resources > Ohio Oil & Gas Wells (map used in study)

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

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

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

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

Core samplings in 2018 looks promising

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

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

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

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

Waiting on PTT Cracker in the Ohio River valley —-

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

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

Rio Pipeline work wrapping up —-

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

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

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

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

Marcellus & Utica shales are much deeper to the east and south

Essay by S. Tom Bond, Retired Chemistry Professor & Resident Farmer, Lewis County, WV, February 10, 2019

Some friends and I were at lunch the other day when the subject of a fracking well near the Beaver Run Reservoir “connecting” to older shallower wells came up. This occurred in Westmoreland County, PA, a few miles southeast of Pittsburgh. What had happened, the well pressure in the new Utica well dropped suddenly and the pressure in four older surrounding “conventional” wells rose. (The older wells were vertical and did not reach the depth of the well being drilled.)

The new well is located, rather carelessly, beside the reservoir, which provides water for something like 150,00 people. The worry was that fluids would come all the way to the surface and fracking chemicals would get in the reservoir. Also, explosions or fires could occur at the older wells.

One of our group pointed out that the representations you see in publications show the shale layers like a wedding cake, uniform thickness, parallel and horizontal, which is not an accurate representation. Shale layers are certainly not uniform and not without defects, fractures or fissures.

The deposition of shale is what is described as “turbidites,” a mass of saturated clay mud slipping and slowly being washed down slope in quiet water, well below the surface of an inland sea. It is like a river delta, streams meandering and frequently changing course. This is occasionally being pushed out by slides of coarser sediment deposited nearer shore. This mud contains a few percent of organic matter from sea life, which decays without contact with oxygen to become oil and gas.

The amount of oil and gas is so small and the shale so fine it cannot flow like conventional wells. Fracking breaks some of the shale to release 7% or less of the oil and/or gas present in the shale. Lots of irregularities are present, so the fracturing is not symetrical.

One of us suggested the layer cake model was the result of the confusion between the executives who describe for the artists what they want. Another thought the confusion was between the geologists and the executives, since the executives are “doers” and don’t have much of an education in geology. Every effort is made to keep things simple in presenting information to the public, too. Probably there is enough blame for the misrepresentation to go around to all these sources.

We agreed that ”communication” through the geologic layers is not new. That is, gas having enough pressure to penetrate horizontally (and perhaps vertically) outside the intended boundaries. I recalled discussion with friends in Doddridge County of how some conventional well owners were beneficiaries of fracking, it improved the production of their shallow wells! That was years ago and continues.

Someone over there pointed out to me an abandoned old well that was frosted over from the fracked well gas that had leaked into it. We all knew that gas under pressure cooled when the pressure was relieved. In that case, enough to cause frost in summer, even. Others of our lunch group could tell related stories.

Leaks from around casing not properly sealed is likely the cause of most leaks that destroy well and surface waters. Drillers are impatient to start after the cement is placed around the pipe designed to protect surface water, it costs them hundreds of dollars an hour to have an idle rig. So pressure comes on before the cement is fully set up. They have been known to supply clean water to people near their rig, acknowledging fault. It is usually stopped when the driller leaves the neighborhood, though.

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See also: Geologic Misconceptions: “Layer-cake” stratigraphy | WIRED

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See also: New Penna. Utica Well Being Plugged After Disturbing Other Wells, www.FrackCheckWV.net

Beaver Run Reservoir, Westmoreland County, PA

From an Article by Anya Litvak, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, February 2, 2019

CNX Resources Corp. has spent the past week trying to get a Utica Shale well near the Beaver Run Reservoir in Westmoreland County under control after a problem there was followed by gas pressures spiking at nearby shallow wells.

The Cecil-based oil and gas firm was fracking its Shaw 1G well in Washington Township on Jan. 26 when it detected a strong drop in pressure, the company told environmental regulators. It stopped fracking and found some type of obstruction in the well bore, said state Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Lauren Fraley.

CNX also told the PA-DEP that four conventional — that is, shallower, vertical wells — nearby showed spikes in pressure, a sign of communication between the gas in the Utica well and the four other wells in the vicinity.

Neighbors described a parade of trucks and hard-hatted workers dispatched to the Shaw pad and to properties with shallow wells, some of which are being flared to relieve the pressure. Residents were on guard about the activity — and what it might mean for conventional wells on their properties.

A PA-DEP crew has been stationed at the site around the clock and will remain there until “we feel confident that the situation is under control,” Ms. Fraley said.

A special well control team had been summoned from out of state to “kill” the well, a procedure that involves pumping heavy mud into the wellbore to stop the flow and keep it down. That had not yet happened by Saturday evening.

Ms. Fraley said at this point, the agency is not aware of any pollution or impacts to environmental resources as a result of the situation.

