Buckeye XPress Pipeline will risk severe local damages going under the Ohio River

From Keep Wayne Wild, Athens, Ohio, December 16, 2019
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OEPA Meeting on 401 Water Quality Certification THIS WEDNESDAY IN Jackson, Ohio.

We just got word that the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) will be holding a meeting in Jackson, Ohio THIS WED Dec 18 at 6pm. If you’re able to attend, please show up! You can see the OEPA announcement below. For more information, contact Jessica Johnson at OEPA: jessica.johnson@epa.ohio.gov

Buckeye Xpress — 401 Water Quality Certification
Division of Surface Water – Jackson County
Wednesday, December 18, 2019, 6:00 PM

Jackson City Middle School
21 Tropic Street
Jackson, Ohio 45640

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12/5/19
PUBLIC INTEREST CENTER, (614) 644-2160
MEDIA CONTACT: Anthony Chenault
CITIZEN CONTACT: Jessica Johnson

Ohio EPA Meeting Set for Buckeye Xpress Project

Information Session and Hearing Scheduled Dec. 18

Ohio EPA will hold a public meeting to discuss the application for a water quality certification submitted by Columbia Gas Transmission, LLC, for a pipeline project in Vinton, Jackson, Gallia, and Lawrence counties.

An information session will begin at 6 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2019, at Jackson City Middle School, 21 Tropic St., immediately followed by a hearing to accept public comments on the certification application.

The proposed project involves the construction of approximately 66 miles of new natural gas pipeline, decommissioning of approximately 61 miles of aging pipeline, and the installation of a new lateral pipeline.

Discharges from the activity, if approved, would result in degradation to, or lowering of, the water quality within the Raccoon-Symmes, Little Scioto-Tygarts and Lower Scioto watersheds. Proposed degradation of water quality would be offset through appropriate mitigation.

Ohio EPA will accept written comments on the certification application through Dec. 26. Anyone may submit comments or request to be on the mailing list for information. To comment or receive information on the application, write to: Ohio EPA-DSW, Attn: Permits Processing Unit, P.O. Box 1049, Columbus, Ohio 43216-1049 or email epa.dswcomments@epa.ohio.gov.

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Range Resources objects to Columbia Gas’ Buckeye XPress project as redundant

From an Article by Sean Sullivan, S & P Global Market Intelligence, May 1, 2018

Range Resources-Appalachia LLC, one of the largest holders of firm gas transportation capacity on the Columbia Gas Transmission LLC system, objects to the proposed 275,000-Dth/d Buckeye XPress pipeline project in Ohio because it would make some currently held capacity less valuable.

The Range Resources Corp. subsidiary struck the hardest out of several Columbia Gas customers that asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to participate in the Buckeye XPress project review. In an April 30 motion to intervene and protest, the shale gas exploration and production company asked FERC to deny Columbia Gas’ request for a Natural Gas Act certificate for the project, or at least direct Columbia Gas to accept the producer’s offer to relinquish some of its gas transportation capacity on Columbia Gas’ 1.5-Bcf/d Leach XPress project.

Range said part of its Leach XPress capacity is identical to the proposed Buckeye XPress capacity, and “without the LXP project, the BXP project is not possible or viable.” The Buckeye XPress project would make the Leach XPress capacity less valuable by installing “unneeded capacity” in the same market at a lower transportation rate, Range said. FERC authorized Columbia Gas to put the estimated $1.52 billion Leach XPress in service in December 2017.

Range said FERC should look closely at Columbia Gas’ cost estimates for Buckeye XPress, a “project that has no shippers.” The producer observed that the estimated cost of Buckeye XPress is $709 million, with an estimated $500 million automatically recovered through a capital cost recovery surcharge for mondernization projects.

