WVA PIPELINE SAFETY INVESTIGATION

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee will examine pipeline safety during a field hearing later this month in West Virginia, where a December explosion destroyed several homes and cooked a section of Interstate 77.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the Democrat who chairs the panel, said Monday he will convene the hearing Jan. 28 in Charleston. A list of witnesses for the hearing is still being developed, a spokesman said.

On Dec. 11, 2012, a 20-inch Columbia Gas Transmission line ruptured, triggering a massive fire and shutting down a major traffic artery near Sissonville, about 15 miles from Charleston.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the cause, has said the line showed signs of external corrosion and had thinned to about one-third of the recommended thickness in some spots. The Office of Pipeline Safety also said in a preliminary report that "general wall thinning is a major factor in the cause of the failure."


"The Sissonville explosion shook West Virginia quite literally," Rockefeller said, "and served as a stark reminder that pipeline safety is serious. And oversight is critically important."

Although there were no serious injuries in Sissonville, Rockefeller said things could have been worse.

"And West Virginians want to know everything is being done to prevent accidents — and disasters," he said.

The hearing will be the fourth the committee has held on pipeline safety while Rockefeller has chaired it.

Among other things, the Commerce Committee will review the implementation of the Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty and Job Creation Act of 2011, he said. It will also review the findings of a Government Accountability Office study expected Jan. 23 on how well prepared pipeline operators are to handle a hazardous liquid or gas release.

Columbia Gas Transmission is a subsidiary of Indiana-based NiSource.

The company said Monday it can't predict when the damaged pipeline will be back in service. But NiSource is working with federal, state and local officials "to take every step necessary to ensure the safety of our pipeline system," it said in an e-mail.


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The company that owns and operates the natural gas pipeline that exploded in has a lengthy record of pipeline safety violations and federal enforcement actions, including several recent incidents in West Virginia.
ccording to records obtained from the federal Pipeline and Hazard Materials Administration, the Columbia Gas Transmission Corp. (CGT Corp.), which owns and operates the pipeline that exploded in an enormous fireball near Sissonville, West Virginia, has been involved in 14 separate natural gas pipeline safety incidents since February 2011, including five in West Virginia.

Columbia is a wholly owned subsidiary of NiSource, one of America’s largest energy companies.

One of these incidents, on Aug. 25, 2012, in Elyria, Ohio, sent four people to the hospital with serious injuries. Together, the 14 incidents accounted for nearly $1.5 million in property damage.

According to the PHMSA records, nine of the 14 incidents were caused by equipment failure or corrosion, including the most recent incident, which occurred on Oct. 30 in Flat Top, West Virginia, which involved a malfunction of controls related to relief equipment.

In the I-77 blast, which sent flames shooting 100 feet into the air and melted a section of Interstate 77 and destroyed four nearby homes, investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board said, it took Columbia more than an hour to isolate the section of the pipeline where the explosion occurred and shut off the flow of gas to the pipeline.

During the same time period, PHMSA opened 11 separate enforcement actions involving alleged pipeline safety violations by Columbia. Five of those investigations are still underway. PHMSA is currently seeking more than $250,000 in civil penalties in connection with the investigations. The CGT Corp. paid a fine of $67,800 in connection with one investigation, in which the agency cited the company for failing to continuously monitor the concentration of gas in the air at the Claysville compressor station in Pennsylvania.

Damon Hill, a spokesperson for PHMSA, explained the difference in the number of incidents compared to the number of enforcement actions, saying that not every pipeline incident triggers an enforcement action.

“Every incident is investigated,” Hill told NaturalGasWatch.org, “but not every investigation results in an enforcement action.”

MASSIVE EXPLOSION OF GAS PIPELINE IN WEST VIRGINIA - PIPELINE SAFETY IS A MAJOR ISSUE!

Bloody Columbia Gas Transmission AGAIN!  

So much for "clean burning natural gas with high BTU output.." Well, except for smoke from 9 houses, the surrounding woods, and asphalt from a 15 foot deep pit that was Interstate 77 - all in flames near Charleston, WV yesterday afternoon.. 

SISSONVILLE, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- The wall of the natural gas pipeline that exploded in Sissonville, W.Va. on Tuesday had deteriorated to LESS THAN A TENTH OF AN INCH THICK, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) revealed Wednesday evening.

The NTSB also said there was a sudden pressure drop in the pipeline just before the explosion but they still had not determined whether that caused the explosion.

