Project will need new technology and unusual utilization of outputs

From an Essay by Betsy Lawson to Morgantown Dominion Post, August 25, 2023

As reported in The Dominion Post on Aug. 17, the governor announced a big state investment in a hydrogen plant to be built in Mason County by Fidelis New Energy of Houston. The plant, to be called Mountaineer Gigasystem, is designed to generate hydrogen to be used for energy while capturing carbon dioxide to be buried below wildlife management areas.

The impetus behind this project is the money made available by the Inflation Reduction Act, passed last year, which provides tax credits for so-called clean energy. The intention is to reduce greenhouse gases, which trap heat in our atmosphere. Sounds good, but is it really?

Hydrogen gas, which is highly explosive, is made by separating the atoms of water (H2O), which requires a lot of energy. If renewable energy is used to separate the atoms, the hydrogen is “clean.” But the Fidelis project will mostly use fracked gas, whose drilling process and pipelines to transport the gas leak a lot of methane, an 80-times more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

Pumping CO2 underground, the second facet of this project, only works in very specific types of porous rock sandwiched between layers of solid rock, preventing its escape. But once the CO2 reaches the cap rock, the captured CO2 can migrate horizontally for a substantial distance. What could go wrong?

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has identified 6,500 known orphaned oil and gas wells but potentially thousands more exist that have yet to be found.  If these unplugged wells should reach into the potential carbon storage field formation, the potential for leakage into the atmosphere is enormous, defeating the purpose of carbon capture. For carbon capture and storage to make any sense in West Virginia, orphaned oil and gas wells must be properly plugged.

So far, carbon capture and storage is a new and commercially unproven technology. Chevron’s CCS project in western Australia, to date the largest in the world, is only operating at one-third capacity after six years of operation. Unexpected high pressures occurred, slowing the process.

It is known with certainty that injecting fracking waste water into porous geological formations increases pore pressure in ways that can trigger stressed fault lines to slip. This also applies to buried CO2. The result can be earthquakes. Further, when CO2 meets water, it becomes carbonic acid, a corrosive liquid. What effect will this have on underground water supplies?

Bottom line: hydrogen gas is expensive to produce, so will there even be a market for it? And, if it relies on natural gas for its creation, methane will be leaked into the atmosphere. Tying it to unproven carbon capture risks leaking more CO2 into the atmosphere via the many abandoned wells in this area.

With the state’s  $62.5 million in forgivable loans and anticipated funding from the federal government, the public investment for this project could already be at $112.5 million before ground has even been broken. Do we taxpayers want to further subsidize a project that has such an unproven and potentially risky technology and continues to add greenhouse gases into the atmosphere? This project defeats the purpose of the Inflation Reduction Act, which is meant to reduce the greenhouse gases that are warming our planet.

>>> Betsy Lawson is the Secretary of the Monongahela Group of the W.Va. Chapter of the Sierra Club.

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Mountaineer GigaSystem Project ~ Memorandum of Understanding with West Virginia Economic Development Authority. Some call this a massive giveaway to an out of state company having no established record of technological quality or concern for our communities!

The Thunder Mountain concept has a booming history!

Review Process Underway at WV-DEP, Air Quality Division until July 27, 2023

Appreciation goes to the Staff of the WV-DEP for the open question and public comment sessions July 20th on the proposed Medical Waste gasifier/incinerator to be sited in Jackson County. As all the questions indicated, this proposal is hardly understood at all! Most important were the questions and comments of Mr. Buckley from Jackson County. The residents there not only lack understanding, they are not even aware!

A schematic diagram or flow sheet was promised to Mr. Buckley, which I also ask about during the question session. I also stated that the Application Document for this project that is on the WV-DEP website was 1974 pages in size when I tried to use it. (It apparently has been growing in size as time passes.) This document is too large. I was unable to fully load or navigate in it beyond page 38.

1. Please decompose the Application Document and designate one component (separate document) as The Application Document. Then, the other supporting documents or separate appendices will be supplements. Please forward these ASAP to the participants and any others that may be considered party to this matter.

2. Please obtain or prepare a reasonable process flow sheet showing some technical detail and email these to Mr. Buckley, Mr. Nichols (this writer), and the other participants. Be sure to indicate the By-Pass feature, its input and exit. And, indicate the continuous emission monitoring (CEM) locations and flare locations, if any.

3. Please consider holding a Public Event in Jackson County in mid-September on this Application. The hot months of the vacation season are to be avoided. The local residents there deserve to become informed of this proposed 20 ton per day facility involving unusually noxious materials. Such a Public Meeting was held in Follansbee, WV, regarding a similar size waste incinerator. (Have you estimated the TPD of GHG?)

4. Additional justification for the above requests is the unusually complex if not complicated nature of the process, of the control system and of the draft Air Quality Permit itself. Most commentors noted this as well as the complex data stream that will result. Generally, it was noted that the draft Permit is far too lenient in its time periods and deadlines, given the toxic substances that can escape to the local environment. Providing the operators 15 days to fix any specific leak, is just one example.

>> Submitted to WV-DEP, July 21, 2023, Duane Nichols, Nichols330@gmail.com

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YOUTUBE VIDEO AVAILABLE: VIRTUAL PUBLIC HEARING ON AIR QUALITY PERMIT FOR THUNDER MOUNTAIN GASIFIER SYSTEM, WV-DEP, JULY 20, 2023

https://youtu.be/ULSaBZoo3rg

Latency periods vary for PFAS compounds and type of cancer

From the Article by Allen Siegler, Mountain State Spotlight, May 2, 2023

State lawmakers passed the PFAS Protection Act to start controlling pollution in drinking water. While a step in the right direction, many are concerned that it prolongs health hazards for West Virginians.

In the 1990s, when Chuck Crookshanks worked as a teacher at Parkersburg South High, a student told him about her family’s farm and how dozens of their animals had grown physical deformities. “Not only the livestock, but also other animals near it,” Crookshanks recalled. “Deer, frogs and anything else that was around it. It was pretty remarkable.”