Columbia Gas applied for Buckeye XPress on March 26. The pipeline company said the the project is designed to modernize its system and to prepare for growth in Appalachian production. The project would enable Columbia Gas to provide an incremental 275,000 Dth/d of firm gas transportation capacity by using replacement pipeline of a larger diameter. The developer would install 66.2 miles of new 36-inch-diameter pipeline and abandon 60.8 miles of 20- inch and 24-inch-diameter pipeline.

The project would take place mostly in Ohio, with a small bit of work in Wayne County, West Virginia. Columbia Gas asked FERC to authorize the project before Jan. 31, 2019.

Other companies, most of them Columbia Gas customers or potential customers, also filed motions to intervene. These included Shell Energy North America (US) LP, Statoil Natural Gas LLC, Duke Energy Corp. companies, Piedmont Natural Gas Co. Inc., PSEG Energy Resources & Trade LLC, and other gas distribution companies under National Grid USA and NiSource Inc.

The Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Ohio Environmental Council asked for a spot in the proceeding. They said they were concerned about environmental impacts, including effects on the Wayne National Forest in Ohio, and do not support the project as proposed. The Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, which represents agricultural interests that “oppose government entities taking prime farmland for public purposes” and want protection from the effects of construction, also filed a motion to intervene. (FERC docket CP18-137)

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Buckeye Xpress Pipeline – SourceWatch, September 9, 2019

Environmental Impact Of Buckeye XPress Pipeline

In May of 2018, the Ohio Environmental Council, Sierra Club and Center for Biological Diversity filed a motion to intervene in a federal permitting process for the Buckeye Xpress Pipeline. The proposed 66-mile fracked-gas pipeline would cut through Ohio’s only national forest and cross 336 streams and 134 acres of wetlands, passing through 12 miles of the Wayne National Forest’s Ironton unit and across the Ohio River to West Virginia. It would expand and replace an existing pipeline and dig up 225 acres.

In June of 2019, The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) environmental assessment found that the proposed project would not lead to significant environmental impacts as long as appropriate mitigation measures were in place. In June of 2019, FERC accepted public comments on its environmental assessment. The Sierra Club, the Ohio Environmental Council, Beyond Dirty Fuels Campaign, and the Center for Biological Diversity, along with several volunteer and community groups, were among those opposing the project. The project would impact streams, wetlands, and farmland, and threaten crucial habitat.

Along the Ohio River in Southeast Ohio

From a Press Release, Ohio Chapter, Sierra Club, February 21, 2018

COLUMBUS, Ohio— Seven conservation groups have filed an administrative protest challenging a Bureau of Land Management plan to auction off 345 acres of Ohio’s Wayne National Forest for oil and gas fracking leases in March.

The protest, filed late Tuesday, notes that the leases would lock in dangerous fracking in the Wayne. Despite known threats from hydraulic fracturing, the BLM planned the auction using only a cursory review that avoids site-specific analysis of potential harm from fracking operations.

That means the public will have no information about pollution risks to streams, eradication of endangered species habitat and harm to nearby communities, which is required under the National Environmental Policy Act. “The Bureau of Land Management is unlawfully cutting corners in its push to develop the Wayne. Our protest filing is intended to rein in the agency,” said Nathan Johnson, attorney for the Ohio Environmental Council. “The Wayne is one of Ohio’s finest natural treasures, plain and simple. It deserves to be protected from heavy industrial development.”

The auction comes after the U.S. Forest Service announced plans to revise its 2006 forest plan governing land management in the Wayne. Conservation groups last year sued the Forest Service and the BLM, which oversees drilling and fracking of federal oil and gas. The lawsuit says federal officials relied on the outdated plan and failed to analyze threats to public health, water, endangered species and the climate before opening 40,000 acres of the Wayne to fracking

“There are very few vestiges of wilderness left in Ohio for wildlife habitat and outdoor recreation. Ohio’s only national forest should be preserved, not plundered for private industry profits,” said Jen Miller, director of Ohio Sierra Club. “We call for the stop of all fracking and pipeline activities, and for a robust, transparent process to revise the forest management plan in a way that maximizes wildlife protections and recreational opportunities for generations to come.”

