In September MDN told you about Craig Butler, director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA), that Bulter had gone off the rails on a power trip, claiming OEPA has the power to regulate the federally regulated Rover Pipeline project (see Ohio EPA’s Craig Butler Goes Nuts, Demands $2.3M from Rover Pipe). Butler is fining Rover for a string of some major, mostly minor drilling mud spills related to underground horizontal directional drilling (HDD). Earlier this month Butler fleeced the Ohio Attorney General into suing Rover (see OH EPA Director Manipulates Atty General to Sue Rover Pipeline). Like Captain Ahab obsessed with Moby-Dick, Butler continues his quest to stop Rover. Butler’s latest attempt is to “request” (i.e. demand) Rover stop all HDD work now under way because another drilling mud spill happened on November 16th. The latest spill (called an “inadvertent return”) was 200 gallons and ended up in the Black Fork Mohican River in Ashland County. For new MDN readers: drilling mud is bentonite clay–the same stuff used to make kitty litter, toothpaste and cosmetics. It’s nontoxic and perfect safe for the environment–unless there’s a lot of it, and then it can smother critters like salamanders and fish. But honestly, 200 gallons of it is NOTHING. Butler sent a letter to Rover and has also sent it to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in yet another attempt to get FERC to halt all Rover HDD work…
