The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) continues to hound the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) about a potential spill of drilling mud by Rover Pipeline near the Tuscarawas River. Last week we told you that OEPA, which has ZERO regulatory oversight of the Rover Pipeline project, had been told (by informants) that when Rover restarted underground horizontal directional drilling (HDD) work at the Tuscarawas site, some 146,000 gallons of drilling mud went down the hole but never came back out (see OEPA Continues to Hunt Rover Pipe, Claims 2nd Spill Near River). In April 2017 Rover experienced an inadvertent return (i.e. spill) of some 2 million gallons of drilling mud at the same location (see Rover Pipeline Accident Spills ~2M Gal. Drilling Mud in OH Swamp). Last year’s accident shut down all HDD work for months. It wasn’t until December that FERC allowed Rover to restart HDD work at the Tuscarawas site. After OEPA went blabbing to FERC last week, Rover pushed back by saying there has been no spill or inadvertent return (see Rover Refutes Ohio EPA Claim of 146K Gal. Spill @ Tuscarawas River). We theorize that some (maybe even all 146,000 gallons) of the drilling mud did go down the hole and stayed down the hole. So far it hasn’t come back out, which is not a problem in anyone’s book. OEPA was back at FERC on Friday like an ankle-biting Chihuahua, asking FERC to shut down Rover HDD work because of this unsubstantiated rumor of drilling mud gone missing. Enough is enough! When will FERC slap OEPA around and tell them to back off?…