He said she was one of the first people he remembers raising concerns with the Washington Works plant in Parkersburg; a few years later, these concerns led to a mid-2000s high-profile lawsuit against chemical company DuPont, a lawsuit which linked the factory’s hazardous chemical pollution to diseases like kidney and testicular cancer.

Those chemicals are now often grouped with a broader group of cancerous, man-made concoctions called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. And PFAS, from both past and present polluters, continue to concern Crookshanks.

His house, between Ravenswood and the unincorporated town of Murraysville, is about 25 miles down the Ohio River from Washington Works. Crookshanks said his wife, Tammy, worries often about what invisible chemicals are present in the water from their well. “She brought it up probably in the last couple of weeks, wanting to get the water tested,” Crookshanks said.

Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it had reached a deal under the Clean Water Act for the plant, now owned by the Chemours Company, to address PFAS pollution. But the so-called “forever chemicals” have already been found in drinking water systems around the state.

While state lawmakers passed a bill in March to take steps toward identifying and contemplating action for affected public water systems, the bill does not require the state’s Department of Environmental Protection or any other group to remove the chemicals from drinking water yet. As a consequence, experts believe it could be years before many West Virginians can drink tap water and be assured that it won’t increase their risk of diseases like cancer.

“Why do you need another year or two years to figure that out when that’s been known for 22 years?” said Robert Bilott, an attorney with Taft Stettinius & Hollister who has led many lawsuits related to the chemicals.

Some monitoring, and some prolonged unknowns ~ Although there is scientific consensus that they increase health risks, PFAS are still used ubiquitously by manufacturing companies. The chemicals are effective at keeping liquids from seeping through material, and they are commonly used in products like candy bar wrappers and waterproof clothes.

When manufacturing plants use PFAS in their products, they can release them into the soil, water and air. All three methods risk contaminating people’s drinking sources, as chemicals released into the air can be absorbed by rain clouds and solid waste can seep into groundwater.

While the amount of PFAS in water is often highest at sites near polluting factories, it’s not uncommon for the chemicals to contaminate places far from the original source, meaning even West Virginians who live away from factories could still have the chemicals in their water.

“The thing about these forever chemicals is that they don’t break down,” said Angie Rosser, the executive director of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition. “They accumulate in our bodies and accumulate in the food chain.”

The state’s new PFAS Protection Act intends to focus on contamination identified by a 2022 U.S. Geological Survey study of the state’s water treatment facilities. That study found nearly half of the facilities, many along the Ohio River or in the Eastern Panhandle, had at least one hazardous chemical above the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s recently-proposed regulations in their untreated water.

For the sites with documented contamination, the bill tasks the DEP with coming up with action plans that identify the source of the pollution and propose ways to limit West Virginians’ exposure. It also lays out plans for the government agency to test the sites’ water after treatment.

To combat future pollution, the bill requires West Virginia factories that discharge any PFAS into surface water to report that action to the DEP. It will limit the factories’ amount of pollution to the standards set by the federal government, and no more stringent, once they’re proposed and finalized.

While the Legislature did not designate money for the effort, DEP Deputy Director for External Affairs Scott Mandirola said the department is applying for federal grants, like funds from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to develop the action plans. “Our focus is on doing what the Legislature is telling us to do,” Mandirola said.

In the present, the bill doesn’t mandate any cleanup of PFAS in public drinking water. Some of that will likely come in the next two years, after the federal government finalizes its first-ever standards for the chemical under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Rosser worries about whether the action plans will prepare the WV-DEP to enforce the EPA’s future PFAS limits, but she thinks the bill will generate crucial data. “I would characterize it as a measured step,” she said.

Others are concerned the step is too measured, missing key information about the ways in which PFAS can endanger West Virginians’ drinking water. While the bill will provide more information about public water sources, it won’t monitor private wells that many, like Crookshanks, depend on. In an email, bill lead sponsor Clay Riley, R-Harrison, said if the state was to test private water, it would have required an additional bill that involved the Department of Health and Human Resources.

For Dr. Alan Ducatman, a WVU professor emeritus who has spent decades studying PFAS, that’s a big omission, as it’s how hundreds of thousands of West Virginians access water in their homes. “It’s hard to be confident that you know what’s going on if you’re worried about your personal water supply and can’t find that information,” Ducatman said.

Aileen Curfman lives in Berkeley County and also uses well water in her home. As the co-chair of the Sierra Club’s Eastern Panhandle group, she’s aware of the impacts PFAS can have and of the high levels recorded near her. As such, Curfman recently paid hundreds of dollars to test her water for the poisons. “There would be a lot of folks who could not afford it,” Curfman said.

It came back free from the hazardous chemicals. But if it hadn’t, she thinks she would have had to pay around $5,000 for a filter — something she thinks would have been necessary to ensure her water was safe to drink.

‘Getting the stuff out of the water’ ~ From Rosser’s understanding, the earliest that maximum PFAS drinking water contaminant levels would be enforced is 2025, meaning many West Virginians’ water will likely continue to be hazardous for the time being.

Bilott, the attorney who has litigated many PFAS-related cases, believes West Virginia’s continued-prolonging of any chemical cleanup to be unnecessary and inhumane. “DEP was notified that these chemicals were getting into drinking water supplies 22 years ago,” he said. “They should already have been doing this.”

Harry Deitzler, another attorney who has represented West Virginians harmed by PFAS, was dismayed that the state’s new oversight is limited to PFAS discharged directly into rivers and streams. From his experience in lawsuits he’s litigated, a major way the chemicals enter people’s drinking water is when they’re released into the air and enter the water cycle.

Riley didn’t answer why the PFAS Protection Act didn’t address airborne pollution, instead responding that most air regulation comes from the federal government.

When asked what state residents should do until enforcement takes effect, he said the “EPA is still trying to understand the science and impact related to PFAS. I recommend people educate themselves about the topic.”

