Rover Pipeline wins approval for HDD at four sites

The action came after Texas based Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), the company developing the US$4.2 billion pipeline, adopted specific recommendations on HDD from the J.D. Hair & Associates consulting firm.

The approved HDD sites were Interstate 77, Honey Creek, the Ohio River at Majorsville and a Norfolk Southern Railroad crossing. The company said HDD is under way or completed at 23 sites along the pipeline route.

FERC had allowed the company to continue HDD drilling started last May when leaks occurred at drilling sites and the HDD work was then halted.

 

vThe company lists about 50 locations where HDD is needed, mostly in Ohio and Michigan. FERC noted HDD is still not allowed at the Tuscarawas and Sandusky rivers in Ohio.

 

The twin pipeline will carry natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shales to the Midwest, Canada and the Gulf Coast. It will move up to 3.25 billion ft3/d from Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

ETP has been sued by the state of Ohio over environmental issues including a dozen HDD leaks.

The approval follows numerous complaints against the Rover pipeline – which has been cited for more than a dozen environmental incidents, including a spill into a wetland that Ohio regulators described as a “tragedy”.

At the beginning of November, Ohio filed a lawsuit against the Rover Pipeline, accusing its operators of polluting state waterways as it builds the 713 mile project.

Rover has discharged several million gallons of drilling fluid into local wetlands, among other violations, according to Ohio state’s environmental office.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/project-news/21112017/rover-pipeline-wins-approval-for-hdd-at-four-sites/