The explosion and ensuing fire destroyed four homes, damaged at least five others and damaged an 800-foot stretch of I-77.

The 10-member NTSB team determined that the pipeline had lost SEVENTY PERCENT OF ITS THICKNESS in spots.

Pieces of the pipeline will be sent to Washington, D.C. for further examination. 

 

LINK TO ARTICLE

WILD AND WONDERFUL WEST VIRGINIA?

Forwarded to me from a friend:

We flew over the southern panhandle of West Virginia area (Marshall-Wetzel counties) and it is un-fracking-believable!  Well pads in every direction, pipelines creating a jagged maze, drilling pits of every shape and tint, rigs of varied colors, and vehicle-packed fracking ops. on mountainous pads doing completion work. There was one spot where you could see 3 industrial-sized compressor stations/gas treatment plants in close proximity to one another.

Multiple areas in WV revealed 2 new things: Some fluid impoundments that resemble round aboveground backyard swimming pools, and several spots with multiple impoundments, one with as many as SIX!  (Imagine if the property owner living in the midst of that industrial mess doesn’t own the gas rights. Yoi!)  This used to be my favorite area for a refreshing Sunday morning motorcycle ride through beautiful terrain, now we are witnessing widespread gashes and ugliness.

What a difference 6 years makes…

Veterans Day 2006 on a motorcycle in that area enjoying twisty roads:


Veterans Day 2012 in an airplane over that same area:  



More photos of Wild, Wonderful West Virginia:  

 































   

LIQUID PULSING: FRACKING ALTERNATIVE?

Energy companies have turned to new drilling technologies in the past decade to squeeze out the last drops of oil and gas underground. Those methods include hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, that have been linked to environmental damage and the threat of causing small earthquakes.
Now a Canadian firm has developed an alternative that uses underground fluid pressure waves to scrub oil out of rock formations without breaking the rock or injecting toxic chemicals into the ground.

ANALYSIS: Human-Triggered Earthquakes Surprisingly Common
The process sends a pulse of energy that changes the porosity of the geological material -- the rock, sand or clay, etc. --– surrounding the oil deposits. It then uses recycled water or carbon dioxide to flush out the oil, according to Brett Davidson, CEO of Edmonton-based Wavefront Technology.

"What we are going to do underground is mimic a garden hose," Davidson said. "You have a steady state of fluid coming out of the hose. When I put kink in the hose, I'm storing energy. When I undo the kink I get an acceleration of fluid."
Davidson said the idea came after finding out that oil companies often reported more production from their wells after earthquakes. It turns out that instead of the earthquake's initial seismic wave affecting the oil deposits, a second much slower force called a porosity dilation wave is created. This wave forces oil through the rock like a beating heart, forcing blood through the body’s veins and arteries.

Wavefront has developed several kinds of pulsing devices that are lowered into the ground to produce this slow-moving fluid wave, the choice of device depending on the kind of geological formation. The pressure wave momentarily changes the porosity of the rock or soil to push out more oil. It can also be used to clean up underground toxic waste sites, Davidson said.

A recent consultant's study found Wavefront's liquid pulse method boosted oil production by an average of 2.5 percent at five oil wells in Alberta and Saskatchewan. While that may not seem like much, boosting production from the estimated 400 billion barrels left in the ground in U.S. reserves would result in 10 billion barrels of extra oil, or enough to run the entire U.S. economy for about 526 days.

 LINK TO ARTICLE

NETTIE, WV FIGHTS PLANS FOR WELL PAD NEAR ITS WATER SUPPLY

Nettie PSD will hold another meeting to discuss this issue at the Nettie Fire House on April 24 at 7 p.m. so be there and bring a friend! 

At the meeting, which was extremely well-attended by around 80 people, BRC employee Sam Sweatt referred to a single well, 5-H. In fact, the site is post-marked through 8-H! Yep.. we have the photos guys!

I would like to add that ALL of Bluescape's activity in Nicholas County is within the Upper Gauley River watershed and that, whether through water extraction for drilling and fracking, or by pollution consequential to this industrial process, ALL water users in our area will be inpacted one way or the other. With Acid Mine Discharge leading to aquifer/well contamination already causing ongoing long-term problems here, we hardly need the additional prospect of water poisoning by fracking activities....