Bilott rejected the premise that the EPA is still trying to figure out the health impact of the chemicals, and he pointed to their health guidelines released last summer as evidence. He thinks rather than calling for West Virginians to educate themselves, the onus should be on the companies that caused the health hazards. “It shouldn’t be the burden of the impacted community to address that contamination,” Bilott said.

To Ducatman, the professor emeritus with the WVU School of Public Health, there are many more steps both the WV-DEP and the state Legislature could take to protect residents’ health. Those include creating a robust effort to test private wells, prohibiting factories in the state from using PFAS unless the chemicals are essential and monitoring industrial pollution beyond self-reporting.

Ducatman realizes that this type of effort could be costly, time-consuming and resource-intensive. But, from a public health standpoint, he sees it as crucial for West Virginians. “People’s health will improve,” Ducatman said. “Have no doubt about that. Getting the stuff out of the water is good for people.”

Support Mountain State Spotlight ~ We are a nonprofit investigative newsroom that exists to give West Virginians the information they need to make our state a better place. As a nonprofit, we rely on your help to power our journalism. We are committed to lifting up voices that aren’t always heard and spotlighting solutions that are making a difference.

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See Also: US EPA Takes Unprecedented Action to Tackle PFAS Water Pollution, Tom Perkins, The Guardian, May 6, 2023

EPA has ordered chemical company Chemours to stop discharging high levels of toxic PFAS into the Ohio River at Parkersburg

Essentially all abandoned wells are conventional vertical not horizontal ones

From an Article by Mike Tony, Charleston Gazette, Charleston, WV, October 8, 2022

Landowners in Harrison, Nicholas, Preston and Wetzel counties has filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia in July against Diversified Energy and Pittsburgh-based EQT Corp. A 2018 agreement between the company and the WV DEP requires Diversified to summarize the actions taken to plug oil and gas wells or place them into production during the past year.

Diversified Energy, the largest owner of gas wells in the country, says it doesn’t have to plug wells that West Virginia landowners allege in federal court pose health and environmental hazards, arguing that state regulators relieved them of that responsibility. Diversified Energy Company says an agreement it made with the state Department of Environmental Protection to plug or place into production a set number of gas and oil wells annually shields it from the duty to plug and abandon the wells.

The company says the federal lawsuit from eight landowners in four West Virginia counties would “usurp” the authority of the Office of Oil and Gas, the DEP’s well-plugging and reclamation regulatory unit that state officials have acknowledged is understaffed. Diversified argues it has no duty to plug wells unless it identifies them as candidates for plugging in annual reports it is required to file with the Office of Oil and Gas through 2034.

The lawsuit alleges the two companies struck transfer deals in recent years for many more wells than Diversified can afford to plug and decommission. Industry experts have made similar observations, saying the company’s business model is based on acquiring a high number of low-producing wells that yield short-term dividends but present long-term liabilities mounting as the company puts off well decommissioning obligations.

The DEP estimates older wells that have been poorly maintained will likely total more than $100,000 in plugging costs. New wells that have been properly maintained cost a few tens of thousands of dollars, per the agency. Plugging typically entails using cement to seal wells that are no longer productive to keep toxic chemicals from polluting the air and aquifers.

The landowners’ lawsuit asks the court to make EQT liable for plugging and decommissioning the wells that Diversified took responsibility for in 2018 and 2020, contending that those transfers were fraudulent. The lawsuit petitions the court to award plaintiffs and class members damages from Diversified to compensate them for the cost of plugging, remediation of the abandoned wells.

Most of Diversified’s roughly 70,000 wells are in Appalachia, acquired since 2018 from EQT and Canonsburg, Pennsylvania-based CNX Resources. Diversified acquired more than 12,000 gas wells from EQT in deals in 2018 and 2020 for roughly $700 million. In a response it filed last week to the landowners’ lawsuit, Diversified highlighted a passage of its 2018 agreement with the Office of Oil and Gas stating that the company “requires sufficient time to identify” which wells have a “bona fide future use” that merits them being placed back into production. “For the duration of that process, Diversified has no duty to plug its wells unless it identifies them as a plugging candidate in its reports, and then only on a set schedule,” Diversified’s response contends.

The DEP did not respond to a request for comment on Diversified’s filing. Per the agreement, Diversified must either place into production or plug at least 50 oil and gas wells for which no production was reported in 2017 every year from 2020 through 2034, of which at least 20 must be plugged each year. Diversified has similar consent agreements in Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Combined, the company’s agreements in those states plus West Virginia commit the company to plugging at least 80 wells annually out of its tens of thousands of wells there.

The landowners’ lawsuit called those consent agreements a “smoke-screen” that doesn’t impact “private civil liberties that Diversified [and EQT] have to private citizens over private property rights.” The DEP has contracted with a Diversified subsidiary to plug wells. The agency has paid Diversified subsidiary Next LVL Energy LLC over $150,000 since October 2021 for well-plugging, according to West Virginia State Auditor’s Office data.

The DEP awarded Next LVL Energy two contracts to plug and reclaim orphaned gas and oil wells under the federally funded Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed by Congress last year. Next LVL Energy was the low bidder on the two DEP contracts, bidding a combined $10.2 million. The DEP is requiring contractors to identify, inspect and prioritize what documented or undocumented wells to plug, in addition to plugging them and reclaiming the well sites. Under the terms of state-posted contracts, contractors will have the exclusive right to plugging orphaned, abandoned wells within the contract region.

Diversified acquired Next LVL Energy, a Pittsburgh area-based well-plugging company, in February.

Diversified also argued in its response to the lawsuit that their claims are time-barred under a two-year state statute of limitations for trespass, nuisance and negligence claims, citing past statute of limitations-focused judicial decisions. The company contends the two years the landowners had to file claims began when the wells on their properties stopped producing gas in a two-year window from 2017 through 2019.

