Pipeline company’s soapy spill into stream results in citation

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has once again cited Rover Pipeline, saying the company spilled soapy wastewater and sediment into an eastern Ohio stream during construction of its natural-gas pipeline last week.

The spill was discovered Wednesday as workers bored beneath Branch Road near Amsterdam, in Carroll County. The water, containing Dawn dish soap, along with sediment from failed erosion controls, affected about 500 feet of a tributary of Irish Creek, according to Ohio EPA.

Workers temporarily dammed the tributary and recovered 6,000 gallons of water with a vacuum truck, and removed 3 cubic yards of sediment from the stream by hand, according to Ohio EPA records.

Rover stopped boring at the site and said it would dig a trench to finish the road crossing, according to the records.

Ohio EPA cited Rover for releasing the soapy wastewater and sediment without a permit. It is the 13th environmental violation by Rover this year.

“Although Rover’s arrogance and blatant disregard for Ohio’s environmental laws is no longer surprising, we will remain vigilant in holding the company accountable,” Ohio EPA Director Craig W. Butler said in a written statement.

A Rover spokeswoman responded by email to a request for comment on the spill.

“This was an issue where the contractor put Dawn dishwashing liquid in the exit hole of the drill under a roadway, without our approval,” spokeswoman Alexis Daniel wrote. “The employee has been let go. The area has been remediated.”

Last week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission allowed Rover to resume horizontal drilling at several sites along the pipeline route. FERC had paused drilling work after Rover spilled 2 million gallons of diesel-tainted slurry into a wetland next to the Tuscarawas River.

The Ohio Environmental Council issued a statement demanding that FERC determine whether Rover could be trusted to complete the project responsibly.

But Ohio EPA and Rover remain at odds over the state’s demand that Rover pay $2.3 million in civil penalties and restitution related to environmental violations and obtain a storm water permit.

Texas-based Energy Transfer is building the $4.2 billion Rover project. When completed, the pipeline system will carry 3.25 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day from the Utica and Marcellus shales to users in the Great Lakes, Midwest, Gulf Coast and Canada.