A statement from the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County, which operates the Beaver Run Reservoir and supplies water to more than 120,000 customers, assured that water quality has not been compromised.

“Any activity on our watershed is monitored intently,” the statement said. “Our water quality surveillance is increased any time there is any activity on our property. It is very comprehensive and has not noted any changes.”

The path of the well travels under the reservoir but it isn’t clear how far along that path the well had been fracked when the problem occurred. Fracking involves pumping fluid and sand at high pressure into a well bore to create cracks in the shale where gas is trapped.

According to the well records available in PA-DEP’s database, the Shaw 1G well plunged 13,740 feet below the surface, more than 2 miles deep, and extended some 8,000 feet horizontally. It is not yet known how the gas from it impacted the four conventional wells that are many thousands of feet shallower.

CNX said, in part, that “company personnel and specialized consultants are monitoring existing nearby gas wells and are continuing to manage any potential gas communication to those wells.”

“There have been no injuries and no impact to the local community or the environment,” the statement said, noting that the company is in close contact with MAWC and other stakeholders and would provide “further updates as appropriate.”

Shaw 1G is on the same pad as three other shale wells and within a half mile radius of more than two dozen other oil and gas wells, including Marcellus Shale wells, operating conventional wells, plugged wells, and those considered inactive.

Two of the impacted conventional wells are close to the Utica well pad, Ms. Fraley said, and the other two are “a few thousand feet” away. The conventional wells don’t belong to CNX. The DEP did not identify the owners of the impacted conventional wells.

Paperwork that CNX submitted to the DEP when it was about to drill the Shaw 1G well shows there are at least four private water wells within 3,000 feet of the pad. One is on the property of Robert Schimizzi.

Mr. Schimizzi said he returned from out of town on Friday to find hundreds of trucks bustling about the area, with dozers and tanks stationed at conventional wells that don’t typically get this kind of attention.

He has one of those gas wells on his property that is operated by a firm other than CNX. It supplies gas to his home. When he was gone, his girlfriend said someone working in the area asked if it would be OK to shut off the gas well, but given the temperature she declined.

His water well is fine and his gas remains on, although he did have to reignite pilot lights Saturday, Mr. Schimizzi said.

Three other neighbors with water wells also reported no impacts to the Post-Gazette, but all were concerned that no company or regulatory officials have been in touch to check or inform them of the situation.

“Hey guys, I live there. Am I in danger?,” Mr. Schimizzi said. “At least somebody tap on my door and tell me.” He said he planned to turn off his connection to the gas well before going to sleep on Saturday night.

O. O. O. O. O. O. O. O. O. O. O. O.

See also: Gas well pressure issue leads to testing of water supply for northern Westmoreland County communities | Pittsburgh Tribune Review, February 4, 2019

John Black, VP of Energy Solutions in Clarksburg, July 2018

From an Article of Marcellus Drilling News, WWW Internet, August 2, 2018

For years Energy Solutions Consortium (ESC) has been trying to build several natural gas-fired electric plants in West Virginia, but have been prevented from doing so by Big Coal lawsuits. It’s understandable that coal doesn’t want to give up its virtual monopoly on electric generation in the Mountain State. Some 95% of all electricity produced in the state comes from coal-fired plants.

Last year then-WV Sec. of Commerce Woody Thrasher observed that Ohio has built 19 new gas-fired power plants, and Pennsylvania has built 22 new gas-fired power plants, while WV has built NONE. Why not?

Because of Robert Murray, CEO and founder of Murray Energy, one of the largest independent coal mine operators in the U.S. Bob Murray is using a front organization called Ohio Valley Jobs Alliance (OVJA) to file a blizzard of frivolous lawsuits that have kept all new gas-fired plant projects from being built in WV.

The best chance ESC has in building its first gas-fired plant is in Harrison County. Only one roadblock remains–an OVJA challenge to the project’s air permit previously granted by the West Virginia Air Quality Board. Kind of ironic that Big Coal is challenging an air permit for far-cleaner-burning natural gas. Coal pollutes the air way more than natural gas.

The WV Supreme Court hears challenges to these kinds of permits. The paperwork has been filed with the high court. Once the court accepts and hears the case, which ESC thinks will be early fall, and the air permit is upheld, the first shovel of dirt will fly to build the $880 million Harrison County Power Station.

An ESC rep recently updated Harrison County officials and labor union members about the status of the project.

See also: Developers: Harrison gas-fired power plant project faces final hurdle before construction can begin | WV News

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BJ Services moving from central WV back to Penna., employs some 200 people

By BOB ROLLEY, The Express News Service, Lock Haven, PA, August 6, 2018

MILL HALL – A vacant facility location near Lock Haven PA is in line for reuse. The former local Baker Hughes regional natural gas services center will see new life in the coming months.