The landowners allege that Diversified’s acquisition of thousands of wells from EQT was completed with intent to defraud creditors, including the plaintiffs, in a business model designed to push off decommissioning liabilities for decades. They say Diversified has left them with unplugged, abandoned wells that pose health risks, degrade the environment and hurt their property values.

Much of the lawsuit is based on a report published in April by the Ohio River Valley Institute, a Johnstown, Pennsylvania-based pro-renewable energy nonprofit think tank. That report predicted it was highly unlikely that Diversified will have enough money to plug and abandon all its wells. The lawsuit cites the report to allege that if Diversified had used industry norms to calculate its plugging and decommissioning obligations, then its liabilities would exceed $2 billion instead of the company’s self-reported figure of roughly $520 million, making Diversified insolvent. The report cited Diversified company data and federal projections for natural gas prices. The Ohio River Valley Institute report found that Diversified has used unusual assumptions like implausibly long economic lives of wells though 2095 and an excessively long ramp-up timeline to start plugging and abandoning most of its wells to calculate the value of its asset retirement obligations, liabilities for well plugging and abandoning costs.

In 2020, Greg Rogers, a senior advisor to Carbon Tracker, a London-based think tank researching climate change impacts on financial markets, called Diversified’s business model “a legal Ponzi scheme” in a conference call with the Capitol Forum, a corporate news analysis service. “[I]t only works as long as there’s growth and the perception of profitability,” Rogers said. States mandate that wells no longer producing gas or oil are plugged and abandoned, and that well owners secure a bond or other financial assurance that helps cover the expense of closing wells that aren’t productive anymore.

But Diversified’s critics say its business model could leave West Virginia taxpayers footing the bill for remediating many of the company’s wells. “[I]t is clear Diversified Energy’s economic model is built to fail and could leave residents of West Virginia with billions of dollars in clean up costs,” Ohio River Valley Institute senior researcher Ted Boettner said in an email.

The Office of Oil and Gas, whose authority Diversified emphasized in its lawsuit, has been beset by low inspector staff numbers. The state’s well inspection staff dwindling from 17 to nine in the past two years on the Legislature’s watch has concerned not just environmentalists but royalty owner advocates. The office has faced a $1.3 million shortfall, with officials attributing the budget crunch to permit fees having dried up amid oil and gas industry struggles. Bills that would have restored office staffing levels to what they were before they were slashed in 2020 through annual $100 oversight fees on unplugged wells failed in the Legislature amid opposition from the Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia. The industry group said the fees would be too onerous for operators.

A recent study found that low-production well sites like those dominating Diversified’s portfolio are a disproportionately large source of methane emissions. The April report published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature Communications found roughly half of all well site methane emissions nationwide come from low-production well sites like Diversified’s, which emit six to 12 times as much methane as the average rate for all U.S. well sites. Methane has a 100-year global warming potential 28 to 36 times that of carbon dioxide, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, making Diversified’s deepening well footprint across Appalachia a climate concern.

Diversified Energy apparently counts with match sticks, WV & PA & OH beware

From an Article by Mike Tony, Charleston Gazette Mail, April 30, 2022

The WV well inspection staff dwindling from 18 to nine in the past two years on the Legislature’s watch has concerned not just environmentalists but royalty owners who see a corrosive connection between the state’s well inspector shortage and a growing orphaned well problem.

“[Inspectors] may spot problems that can be fixed to keep the well from becoming essentially uneconomic or they could spot a well that needs to be plugged,” West Virginia Royalty Owners Association President Tom Huber said. “As these wells grow older and older and older, that’s when they become orphaned, and then there’s no one to go after to get to plug the well.”

The Ohio River Valley Institute cited an analysis of more than 20,000 Diversified wells in Pennsylvania in observing a sharp decline in company-reported methane emissions post-acquisition.

Diversified reported a well was inaccessible for testing for leakage more than 3,200 times after wells associated with those reports were reported accessible by previous well owners more than 2,000 times the previous year. “Interestingly, [previous ownership] could get to the wellhead,” report author and Cornell University engineering professor emeritus Anthony Ingraffea said. “So I guess the trees grew up very, very quickly after Diversified acquired the wells.” Last year, Bloomberg Green reported it found methane leaks at most of 44 Diversified well sites it visited, including eight in West Virginia.

Diversified reported retiring 136 wells in 2021, exceeding its requirements of plugging 80 wells in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Ohio and moving the company closer to a stated goal of plugging 200 wells across Appalachia by 2023, according to its 2021 annual report.

In a statement, Paul Espenan, vice president of environmental health and safety at Diversified, defended the company’s environmental record. Espenan said the company has invested in pursuing opportunities to use excess plugging capacity to support other operator retirements. Espenan said recent company efforts to equip well tenders with handheld methane detection devices, deploy aerial leak surveys and upgrade equipment resulted in year-over-year reductions in methane intensity as the company works toward a target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. “Sustainability is core to our unique approach as a responsible operator that unlocks value, delivers free cash flow and is committed to asset stewardship through the full life of acquired, low-decline producing assets,” Espenan said.

The 136 wells retired last year represent less than half of 1% of all the wells in Diversified’s portfolio. The company said in its 2021 annual report that it established an in-house plugging team in West Virginia last year.

Diversified and its subsidiaries have 22,876 non-plugged wells in West Virginia, DEP spokesman Terry Fletcher said. Diversified-owned companies have plugged roughly 130 wells in the state since 2018, Fletcher said. The DEP estimates that older wells that have been poorly maintained will likely total over $100,000 in plugging costs. New wells that have been properly maintained cost a few tens of thousands of dollars, per the agency.

The state’s Oil and Gas Abandoned Well Plugging Fund, created in 2020 by House Bill 4090 to pay for reclaiming abandoned wells without a responsible operator, has a balance of $1.86 million, Fletcher said – a fraction of Carbon Tracker’s $7.6 billion estimate of the cost to plug wells that ceased production in West Virginia.