“The Wayne is being opened up to fracking pollution based on a dangerously outdated management plan that ignores major risks,” said Taylor McKinnon of the Center for Biological Diversity. “The lack of transparency in this process is disturbing. The Forest Service needs to listen to the public and spare Ohio’s only national forest from fracking industrialization and contamination.”

Clear-cutting for well pads, roads and other infrastructure would reverse decades of forest and watershed recovery in the Wayne and destroy habitat for endangered Indiana bats and threatened northern long-eared bats. The bats are already imperiled by forest fragmentation, white-nose syndrome, and climate change. Pollution from fracking operations, explosions and spills would damage water supplies that provide drinking water for millions of people.

Since 2016 the BLM has auctioned off more than 2,300 acres of Wayne National Forest. Three lease sales have used “determinations of NEPA adequacy,” sometimes known as DNAs, which avoid any analysis of site-specific environmental harm before leasing public lands to industry. Conservation groups have mounted administrative or legal challenges to these lease sales.

“In a time of accelerating climate change, biodiversity loss, and air and water pollution crises, this action by the supposed stewards of our natural resources is unconscionable,” said Heather Cantino of Athens County Fracking Action Network.“Wayne and BLM justifications for this action are not based on science or the public interest, which by law they must be. Today’s protest stands up for the law and the rights of the American people.”

The Trump administration recently issued a directive calling for expanded use of DNAs for fracking leases on public lands across the country. That directive effectively excludes the public from the public-lands leasing process, shortens protest periods to just 10 days from 30 days, and restricts BLM staff from deferring industry-nominated land parcels from lease sales to protect sensitive resources.

“It’s extremely disappointing that, after all of the climate disasters of 2017, the Bureau of Land Management is still choosing to sacrifice our National Forest for fossil fuel industrialization,” said Becca Pollard of Keep Wayne Wild. “BLM should instead focus on the forest’s natural ability to absorb greenhouse gases while providing habitat for wildlife and wild places for people to visit.”

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.6 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

Contacts:
>> Nathan Johnson, Ohio Environmental Council, NJohnson@theOEC.org;
>> Becca Pollard, Keep Wayne Wild, keepwaynewild@gmail.com;
>> Heather Cantino, Athens County Fracking Action Network, heather.cantino@gmail.com;
>> Tabitha Tripp, Heartwood, info@heartwood.org;
>> Roxanne Groff, Buckeye Environmental Network, roxannegroff1227@gmail.com;
>> Jen Miller, Sierra Club Ohio Chapter, jen.miller@sierraclub.org;
>> Taylor McKinnon, Center for Biological Diversity, tmckinnon@biologicaldiversity.org

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SUMMARY — In December 2016 and March 2017, the Bureau of Land Management leased a total of 1900 acres of Ohio’s only national forest to fracking operations. They will continue to lease up to 40,000 acres of Wayne National Forest to oil and gas unless we show overwhelming public support for the Wayne.
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The OEC, Center for Biological Diversity, Heartwood and Sierra Club are filing suit in federal court to stop the lease of up to 40,000 acres of Wayne National Forest to oil and gas operations. Donate today to fund their fight to save the Wayne! The Wayne, which rests in the foothills of Appalachia, is Ohio’s only national forest. The impacts of drilling and fracking this critical habitat will devastate endangered species and degrade this beautiful recreational space. Please give today, and you can help secure lasting protections for the Wayne!

Wayne National Forest in Ohio Valley

Ohio investigates cause of weekend earthquake in drilling region

From an Article by Marion Renault, The Columbus Dispatch, April 4, 2017

State officials are investigating whether a magnitude 3.0 earthquake in the Wayne National Forest was caused by nearby oil and gas operations. It wouldn’t be the first time: Hundreds of temblors have been linked to drilling operations and injection wells in Ohio and other states.