Texas-based BJ Services said it will relocate its Clarksburg, W. Va., operations into the former Baker Hughes facility just off Route 220 in the Lamar Township Business Park south of Mill Hall.

The company said it anticipates moving more than 200 employees here. That number reflects the firm’s entire natural gas fracturing operation in Clarksburg, BJ Spokesperson Michelle Pyner told PennLive.com.

The transfer will take place over the next three months. That’s the opposite of what occurred in spring 2016, when Baker Hughes closed the plant and moved operations to Clarksburg. The facility entails over 95,000 square feet under roof in six different buildings, with the main building combining an office area with a garage facility.

Baker Hughes opened the natural gas pressure pumping facility in late December 2012. At one point after it opened, Baker Hughes employed 200 people. However, as gas exploration and production slowed, Baker Hughes put the facility up for sale in September 2016 – four years after it invested upward of $37 million to build the center on 38 acres in the business park.

Clinton County Economic Partnership CEO Mike Flanagan said he’s elated BJ Services is moving an important part of its energy production business to Clinton County. “This is wonderful news,” Flanagan told The Express. “We believe it shows that the natural gas industry to coming back in this area.” He said it’s possible BJ Services will hire locally, though BJ Services said Clarksburg employees are being given the choice to stay with the firm and come to Clinton County.

Fracturing fleets and crews will report out of Mill Hall that will serve as the district office for support operations in the Marcellus and Utica natural gas basins, the firm said.

Clinton County and much of Pennsylvania sit atop the Marcellus Shale formation, from which natural gas is produced through well-drilling using vertical and horizontal hydraulic fracturing technology.

Much of the state-owned forestland in northern and western Clinton County was leased by the state for gas drilling. Some gas exploration activities are continuing north of Lock Haven.

BJ Services bought the hydraulic fracturing side of Baker Hughes a couple of years ago. Baker Hughes still owns about 45 percent of the business. This will be the only BJ Services facility in Pennsylvania.

The firm is considered to be among the largest oilfield-energy services provider in North America, focusing on land cementing and hydraulic fracturing services. It is an independent company created when CSL Capital Management and West Street Energy Partners in December 2016 acquired it from Baker Hughes which retained a 46.4 percent ownership stake.

BJ Services traces its roots to 1872, when Byron Jackson, a leader of the American Industrial Revolution at the turn of the 20th Century, formed the Byron Jackson Co. in Woodland, Calif. It was there where he designed and built the first centrifugal deep-well turbine pump, allowing large volumes of water to be pumped from deep underground reservoirs.

The move to Clinton County will better support “our growing business in the Marcellus and Utica natural gas basins,” Pyner said.

Recent Meeting of Ohio Residents

From an Article by Julie Grant, StateImpact PA, May 4, 2018

TOGETHER WE CAN STAND STRONG”

Jeff and Kerri Bond attended a meeting to hear from Pennsylvania legal and health experts about what they should be doing to protect themselves from the dangers of fracking.

The Bonds were among about forty people who gathered recently at Salt Fork State Park in eastern Ohio for a meeting organized and funded by the Freshwater Accountability Project. It was an opportunity for residents to voice their concerns, and to hear from experts about the environmental, legal, and health issues of fracking.

Environmental activist Teresa Mills says people like the Bonds aren’t getting assistance from Ohio officials. “The industry has everything locked down,” she says. “So people feel helpless.”

This feeling of helplessness is why Mills helped organize this community meeting. “What we were hoping to do is to get everyone together, and show that together we can stand strong, and we can move forward,” she says.

Pennsylvanians have dealt with these issues, too. John Stolz, an environmental microbiologist at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, has researched the environmental impacts of fracking for years. He says Pennsylvania regulators didn’t seem to take citizen complaints seriously.

“The reality is you’ve got 9,000 people calling the [Pennsylvania] DEP [Department of Environmental Protection] over the past ten years to complain,” he says. “It got to the point where I finally came out and said, ‘We’re not dealing with crazy people.”

Stolz studies the impact of fracking on water quality, and claims the industry has worsened pre-existing water problems. “For instance, I use the analogy, you’ve always had back problems, and then somebody rear-ends you, and really knocks your back out of whack,” Stolz explains. “But that was a preexisting condition, who’s going to pay for it? These are the kinds of things that are happening.”

But regulators, he says, are hesitant to pin this water pollution on the gas industry. “They want to see a smoking gun,” he says. “They want to see a chemical that the industry has used, and frankly the probability of finding that, even from the get-go, is very, very low.” Stolz wants to start research on how fracking is impacting the water quality here, in eastern Ohio.

DIFFERENT STATE, DIFFERENT LAWS

Environmental attorney Megan Hunter hears from people in eastern Ohio worried about the gas industry all the time. People are especially concerned about compressor stations, which keep the gas moving through pipelines. “Hands down that is the number one call that I’ve seen since I’ve been in Ohio related to this industry.”