The Office of Oil and Gas reports about 6,300 documented orphaned wells and estimates an additional 9,000 undocumented orphan wells statewide. The plugging workload for even a small portion of Diversified wells would be unlike anything the state has ever tackled before. A study last year by the Interstate Oil & Gas Compact Commission noted that West Virginia funded plugging of three orphan wells in the state from 2018 to 2020.

A total of 472 wells have been plugged under the state’s program, according to the report by the Interstate Oil & Gas Compact Commission, a multistate governmental entity that promotes what it calls efficient recovery of oil and gas resources and environmental health. Fletcher said DEP records indicate that state-funded well plugging has been occurring since at least 1993.

The DEP expects to plug 160 orphaned wells — roughly 1% of its statewide orphaned well estimate — in the initial grant phase of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act enacted in November, under which states are eligible to receive up to $25 million for cleaning up orphaned oil and gas wells. Fletcher has said the DEP is identifying all areas where staff can be increased given the Office of Oil and Gas’ personnel shortage.

The state Legislature has failed to adopt bills that would restore the Office of Oil and Gas to its previous personnel level despite pressure from environmental, surface and royalty owner advocates to shore up the office’s funding.

The Governor’s Office did not respond to a request for comment on why the office did not add any measures addressing the inspector shortage to the agenda of last week’s special legislative session despite the office’s previously stated support for bills that would have increased funding for state oil and gas inspectors. The governor announces the convening of a special session through a written proclamation referred to as a “call” because it calls the Legislature into session. The Legislature cannot take up items outside the call during a special session.

“We want to make sure that these wells, the gas, the oil that is produced, is sold so the royalty owners can be paid royalties on those products and [that the gas and oil] are not wasted through leakage or broken tanks that seep the oil out into the ground,” Huber said. “So we support any effort to add inspectors.”

Burd argued a proposed $100 annual oversight fee for unplugged wells would have been onerous for operators. It would have applied to wells producing 10,000 cubic feet or more of gas daily. The bill stalled in the House after passing the Senate.

“It speaks to a kind of lax regulatory culture in West Virginia, I guess,” May said. The Ohio River Valley Institute has proposed a production fee ranging 3 to 7 cents per thousand cubic feet in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio over the next 25 years to provide enough funds to decommission most of the states’ unplugged well inventories.

But West Virginia regulators are left to make the most of sweeping federal investments in well reclamation and contend with a projected rise in gas production without strength in numbers. The big numbers are on Diversified’s side — at least for now. “I think more inspectors would mean less orphaned wells, which is a good thing in the long run,” Huber said.

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Diversified Set to Track Appalachia Oil, Gas Methane Leaks with Aerial Scans

From an Article by Matthew Veazey, Natural Gas Intelligence, December 8, 2021

Methane leak detection provider Bridger Photonics has been selected to perform multi-year aerial scans of Diversified Energy Co. plc’s natural gas production and distribution assets, initially in Appalachia.

Bridger plans to deploy its laser imaging, detection and ranging (LiDAR) equipment to track the emissions. “Our Gas Mapping LiDAR technology will efficiently detect, pinpoint and quantify typically more than 90% of basin emissions to inform and streamline Diversified’s repair and maintenance activities,” said Bridger CEO Pete Roos.

Diversified, whose Central Region holdings include the Haynesville and Barnett shales and assets in the Midcontinent, said the LiDAR program would be extended to those assets as well. The company noted that early 2021 field trials of Bridger’s LiDAR technology on a “large segment” of Appalachia pipeline detected fugitive natural gas emissions “well below” 500 parts per million, which is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) leak definition threshold.

Diversified said it would spend $3 million annually over the next three years on LiDAR aerial emissions scanning activities. The total $9 million commitment “supports our near-term goal to reduce our 2020 level methane emissions by 30% by 2026 on the way to net-zero by 2040,” said Diversified CEO Rusty Hutson Jr. “Adding aerial emissions detection to the handheld devices we’ve placed in the hands of our skilled well tenders further enhances our ability to detect and repair fugitive emissions across our asset base.”

By way of proposed changes to the U.S. Clean Air Act, the EPA is seeking to broadly limit methane emissions across oil and gas operations. The new mandate would add covered methane sources at well sites, natural gas gathering and boosting compressor stations, gas processing equipment, as well as transmission and storage equipment.

The Biden administration wants to curb methane emissions from oil and gas operations beyond U.S. territory as well. In November, President Biden hosted his counterparts from Canada and Mexico for a trilateral summit, which featured a pledge to develop a “‘North American strategy on methane and black carbon.’” Also, the Biden administration and the European Union have endorsed a target to cut methane emissions 30% worldwide by 2030.

You will not believe what Diversified is getting away with ....

From an Article by Mike Tony, Charleston Gazette Mail, April 30, 2022

All is often not well when gas wells end.

In 2020, Carbon Tracker, a London-based think tank researching climate change impacts on financial markets, estimated the costs of plugging gas and oil wells that ceased production in West Virginia exceeded $7.6 billion — with bonds totaling just $28.7 million to cover that expense. That same year, a senior advisor to Carbon Tracker reflected on the business model behind thousands of those wells in West Virginia and across Appalachia in a conference call with the Capitol Forum, a corporate news analysis service. The advisor called that business model a “legal Ponzi scheme.” ~~~ “[I]t only works as long as there’s growth and the perception of profitability,” Greg Rogers said.

Headquartered in Alabama and led by Lumberport native and cofounder and CEO Rusty Hutson Jr., Diversified Energy has become the largest owner of oil and gas wells in the country. Most of the company’s nearly 70,000 wells are in Appalachia, acquired since 2018 from regional producers such as Pittsburgh-based EQT and Canonsburg, Pennsylvania-based CNX Resources.

“But … if your production is falling on those wells, especially if it’s falling faster than you think, then you’re going to need to continually acquire more and more wells,” Rogers said of Diversified’s business model. “The problem is you’re acquiring more and more liabilities as you do that, these liabilities for the closure.”

