Ohio officials: it will take decades for wetlands to recover after major pipeline fluid spill.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has told Energy Transfer Partners — the same company building the Dakota Access Pipeline — that it owes the state $430,000 for “inadvertent” damage to pristine state wetlands.
“It’s a tragedy in that we would anticipate this wetland won’t recover to its original condition for decades,” Ohio EPA spokesman James Lee told ThinkProgress.
At the time, ETP said bentonite is “a nontoxic, naturally occurring material that is safe for the environment” and denied that the discharge was dangerous.
The company also contends, according to a letter from the Ohio EPA to federal regulators, that the state lacks the “authority to enforce violations of its federally delegated state water pollution control statutes.” It does not deny that the spill occurred.
Ohio EPA director Craig Butler has sent a letter to FERC asking for the agency’s support in holding ETP accountable.
He told the Washington Post that ETP’s response to the violations was “dismissive” and “exceptionally disappointing.” These are exactly the kind of incidents and actions that worry environmentalists who are trying to stop pipelines going through sensitive areas.
ETP’s Rover pipeline is just one of the myriad natural gas and oil pipelines that are under construction in the United States.
Improvements in hydraulic fracturing technology and horizontal drilling have spurred a boom in natural gas extraction in the Marcellus Shale basin under Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, as well as an uptick in Oklahoma and Texas, which were already big oil and gas producers.
When finished, the Rover pipeline will bring 3.25 billion cubic feet of gas each day from the region through West Virginia, Ohio, and Michigan to Ontario, Canada.