$1.5M payment
The State Historic Preservation Office said Rover Pipeline hasn’t honored an agreement to pay for harm the project does to historic properties.
The dispute surfaced a week after state environmental regulators fined Rover for
construction mishaps and questioned whether Energy Transfer, the Dallas- based company building the pipeline, is taking Ohio seriously as it rushes to finish the $ 4.2 billion natural gas pipeline.
In February, Rover agreed to pay Ohio’s historic preservation office $ 1.5 million a year for five years. The money will fund statewide education for historic preservation.
Rover was supposed to make the first payment by March 1, but the bill remains unpaid, according to an April 28 letter from the preservation office to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The letter was filed Friday on the commission’s online docketing system.
The preservation office asked FERC, as the lead federal agency with jurisdiction over the project, to resolve the dispute.
“The matter’s now in FERC’s hands to decide what happens next,” said Emmy Beach, spokeswoman for Ohio History Connection, which includes the preservation office.
When asked about the dispute, a spokeswoman for Energy Transfer referred to a response Rover’s lawyers filed with FERC.
The letter says that facts regarding “the generation and completion” of the agreement were “misleading and in error” and asks FERC to assign the matter to the head of the commission’s dispute resolution service.
Rover said it would try to resolve the matter with the preservation office, but it contends that it has already contributed a significant amount of money.
“Rover believes any additional contribution is unwarranted and unfair, and Rover is willing to vigorously defend itself against any attempts to leverage any additional contribution,” the letter reads.
Rover already has paid $ 2.3 million as compensation for razing the historic Stoneman House in Carroll County. Rover bought and tore down the house, built in 1843, before notifying regulators, even though the house had been identified as eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
When completed, the Rover Pipeline is expected to carry 3.25 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day through twin 42-inchdiameter pipes from the Utica and Marcellus shales in Ohio to markets ranging from Canada to the Gulf Coast.
In all, 18 incidents of alleged pollution violations have been reported in 11 Ohio counties over the past eight weeks, including mud spills from drilling, stormwater pollution and open burning. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency says at least eight incidents violated state law and many of the rest are under review.
On May 5, the Ohio EPA proposed that Rover pay $431,000 for water and air pollution violations. Last week, FERC prohibited Rover Pipeline from any new drilling activities until the company complies with new measures and receives authorization.
Energy Transfer spokeswoman Alexis Daniel said in an email that the company continues to work with FERC and Ohio EPA to resolve the situation in a way that ensures complete remediation of the impacted areas.