“[Diversified’s] business model is built around low decline assets paying out cash flow in the form of dividends to retail investors,” Tom Loughrey wrote in a June 2020 company analysis for Friezo Loughrey Oil Well Partners, an analytics firm serving investors in the oil and gas sector. “The problem with these structures, and why they always fail, is the valuations eventually exceed the future cash flows; the company must replace assets at an increasing rate until hitting the wall.”

States mandate that wells no longer producing gas or oil are plugged and abandoned and that well owners secure a bond or other financial assurance that helps cover the expense of closing wells that aren’t productive anymore. Two recently released reports suggest Diversified’s expanding well portfolio poses long-term risks both to West Virginia’s bottom line and its environmental safety.

The Ohio River Valley Institute, a Johnstown, Pennsylvania-based pro-clean energy nonprofit think tank, published a report April 12 predicting it is highly unlikely Diversified will have enough money to plug and abandon all its wells, citing Diversified company data and federal projections for natural gas prices. Plugging and abandoning costs will be higher than the revenue generated by Diversified’s current well inventory by 2056, the report projects.

The report finds 96% of the company’s producing wells in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Ohio produce less than five barrels of oil equivalent per day. Wells producing less than that amount are considered financially distressed by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, the report notes. “The numbers just don’t add up,” report co-author and Ohio River Valley Institute research fellow Kathy Hipple said.

A week after that report was released, a Environmental Defense Fund study found low-production well sites like those dominating Diversified’s portfolio are a disproportionately large source of methane emissions. This study published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature Communications found roughly half of all well site methane emissions nationwide come from low-production well sites, which emit six to 12 times as much methane as the average rate for all U.S. well sites.

Methane has a 100-year global warming potential 28 to 36 times that of carbon dioxide, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, making Diversified’s deepening well footprint across Appalachia a climate concern in addition to a threat to states’ bottom lines. “The percentage of methane emissions is disproportionately high,” said Karan May, senior campaign representative for the Sierra Club in West Virginia. “When I put that together with Diversified, it just scares me for what’s happening in Appalachia particularly.”

Diversified is only the 15th largest producer in Appalachia despite being its largest well owner, Ohio River Valley Institute researchers found, citing Capitol Forum data. “Diversified’s business model is based on harvesting cash flows from its wells and delaying P&A [plugging and abandoning] costs for as long as possible,” the Ohio River Valley Institute report concluded.

Diversified could have 60,000 wells to plug and abandon throughout Appalachia at the end of consent agreements reached with regulators in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Ohio committing the company to decommissioning some 80 wells annually for the next 15 years.

“[T]hey’ve become too big to fail,” report co-author and Ohio River Valley Institute research fellow Ted Boettner said. The Ohio River Valley Institute report finds that Diversified has used unusual assumptions like implausibly long economic lives of wells though 2095 and an excessively long ramp-up timeline to start plugging and abandoning most of its wells to calculate the value of its asset retirement obligations, liabilities for well plugging and abandoning costs.

The report also says the company appears to be avoiding its obligations to report methane leakage from its wells, citing an analysis of emissions reporting submitted by Diversified for more than 20,000 active wells in Pennsylvania. Ohio River Valley Institute’s researchers and other industry experts anticipate a rapid decline in gas production. That would leave Appalachian states particularly vulnerable to being on the hook for cleaning up thousands of additional orphaned wells.

“[W]hen one company owns so many of these wells, that risk is just huge,” Boettner said. “Who’s going to be left holding that bag? It’s important that our state oil and gas regulators take a huge look at this company and figure out a way to ensure that they can cover these costs.”

West Virginia’s leaders have let the state’s inspection unit responsible for looking after wells statewide atrophy in recent years, declining to shore up funding for well regulators even amid a surge in production. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has reported major manpower shortages in its Office of Oil and Gas, which manages the state’s abandoned well-plugging and reclamation program.

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WV geothermal temperature zones at 7.5 km depth (4.7 miles)

From an Article by David Beard, Dominion Post, April 9 & 10, 2022

WV-Department of Environmental Protection permitting issues discussed

The Dominion Post sent WV-DEP some questions relating to issues raised during the permitting process, including during a public hearing held in January. People were concerned about the vague reference to a data center in Marion Energy Partners’ application, and wondered why DEP’s DAQ didn’t demand more specifics.

DEP said, “The application Marion Energy Partners submitted only indicated they were planning to construct and operate a data processing facility consisting of four natural gas-fired engines to generate electric power for the facility. It did not indicate they were going to mine bitcoin.

Regardless, the application was for the emission sources – the four engines – which is the only aspect of this facility that the WVDEP’s DAQ can regulate. MEP is required to construct the facility in accordance with their permit application and meet the emission limits in the permit when they operate.”

DEP continued, “As mentioned, the DAQ’s jurisdiction begins and ends with the emission sources and it cannot regulate or permit a facility based on how it will use the electricity it generates. Please note that the DAQ has permitted several similar emission sources for facilities across the state, ranging from hospitals to government buildings.”

MEP/NNE will have to monitor its emissions from the site and provide the data to DAQ. The Dominion Post asked how DAQ will verify the data and hold MEP/NNE accountable.
DEP said, “MEP will have to perform stack testing within 180 days of startup and every three years or 8,760 hours of operation, whichever occurs first, and report the results to the DAQ. Stack testing is conducted by a third party contractor. MEP is required to obtain prior approval of a stack test protocol, and provide an opportunity for the agency to observe any required stack test.

“MEP is also required to maintain records of operation, and pollution control device parameters, and periodic fuel analysis. The company has to certify the accuracy of reported information. The DAQ will conduct periodic inspections. The facility is a minor source and is required to be inspected at least once every three years.

“The DAQ does not have staff on site when the facility starts up, however, the facility is required to notify the agency within 15 days of the startup of each engine. DAQ staff is notified of, and has the opportunity to observe, the initial stack test which is required to be conducted within 180 days of startup to confirm the facility is operating within permitted limits.