12th April 2012
by C.V. Moore, Beckley Register Herald Reporter
Residents Voice Concern at Nettie Meeting

NETTIE — Concerned about a proposed horizontal gas well near their water supply, the Nettie Public Service District turned out about 80 residents to an “emergency” meeting Tuesday evening.

The group has elected to present an ordinance to the Nicholas County Commission to ban drilling in the county.

Tuesday’s was the second such meeting held in Nettie since the community noticed an ad in the paper on March 8 stating that Bluescape Resources Co. (BRC) would be proposing a well in the Panther Creek watershed.

PSD Chair David McMillion says the well would be located above the headwaters of Panther Creek — where the PSD gets its public drinking water — and “could affect or contaminate” the water supply.

“Even if there’s only a 1 percent chance of that happening, it’s too much,” said attendee Ralph Kelly, who made the motion to create the county ordinance. “We can’t afford to move if our water is polluted, even temporarily.

“That would be a tremendous burden on us and that’s why we need to take an action to protect ourselves. It’s not because we’re being radical, but because we have investments here.”

But county- and city-wide bans on drilling have so far been ineffectual in West Virginia, since state and federal law regulate the practice.

“The county government cannot interfere with any state law,” says Fayette County Prosecuting Attorney Carl Harris. “On the county level, there is very little they can do.”

“We’re going to take it as far as we can and see what happens,” says McMillion.

The PSD has approached Appalachian Mountain Advocates about potential litigation and McMillion says they have responded positively.

The PSD also sent letters to various personnel at the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Environmental Protection Agency, Nicholas County Commission, corporate owners of land and mineral rights in the area, politicians and a lawyer.

A petition opposing the well has been signed by hundreds of area residents so far.

“The primary issue is not are you going to stop drilling,” Sen. Ron Miller told those gathered at the Nettie Fire Hall. “The primary issue is your watershed, and that’s where the DEP needs to be very active.”

PSD Secretary Bill Fox says the utility provides water to 1,375 homes. A planned extension will serve approximately 100 more in Carl and Green Valley.

Fox says a deep mine destroyed the water table in Green Valley years ago.

“People lost their wells,” he says. “They’ve been hauling water for 25 years.”

McMillion estimates that the well would be 1.5 miles as the crow flies from the dam where the PSD collects its water.

A representative from BRC, Sam Sweatt, attended the meeting.

“My reason for being here is to listen to your concerns and see if we can do anything to fall in line,” he told those gathered.

Local residents and members of the group Stand Up Now (STUN) — which has been protesting and watch-dogging BRC’s operations since last autumn — hammered Sweatt with questions about earthquakes, fracking chemicals, jobs, water usage and the company’s flare near Richwood.

Caroline Snyder, who has worked with STUN in the past, countered and contradicted some of Sweatt’s information during the meeting.

“The long term job creation is minimal,” she said. “The environmental devastation could be catastrophic.”

As for the particular well under discussion, Sweatt says it will be an “extended period of time” before it is drilled, if at all.

“We’ll submit a lot of permits that won’t go to fruition,” he says. “We’re looking now at determining the viability of the field. That one is close to some others we already have data on.”

BRC has drilled seven wells in Nicholas County so far, four of which have been fracked.

Mark Spencer’s farm borders the site of the proposed well. He has three springs and a well where he sources his drinking water.

“The way I feel about it is a person has enough to worry about without having to worry about losing your water or getting water contaminated,” he says. “They will be drilling through the water table where I get my water.”

Spencer has had some encounters with men he says are doing geophysical research and surveying the drill pad site near his property.

A member of the West Virginia Surface Owners’ Rights Organization, he complains that they offered no proof of their right to be on the property. When he told them to leave, he says they did, but came back when he wasn’t there.

“They were doing things at dusk out there, kind of sneaky it seemed to me,” he says. “And they left lunch trash on the farm.

“They were very disrespectful to landowners in my opinion.”

On April 23, a representative from the West Virginia Surface Owners’ Rights Organization will give a presentation at the Richwood Public Library at 7 p.m.

The PSD will hold another meeting to discuss this issue at the Nettie Fire House on April 24 at 7 p.m.

— E-mail: cmoore@register-herald.com

and

Gas company says well drilling won’t begin anytime soon

NETTIE — Some Nettie residents may have their hackles raised over a potential horizontal gas well near the community’s water source, but the gas company says it won’t be drilling the well anytime soon.

An ad announcing Bluescape Resources Co.’s (BRC) intention to apply for drilling permit 5-5H ran in a local paper on March 8, but the permit application for this particular well has not yet been completed.

