We have sad news to report. Yesterday a 50-year-old man was unloading a large excavator off a trailer at natural gas well pad in Lycoming County, PA when the tailgate/ramp he was trying to lower knocked him to the ground and landed on his chest resulting in “traumatic asphyxiation.” We don’t have a lot of details, but we do have some…
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Last week MDN told you about a barge sinking in a shipping channel in Lousiana that had contributed to a big drop in the price of natural gas (see Sunken Barge in LA Helps Fuel $0.22 One-Day Drop in NatGas Price). That barge is still stuck on the bottom, blocking traffic to the Cameron LNG facility. In addition to trouble for Cameron in the Calcasieu Ship Channel, a semi-submersible rig ran aground in the Sabine Bank Channel, blocking LNG traffic to and from Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass LNG terminal.
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There’s a new twist in the ongoing situation (a mountain created from a molehill) in Weymouth, Massachusetts. Enbridge built and wants to bring online a compressor station that will push an extra 132,705 Dth/d (132.7 MMcf/d) of natural gas along the Algonquin Gas Transmission pipeline. During testing to bring the compressor station online, Enbridge experienced two minor emergency shutdowns.
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A few weeks ago Enbridge began testing its Weymouth, Massachusetts compressor station project, the final piece of the company’s $452 million Atlantic Bridge expansion project. As sometimes happens when you begin testing, there was a problem. A gasket failure led to an unplanned release of 265 Mcf of gas (see Emergency Shutdown at Weymouth Compressor During Initial Test). It’s happened again. A second “emergency shutdown” occurred yesterday when the plant released (drum roll please….) 10 Mcf of natural gas.
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It could have been avoided. The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has no one to blame but themselves for what happened at Marsh Creek Lake in Chester County, PA, when Energy Transfer (ET), drilling underground to install a pipeline for the Mariner East 2 project, experienced a drilling mud spill in August (see Mariner East 2X Construction Causes Another Drilling Mud Spill).
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Last week MDN told you that Enbridge had begun testing its Weymouth, Massachusetts compressor station project, the final piece of the company’s $452 million Atlantic Bridge expansion project (see Weymouth, MA Compressor Stn Begins Testing, Coming Online Soon). As sometimes happens when you begin testing, there was a problem. A gasket failure led to an unplanned release of 265,000 cubic feet of gas Friday morning. Workers at the site triggered an emergency shutdown.
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Sunoco Logistics Partners (i.e. Energy Transfer) was drilling horizontally underneath Snitz Creek in Lebanon County, PA for its Mariner East 2 Pipeline project when it experienced yet another “inadvertent return”–nontoxic drilling mud leaking out of a place where it shouldn’t. In 2018 the same thing happened and antis blew a gasket over a “spill” of five gallons (see Another ME2 Mud Spill at Snitz Creek, Another Hysterical Reaction). On Aug. 13 it happened again–this time it’s 20 gallons and antis are once again engaging in fake outrage over this nothingburger.
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Two weeks ago while drilling in Chester County in Marsh Creek State Park, Energy Transfer’s Mariner East (ME) 2X pipeline experienced an “inadvertent return”–nontoxic drilling mud coming up out of the ground where it’s not supposed to (see Mariner East 2X Construction Causes Another Drilling Mud Spill). In this case the mud came up in a small section of the 535-acre Marsh Creek Lake. Hostile Democrat politicians in Chester County immediately jumped on the leak (which didn’t kill a single fish) to demand the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) revoke the pipeline’s permits to build in the county–forever. A former politician from Chester County offers a different view of this latest episode and the partisan calls to stop ME2.
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While drilling in Chester County earlier this week in the Marsh Creek State Park, Energy Transfer’s Mariner East 2X pipeline experienced an “inadvertent return”–nontoxic drilling mud coming up out of the ground where it’s not supposed to (see Mariner East 2X Construction Causes Another Drilling Mud Spill). In this case the mud came up in a small section of the 535-acre Marsh Creek Lake. Under withering criticism and pressure from anti-fossil fuel groups, the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a press release yesterday to say that all pipeline drilling at the site has been “suspended indefinitely.”
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Yesterday MDN told you about a new “inadvertent return” or drilling mud spill that occurred at Marsh Creek Lake in Chester County, PA, near Philadelphia (see Mariner East 2X Construction Causes Another Drilling Mud Spill). The reaction by the climate crazies, as predicted, was shrill and loud. Those who oppose the Mariner East 2 pipeline oppose it because it flows natural gas and they irrationally hate natural gas. Antis staged a “protest” of the “dangerous” mud spill at Marsh Creek Lake yesterday. After mouthing off for the cameras, the crazies launched dozens of kayaks and paddled through the drilling mud water that’s supposedly dangerous for the environment. Go figure.
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Underground horizontal directional drilling (HDD) for the Mariner East 2 pipelines (two of them, 2 and 2X) have a history of springing leaks. They’re called “inadvertent returns”–when you drill horizontally underground for a pipeline and the drilling mud you put down the hole pops up in a place it’s not supposed to. The good news is that the drilling mud is non-toxic, the same stuff used in toothpaste. The bad news is that it can overwhelm little fishies and other aquatic life and kill (suffocate) them. ME2X drilling had another such incident earlier this week–in Chester County, PA.
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On August 1, 2019, Enbridge’s Texas Eastern Pipeline Company (TETCO) pipeline exploded in Lincoln County, Kentucky–killing one and sending six to the hospital (see TETCO Pipe Explodes in Kentucky Killing 1; Southbound M-U Gas Stops). In September we reported that at least two lawsuits had been filed against Enbridge and TETCO–one for wrongful death, the other by a couple severely injured and burned following the incident (see Two Lawsuits Filed Against Enbridge for KY TETCO Pipe Explosion). A third lawsuit, on behalf of 80 people “affected by the blast,” has just been filed by a personal injury lawyer now a year after the accident.
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On Friday the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced it has fined CNX Resources and its subsidiary CNX Midstream $310,000 for two incidents in which 65 barrels (2,730 gallons) of non-toxic brine (salty water) leaked into the ground and 43 gallons of non-toxic drilling mud leaked into a creek. The DEP says CNX did “not adequately maintain erosion and sedimentation best management practices.”
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The Public Herald, an “independent” news organization, is reporting a leak of ethylene glycol (antifreeze) used as a coolant in Dominion Energy’s Stateline Compressor Station in Genesee (Potter County), PA has contaminated the water supplies for several nearby neighbors. The leak led to a small fish kill in a nearby pond. Dominion is aggressively investigating the situation, along with the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP).
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Energy Transfer’s subsidiary Sunoco Logistics is trying to finish up final construction of the Mariner East 2X pipeline in southeast Pennsylvania. ME2 and ME2X flow natural gas liquids including ethane and propane from eastern Ohio and western PA all the way to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia. As the pipe travels through Philly neighborhoods, some of the geography is limestone (porous) and when drilling to install pipes, it has led to sinkholes. Another seven such sinkholes have appeared since June and the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) is investigating.
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New Jersey Natural Gas’ (NJNG) $130 million, 22-mile natural gas pipeline project called the Southern Reliability Link (SRL) pipeline project to connect NJNG’s distribution system serving customers in Ocean, Burlington and Monmouth counties (in NJ) has been under construction for a year. Construction has continued even during the virus pandemic (see Pipeline Thru NJ Scrub Pines Continues Building During COVID-19). The odious Sierra Club (anti-fossil fuel nutters) has finally succeeded in convincing the New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection to shut down construction on the project–at least temporarily.
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