Regarding possible noise pollution, DEP said, “The DAQ has no jurisdiction over noise. Noise is an issue of local jurisdiction.”

The geothermal project promises to drill a deep exploratory (vertical) well

WVU announced its geothermal research project last August (watch for our Progress special section for a full story on the project). While most geothermal reservoirs are located in the western part of the country, WVU said, there is a “hot spot” below north-central West Virginia.

WVU was awarded a $7.5 million Department of Energy grant to drill an exploratory well at NNE’s industrial park site, where MSEEL is already underway. WVU Energy Institute Assistant Director Samuel Taylor told The Dominion Post this is an exploratory well to see what’s down there and what the potential is for future development.

The well will be a vertical bore – with no horizontal offshoot – going down about three miles. No energy will be produced from the well, he said.

On January 4, 2014, Storage Tank leaks into the Elk River contaminated the Kanawha River and the regional water supply

To: Frank Jernejcic, HB 2598 died in committee.

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From: Frank Jernejcic
Sent: Tuesday, March 8, 2022 12:28 PM
To: Mike Caputo
Subject: HB 2598 – Say No to Weakening Water Protections in the Aboveground Storage Tank Act

Dear Senator Caputo,

I am the Vice-President of the Upper Mon River Association (UMRA) and contacting you on behalf of our organization.

I am asking you to please protect our public drinking water and reject HB 2598, which weakens inspection requirements for certain oil & gas tanks closest to our public drinking water intakes.

All tanks within a Zone of Critical Concern (ZCC) should have the standards and oversight mechanisms of the Aboveground Storage Tank Act.

Please, say no to weaken protections for drinking water in the Aboveground Storage Tank Act and reject HB 2598.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely, Frank Jernejcic, Morgantown, WV 26508

#######+++++++#######+++++++########

See also: West Virginia Environmental Council, P.O. Box 1007, Charleston WV 25324 ~ Office: (304) 414-0143, Email: info@wvecouncil.org

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See also: West Virginia Rivers Coalition, 3501 MacCorkle Ave SE #129, Charleston, WV 25304. Office: 304-637-7201, Email: wvrivers@wvrivers.org

xxx

Notice the surplus 42 inch diameter steel pipe (epoxy coated) at lower left in the Morgantown Industrial Park

From the Sierra Club, West Virginia Chapter, Box 4142​, Morgantown, WV 26504, ​​​​​1/4/22

Re: Draft Permit R13-3533 for Marion Energy Partners, LLC, “Science Center” (‘data center’) for Morgantown Industrial Park

>> Dear Mr. Edward Andrews @ WV-DEP:

Thank you for providing the opportunity for a public meeting on Tuesday, January 11th @ 6:00 PM, regarding the draft air permit for Marion Energy Partners, LLC (MEP). I am hopeful the format for the meeting will allow for an open discussion and information sharing. I am requesting a clarification as to the format, because although this was announced as a “public meeting”, the response to my meeting registration stated that this was to receive comments (“The purpose of the public review process is to accept public comments on air quality issues relevant to this determination.” per the e-mail from Stephanie Hammond).

WV rules at 45-CSR-13-9.1 specifies that “A public meeting(s) to provide information and receive comments on permit applications …”, and we clearly need information about this facility to provide meaningful comments.

Thank you also for extending the comment deadline to Jan. 13, however, we are concerned that this provides a very short turn-around to fully investigate the many questions we have. We hope you will consider a second extension to allow a reasonable time for further review and comments. It is my understanding that there is no immediate urgency for this permit, and a full evaluation of the issues is in the public interest and would not disadvantage the applicant.

As noted in the application and the Engineering Evaluation, this facility may be unique and have unique impacts because it would be independent of the electric grid for its energy supply. Before setting precedents on how such facilities are regulated, a public meeting to explore these issues is essential to inform the public and to allow meaningful community input.

Our review of the very limited information available has resulted in a number of questions, many of which may bear on the WV-DEP’s decision-making regarding this draft permit. In an effort to have the public information meeting be as productive as possible, we hope that the applicant will be willing to attend and that the following questions will be addressed by WV-DEP or the applicant:

1.) Has WV-DEP assessed noise impacts from the proposed MEP facility? In particular, what will be the noise impact on residential areas across the Mon River Valley, or at the nearby schools (Skyview Elementary and Westwood Middle Schools)?
2.) Has there been an estimate of “eWaste” volumes to be generated by this facility?
3.) Will the facility provide bonding or escrow funds to decommission the site at the end of its useful life? We note that legislation in 2021 required wind and solar energy facilities to post bonds sufficient to cover the full cost of site reclamation, do gas-fired electric generating facilities have similar requirements?
4.) Since gas is not “pipeline quality”, what other impurities are present and would be emitted after combustion (radon, VOCs, heavy metals, etc.)? We recommend weekly monitoring of raw gas; annual monitoring is not sufficient.
5.) Is this a Bitcoin Mining Operation or something similar?
6.) Who is buying and using these services, i.e., who are the customers? Who is benefiting/profiting from the facility? Is there an intent to generate block chain data to create cryptocurrency?
7.) What is the relationship of this proposed facility to WVU MSEEEL and the WVU Business School?
8.) If this “Science Center” is to study how electricity is generated from gas, how long is that project to last? Who are the scientists involved and providing analysis?
9.) How many jobs would be created by the proposed MEP facility?
10.) What taxes will they pay? Will gas severance taxes apply to the gas it sells to itself?
11.) Will there be water quality impacts?
12.) Were bids taken for solar energy sources? If not, why not?
13.) Has WV-DEP made any determination on whether emissions from this facility will be aggregated with those from the adjoining gas wells, pipelines and related facilities owned by the parent company? We note that the emissions from the four engines approaches the threshold for a major source for NOx, and that greenhouse gas emissions are subject to regulation if they exceed 75,000 TPY (45-CSR-14.2.80.d). What information is available on air emissions from these wells and related facilities?
14.) Are there unique functions of the Science Center that preclude it from being supplied by electricity from the electric grid? If so, what are these?