Hunter says people complain of health impacts and claim their farm animals are dying and the wildlife is gone. But, she told the group, Ohio doesn’t have many legal avenues to protect people who feel they’ve been harmed by the gas industry.

“There’s just a host of things that are lacking here in Ohio. Pennsylvania, not exactly an amazing role model, has some additional laws that help,” Hunter says.

For example, unlike Ohio, Pennsylvania’s constitution includes an amendment that guarantees clean air and water as a basic right. A citizen’s group in a suburban township east of Pittsburgh is using the Environmental Rights Amendment to challenge the local ordinance which allows fracking in rural areas of the township.

Local governments in Pennsylvania can use zoning to restrict where well pads are located. Hunter says in Ohio, local zoning authority is still in question.

“IT’S NOT OK”

Raina Rippel, director of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project, works with people in communities impacted by the natural gas industry. She understands that lack of control in the face of change can be scary for people who live in communities experiences rapid expansion of the natural gas industry.

“The sense that what was once a rural community is overrun with truck traffic; the sense that you’re not sure if your air is safe to breathe; you’re not sure if your water is safe to drink,” Rippel says, “…is too easily dismissed by the industry saying, you don’t have the data, you don’t have the facts.”

Rippel points to research associating the chemicals emitted by diesel trucks and other gas infrastructure with health problems like headaches and nausea, as well as cancer and heart disease. “I think we all understand we are being exposed,” says Ripple. “We understand that we are being subjected to these harmful emissions. We may not understand exactly how that’s going to translate – and I hate to say the word – into cancer – years down the line, but we know that something is happening, and we know that this is not ok.”

From the air, you can see how fracking operations sit in the middle of small farms in rural Ohio.

In an email, the Ohio EPA said it has public involvement coordinators to talk with citizens about complaints. The agency recommends people visit its website or call these numbers:

>>Ohio EPA’s website has a “Citizen Concerns” section where public meetings and notices are listed. The publc can also access public records there, file an environmental complaint, and even report a spill. You can also call the office for help: 614.644-2160.

>>To report spill, release or environmental crime call the Ohio EPA 24/7 hotline: 1-800-282-9378

>The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has a incident reporting hotline staffed around the clock: 844-OHCALL1. Routine complaints can be directed to central office at (614) 265-6922 or any of the regional offices or via email at oilandgas@dnr.state.oh.us.

Jeff & Kerri Bond speak on fracking issues

From an Article by Julie Grant, StateImpact PA, May 4, 2018

As the shale gas industry has moved west to Ohio, people there are concerned about the impact that new well pads, pipelines, compressor stations and diesel truck traffic are having on the environment and the quality of life in their rural communities. What can they learn from what has happened in southwestern Pennsylvania?

After forty years, Kerri and Jeff Bond are moving from their small farm in Seneca Lake, Ohio. The rural hillsides have changed in recent years. The trees in their yard started to lose foliage and die last year. Their sheep, chickens and cats died, and their dogs developed tumors. The Bonds, themselves, say their family has developed ongoing rashes.

“We’ve never had any of this before, ever,” Kerri Bond says. “And we’ve lived area our whole lives. We wanted to retire here. We can’t. We’ve got to move.”

LISTEN: “Gearing Up for Frack Fight, Ohio Residents Turn to PA Experts”

The Bonds blame the gas development that’s been building up all around them – numerous well pads, and the Crum Compressor Station sits about a quarter mile over the ridge from their farm. The night time sky lights up orange the compressor station is vented. Then, there’s all the diesel trucks creating traffic problems and emitting pollution. “My community has been inundated with drilling and fracking, and waste,” she says.

Many people in the Bond’s community support the fracking industry because of the jobs and money it’s brought. So, she says she’s not popular when she complains about the drilling activity that lights up the hillside next to her house after the sun goes down.

“No one ever knows what’s going on out there,” she says. “It’s constant. My house shakes. It’s like trying to sleep next to a jet engine out there, every night.”

Jeff Bond took a photo after being woken up in the middle of the night by the fracking operation just beyond his farm. The glow in the background is from the Crum Compressor Station which sits about 2500 feet from the Bond family farm.

“TOGETHER WE CAN STAND STRONG”

Bond was one of about forty people who gathered recently at Salt Fork State Park in eastern Ohio for a meeting organized and funded by the Freshwater Accountability Project. It was an opportunity for residents to voice their concerns, and to hear from experts about the environmental, legal, and health issues of fracking.

Environmental activist Teresa Mills says people like Bond aren’t getting assistance from Ohio officials. “The industry has everything locked down,” she says. “So people feel helpless.”

This feeling of helplessness is why Mills helped organize this community meeting.