The Ohio quake occurred about 8 a.m. Sunday near Graysville in Monroe County in the national forest’s Marietta Unit. Activity at nearby wells was halted within an hour after the quake, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, whose seismologists are investigating the quake’s potential sources.

According to the state, eight permitted Utica shale well sites are within 5 miles of the epicenter of Sunday’s earthquake, which is about 120 miles southeast of Columbus; the quake was not related to Monroe County’s sole, inactive injection well.

Fracking involves pumping a mixture of water, sand and chemicals deep underground to fracture rock formations and release trapped oil and gas. The wastewater that comes up with the oil and gas can be reused, but disposal eventually is necessary. Frequently, that wastewater is injected deep underground.

“Review of the seismic data placed the event … in proximity to ongoing oil- and gas-well completion operations,” Department of Natural Resources spokesman Steve Irwin said in an email. “The division continues to evaluate seismic data and completion operations in the area.”

It’s too soon to connect regional hydraulic fracturing with Sunday’s quake, said Miami University seismologist Mike Brudzinski. “I think it’s natural to think of this as a potential relationship. The next step is trying to do the science to make sure that’s true,” he said.

Brudzinski said Ohio typically experiences earthquakes of this magnitude a couple of times a year. Still, he noted that the state’s southeastern region is not one with a long history of seismic activity.

That region is slated for more fracking activity. Since December, federal officials have auctioned the oil and gas leasing rights for more than 1,800 acres of the Wayne National Forest’s Marietta Unit for eventual fracking.

“The reason this (earthquake) is generating more attention is the location,” Brudzinski said. “People are concerned about this as an indication of a risk involved with hydraulic fracturing.”

To that end, environmentalists are calling on federal officials to withdraw plans for fracking in Ohio’s only national forest.  “We know this has occurred in Ohio and across the country before,” said Jen Miller, director of Sierra Club Ohio. “I think it (raises) the question of, ‘Why are we doing more of this?’”

In 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey released results of its first widespread examination of possible links between earthquakes and the oil and gas industry. It reported that oil and gas drilling and wastewater-injection wells spurred hundreds of earthquakes in Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas as well as Ohio.

Since 2014, after earthquakes connected with oil and gas industry activity affected parts of eastern and northeastern Ohio, the state has required operators of any fracked well within 3 miles of a known fault or in areas prone to seismic activity to install seismic monitors. Operators of injection wells that take fracking wastewater and operate in areas where earthquakes have happened also are required to monitor for quakes.

A team of Miami University researchers published a study in 2015 that linked nearly 80 quakes in Mahoning County to nearby oil and gas operations. Another team of researchers published a report in 2014 arguing that fracking triggered hundreds of small earthquakes on a previously unmapped fault in Harrison County in 2013.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

Drilling on state-owned land has been a topic of discussion recently, and now the federal government is cashing in on its piece of the shale gas play as well.  Oil and gas rights for more than 3,000 acres of the Wayne National Forest in Ohio will be placed on the auction block on December 7th.  Environmental groups are not the only groups protesting the lease– the nearby city of Athens and Athens County Commission have written a request that four of the parcels be removed from the auction.  Their letters express concerns about negative impacts to the tourism industry and that the leases do not protect the Hocking River and aquifer, which is downstream from the parcels and supplies 95% of the drinking water for several counties.

The forest sits over the Utica Shale formation, recently attracting a lot of attention in Ohio where it is estimated to contain 5.5 billion barrels of oil in addition to 15 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.  Read more here…

According to the University of Colorado Law School, the federal government owns most of the land suitable for oil and gas development in the United States (mostly in the West).  The process for developing these resources, such as the Wayne National Forest, involves the Forest Service identifying areas of national forest suitable for leasing, and then the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is responsible for managing the leasing process and development activities.  This system of leasing federal land was written in the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, with several amendments being made since.  Recent amendments have been made in an attempt to reverse the trend of an exponentially growing number of protests– from only 1% of parcels protested in 1998, to 49% protested in 2009, which resulted in half of them being withdrawn from leasing.