We recognize that some of these issues are only indirectly related to the draft air permit but hope that you or the applicant will be prepared to address those. Please let me know if I can provide additional information.

>> Sincerely, James Kotcon, Conservation Chair, West Virginia Chapter of Sierra Club

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TO LISTEN IN OR PARTICIPATE IN THE PUBLIC MEETING, REPLY TO THE FOLLOWING LINK ~ https://forms.gle/vZvJirkUKayGee1W7

Not Another Power Plant in CT ... or ... WV ...!

>> From an Article by Mike Tony, Charleston Gazette Mail, October 22, 2921

Feedback was divided between welcoming potential economic benefits and decrying feared environmental perils at a public comment meeting on a proposed air quality permit for a natural gas-fired power plant in Monongalia County.

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection held the meeting virtually Tuesday evening on the permit requested by Longview Power’s Mountain State Clean Energy LLC for the facility planned to be located immediately north of the Longview coal-fired plant in Maidsville.

The project is slated to be a gas-fired, combined-cycle plant that will supply electricity to the power grid, linking to it via an interconnection used by the coal-fired plant. The West Virginia Division of Air Quality’s preliminary evaluation found that the project as proposed will meet all applicable state rules and federal regulations, prompting the division’s preliminary determination to approve the air quality application.

Area union officials pushed state environmental regulators to keep leaning in that direction. They argue that constructing the plant would create critical jobs for their members. “[T]he job opportunities [are] huge. I would like to add that the jobs created will be good-paying jobs, with important retirement and health care benefits,” said Natalie Stone, representative of the Morgantown-based North Central West Virginia Building Trades Council.

The proposed gas-fired plant is projected to emit 5.13 million tons of greenhouse gases, 321 tons of nitrogen oxide, 276 tons of carbon monoxide and 210 tons of particulate matter per year, according to a permit application prepared for the DEP by Ambient Air Quality Services Inc., a Pennsylvania-based air quality consulting firm.

Opponents of the project objected to what they said were troubling discrepancies and inadequate air quality protection measures in the proposed permit as well as the project’s proposed greenhouse climate emissions that would contribute to the climate crisis.

The International Energy Agency, an intergovernmental organization consisting of 30 member countries, said in May that investors should not fund any new coal, oil or natural gas projects if the world is to reach net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.

Earth must meet the mid-century deadline to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius and avert the worst effects of climate change, the agency reiterated in a road map for the global energy sector that included the new recommendation to end all new fossil fuel projects.

James Kotcon, chairman of the West Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club’s conservation committee, observed that a draft permit for the facility lists the facility’s total electrical generating capacity as 1,300 megawatts, while a DEP preliminary determination and fact sheet for the facility notes that the facility’s electricity generation capability is 1,200 megawatts.

DEP spokesman Terry Fletcher indicated after the meeting that the figure was an approximate value, adding that the output will vary based on power efficiencies and operating conditions. A PowerPoint presentation that Division of Air Quality engineer Edward Andrews showed describing the project indicated that the plant would be a 1,200-megawatt facility.

Area resident Duane Nichols argued that it would be environmentally unjust for the plant to be located near West Virginia University medical facilities, health centers and other sites of importance. Two facilities Nichols mentioned, the WVU Eye Institute and Mountaineer Field, are roughly 10 miles away from the proposed facility location. “You can’t find a worse location in the entire state of West Virginia,” Nichols contended.

Those anticipated emission levels are all well above federal significance levels, subjecting the plant to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Prevention of Significant Deterioration regulations. That designation requires installation of emissions-limitation technology, air quality analysis, an additional impacts analysis assessing the effects of air, ground and water pollution, as well as public comment on permits and citizen enforcement actions against sources not complying with their permits.

Project opponents questioned the “clean energy” part of Mountain State Clean Energy’s name during the meeting. “When I see a company that calls themselves Mountain State Clean Energy and then ask for 5 million tons of greenhouse gas [emissions], who do they think they’re fooling?” Kotcon asked.

Mountain State Clean Energy will need to apply for a water pollution permit for the site or modify an existing one to include the new gas-fired turbine, Fletcher said.
Located 3,000 feet west of the Monongahela River, the site is slated to operate two pipeline-gas compressor units. The application indicates that no greenhouse gas emissions will be associated with starting up, shutting down or operating the units. The proposed start-up date for the facility is Jan. 1, 2025, according to the DEP.

Mountain State Clean Energy LLC formally changed its name from Longview Power II LLC in November of 2020. That name change came seven months after the West Virginia Public Service Commission issued a certificate to the company to construct and operate the gas-fired facility and a 70-megawatt utility-scale solar facility — 20 megawatts to be located in West Virginia and 50 megawatts in Pennsylvania. The commission also approved construction and installation of a 500-kilovolt electric transmission line extending approximately three quarters of a mile north from the gas-fired facility.

Longview Power II LLC and Longview Renewable Power LLC, a separate company granted the solar siting certificate that subsequently changed its name to Mountain State Renewables LLC, estimated that the cost to construct the gas-fired facility would be $1.1 billion, according to the Public Service Commission. The Monongalia County Commission approved a 30-year, $58 million payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement with the Longview parties in December 2020.

The Division of Air Quality will take public comments until Mon., Nov. 1 at 5 p.m. and subsequently take final action on the application. Written comments may be emailed to Edward.S.Andrews@wv.gov, with “Mountain State Clean Energy Comments” in the subject line, or mailed to Edward Andrews, WV Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Air Quality, 601 57th Street, SE, Charleston, WV 25304.

Additional information on the project proposal can be found at https://dep.wv.gov/daq/permitting/Pages/NSR-Permit-Applications.aspx