Spills dump drilling mud into wetlands
An estimated 2 million gallons of drilling mud spilled last week into two Ohio wetlands during installation of the Rover pipeline, according to a notice of violations with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
Once constructed, the $4.2 billion underground pipeline will run from Washington County in southeast Ohio, northwest to Defiance, then connect with other pipelines to send Ohio natural gas to markets nationwide.
The larger of the two spills coated 500,000 square feet of a wetland adjacent to the Tuscarawas River in northeastern Ohio with as much as 2 million gallons of bentonite mud, which is used as a drilling lubricant.
The drilling fluid is a natural clay mud and does not contain added chemicals, said Ohio EPA spokesman
James Lee. Both spills have been contained and did not affect adjacent waterways, private wells or public water systems, he said.
“Discharges of bentonite mud and other material into waters of the state, including wetlands, can affect water chemistry and potentially suffocate wildlife, fish and microinvertebrates,” Lee said. “Any affected public water system would need to apply extensive and costly treatment in order to remove the material from the source water.”
The Rover Pipeline has ceased operations at its Navarre-area site and constructed barriers to keep the mud from reaching the river while vacuum trucks and pumping systems continue cleanup efforts.
“(We) anticipate
returning to construction shortly,” Alexis Daniel, a spokeswoman for the Rover Pipeline, said in an emailed statement.
An additional 50,000 gallons of bentonite spilled into a wetland in Mifflin Township in Richland County.
As construction progressed at the Navarre-area site, small amounts of clay mud had surfaced for weeks, according to the Ohio EPA. The company had been pumping the material back into its rig until a pump failed on April 14, releasing bentonite across threequarters of an acre of wetland.
That spill has been completely cleaned up, Daniel said, and crews have completed work to pull pipe through the area.
The company reported both spills to the Ohio EPA when they occurred last week, and immediately began disposing of the mud, she said. It also filed a notice Tuesday about the spills with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
“Right now, the emphasis is on cleanup efforts,” Lee said. “Ohio EPA is continuing to monitor the situation.”
The agency also directed the company to prevent the mud from spreading to other waterways and to properly dispose of the bentonite.
Texas-based Energy Transfer — the same company behind the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline — plans to finish the Rover project and begin operating the pipeline this year. Construction began in mid-February.
The company already had faced several hiccups, including legal hurdles, in its race to clear trees before the federally protected Indiana brown bats began roosting. The company also drew backlash for demolishing a Leesville house that was under consideration for the National Register of Historic Places.
Environmentalists are calling for construction of the pipeline to be halted until an investigation into the bentonite spills is completed.
“They’ve already had two spills in less than a month of construction,” said Jen Miller, director of the Sierra Club Ohio Chapter. “It’s not an issue of, if there will be an accident, but when … What’s next? I think that’s a valid question.”