More importantly, BRC’s Completion/Production Manager Chad Touchet says of six potential data-gathering wells the company may drill, the 5-5H well is ranked pretty low in terms of viability.

“It’s not on our radar right now to drill,” says Touchet. “We don’t really need this data right now.”

The wells BRC is considering drilling are not typical production wells. Rather, they would help the company form a picture of the economic viability of further drilling in the area.

Touchet says the company would like to drill one — perhaps two — more wells this year, beginning in July or August.

Though he would not disclose their specific location at this time, he says they are “nowhere near” Nettie.

The water management plan for the well or wells is currently being hashed out by BRC, says Touchet.

Geology, operational feasibility and economics all played into the ranking of the six potential wells.

Despite these limited plans, the company will likely apply for permits for all six potential wells.

“Because it such a lengthy process for permitting, we wanted to have all of our possible potential drills submitted,” says Touchet.

That doesn’t mean the company will drill them immediately, or at all.

“We can let the permits expire and that’s fine with us, just as long as we have them,” Touchet says.

He says with gas prices so low right now, BRC is being “picky” about where they drill.

—E mail: cmoore@register-herald.com

WV COUPLE SUE CHESAPEAKE ENERGY OVER FOULED WELL

From Texas to Wyoming.. from Colorado to Pennsylvania.. and now here in West Virginia, hundreds of wells and aquifers have been contaminated nationwide by vertical/horizontal gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing. The drilling utilizes over three hundred toxic chemicals to fracture the earth one mile in several directions from the vertical drill-bore. Our state forests, where generations of West Virginians have hunted, fished, and hiked, are being defaced by a growing network of well pads. But even more disturbing are the effects that we can't see. Unknown chemicals are being pumped thousands of feet underground. The extreme pressures involved in the hydro-fracturing process are forcing methane gas into people's homes and into their water supplies. Thousands of gallons of chemicals have been spilled in our forests and streams. It's clear to me that hydro-fracturing is the single biggest environmental threat to West Virginia that this generation faces, and it has hardly started...

Above: Fracking trucks at a well site

The State Journal, April 2nd 2012

Two Marshall County residents claiming Marcellus shale drilling adjacent to their property rendered their water supply unusable are taking their fight to federal court.

Jeremiah Magers and Andrea Magers originally filed the suit Feb. 24 in Marshall County Circuit Court against Chesapeake Appalachia. The suit was removed to federal court March 30.

According to their suit, the Magers say they used a water well near their home because public water is not available.

The Magers claimed as soon as Chesapeake started drilling gas wells, they started to notice methane gas from their well and a nearby stream.

"Sufficient gas was present that the plaintiffs could ignite both the water and Fish Creek," the suit stated.
Now, the Magers claim they must purchase and haul water to their house.

 "The defendant has failed to provide the plaintiffs an alternate water supply or compensate them for the contamination of their water well and their costs in purchasing water," the suit stated.

Chesapeake Appalachia has not yet filed a response. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Frederick P. Stamp Jr.

Here is an eye-opening article from Cleantechnica which explores the problem further:

Report Shows Natural Gas Fracking Creates More Methane in Underground Water

Research scientists writing for Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) report that while directional drilling and hydraulic-fracturing technologies are dramatically increasing natural-gas extraction, the aquifers overlying the Marcellus and Utica shale formations of northeastern Pennsylvania and upstate New York show systematic evidence of methane contamination of drinking water associated with shale-gas extraction.

The complete PNAS report directly cites hydraulic fracturing as a contributor: “the process of hydraulic fracturing generates new fractures or enlarges existing ones above the target shale formation, increasing the connectivity of the fracture system. The reduced pressure following the fracturing activities could release methane in solution, leading to methane exsolving rapidly from solution, allowing methane gas to potentially migrate upward through the fracture system.” 

Of course, vested interests will continue to "lie and deny"...

Research scientists writing for Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) report that while directional drilling and hydraulic-fracturing technologies are dramatically increasing natural-gas extraction, the aquifers overlying the Marcellus and Utica shale formations of northeastern Pennsylvania and upstate New York show systematic evidence of methane contamination of drinking water associated with shale-gas extraction.
The complete PNAS report directly cites hydraulic fracturing as a contributor: “the process of hydraulic fracturing generates new fractures or enlarges existing ones above the target shale formation, increasing the connectivity of the fracture system. The reduced pressure following the fracturing activities could release methane in solution, leading to methane exsolving rapidly from solution, allowing methane gas to potentially migrate upward through the fracture system.”

Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/12KvN)

Research scientists writing for Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) report that while directional drilling and hydraulic-fracturing technologies are dramatically increasing natural-gas extraction, the aquifers overlying the Marcellus and Utica shale formations of northeastern Pennsylvania and upstate New York show systematic evidence of methane contamination of drinking water associated with shale-gas extraction.
The complete PNAS report directly cites hydraulic fracturing as a contributor: “the process of hydraulic fracturing generates new fractures or enlarges existing ones above the target shale formation, increasing the connectivity of the fracture system. The reduced pressure following the fracturing activities could release methane in solution, leading to methane exsolving rapidly from solution, allowing methane gas to potentially migrate upward through the fracture system.”
Active gas-extraction areas having one or more gas wells within a 1-kilometer average not only imperil drinking-water wells, they are also potential explosion hazards, the report states.

Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/12KvN)

END IN SIGHT FOR BLUESCAPE GAS FLARE RICHWOOD WV

The company has until May 31 to extinguish the flare that has been burning since August 2011

Great reportage by Rick Steelhammer, Charleston Gazette.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The state Department of Environmental Protection has set May 31 as the deadline for extinguishing a flare that has been burning gases from three Nicholas County Marcellus Shale exploration wells for more than six months, despite state laws limiting natural gas flaring to 30 days per year. 

Dallas-based Bluescape Resources Co. began flaring gas from three Marcellus wells near Fenwick on Aug. 28 last year. Responding to citizen complaints about the prolonged flaring, mainly from the newly formed organization Stand Up Now, the DEP's Division of Air Quality inspected the Fenwick area site on Oct. 12 and issued BRC a notice of violation Oct. 26.

On Nov. 14, in a response to the violation notice, company officials said BRC had to flare the natural gas produced by the wells since "no pipeline exists in the area" to collect and transport the gas. Lacking a pipeline, gas from the wells had to be released, measured and burned "to test the viability of the natural gas reserves in the area," they said. 

A pipeline linking the Richwood area to Frametown is being planned.

The company response went on to state that BRC could not "shut in the wells or the flare without suffering irreparable financial damage." The Fenwick area wells "are generating data on natural gas reserves in a portion of the state that has previously not been tested. The information being generated is crucial not only to BRC but to the mineral owners and other lessees in the area."

BRC maintained in its response letter that prior to installing the wells, the company consulted with the DEP's Office of Oil and Gas about flaring plans at the Fenwick site, and was told that no permits were needed.

In late November, the company filed a request for a temporary permit to continue operating the flare. On Dec. 7, a meeting was held with Division of Air Quality personnel to discuss the permit and resolve the notice of violation. On Dec. 15, the DAQ sent BRC a Notice of Deficiency letter seeking more information from the company in order to process the temporary permit.

In the recently released consent order, dated Feb. 22, BRC agreed, among other things, to convert the flare from a vertical to a horizontal configuration, to monitor for visible emissions, and to cease operating the flare "on or before combusting a total of 1,321 million standard cubic feet, or no later than May 31, 2012, whichever is sooner."

BRC also agreed to pay an administrative penalty of $50,000 to resolve all DAQ violations.

BRC's permit application lists maximum possible hourly emissions from the flare as 35,163 pounds of carbon dioxide and 110 pounds of carbon monoxide. 

"I'm glad to know that the state has established a limit" regarding how long natural gas flares are allowed to burn, said Stephanie Hamilton, among those opposing the continued flaring of the Fenwick wells.

Hamilton said she would like to see BRC's fine money be used to add a Richwood-area air quality monitoring station to the Division of Air Quality's current network of 23 monitoring sites across the state. The nearest station to the Fenwick wells is found at Sam Black Church in Greenbrier County, "many miles and several mountains away," she said.

 With 13 Marcellus wells under permit in the Richwood area, and 12 in the vicinity of Craigsville, and up to 10 wells possible per drilling pad, "the potential for hundreds of new wells and new flares is possible in Nicholas County," Hamilton said. 

Hamilton said state law allows for fines of up to $250,000 per well for the nonpermitted flaring done by BRC. "I wonder how the DEP justified a $50,000 fine," she said.

Hamilton said the orange glow from the flare can be seen from Richwood and Craigsville at night, particularly during overcast conditions.

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