More opposition than support for Falcon pipeline during Washington County hearing
BURGETTSTOWN – A proposed 98-mile ethane pipeline drew more opposition than support during a public hearing Wednesday in Smith Township.
Some 50 people attended the proceeding at Burgettstown Area High School over Shell’s applications to the state Department of Environmental Protection for permits for the proposed Falcon Pipeline. The company proposes to use the pipeline to feed its cracker plant in Potter Township, Beaver County, with more than 107,000 barrels of ethane from MarkWest Energy Partners’ Houston plant in Chartiers Township and two other facilities in Ohio.
Several people cited new jobs from the project as they spoke in favor of it. But for most of the 18 people who testified, concerns about safety and environmental risks along the project’s path – which includes about 46 miles in Washington, Beaver and Allegheny counties – outweighed those predictions.
Karen Brockman, who lives in Midway near MarkWest’s Imperial and Cibus Ranch compressor stations in nearby Robinson Township, said the area she lives in is “literally being surrounded by massive oil and gas operations.” She asked DEP to deny the plans because of “too many risks and too many unanswered questions.”
“I have a front-row seat for lots of this industry’s infrastructure, and before any additional industrial operations are allowed to build in our communities, we need more facts, more disclosure and more guarantees – not just empty promises,” Brockman said.
Jim Harding of Canonsburg, who said he attend the hearing on behalf of Steamfitters Local 449, said the project would create “family-sustaining jobs.”
“It’s about jobs – both construction and permanent plant jobs. We live here, and we’re very concerned about the environment,” he said.
Erica Clayton Wright, vice president of communications and membership with the industry trade group Marcellus Shale Coalition, said the pipeline will employ “up to 1,000 workers during the peak of construction.”
A fact sheet prepared by Shell said the Falcon pipeline will provide four to six permanent jobs when completed.
DEP spokeswoman Lauren Fraley said 23 people testified during a similar hearing Tuesday in Beaver County. Fifty-six people had signed up ahead of Thursday’s in Allegheny County. The agency is accepting written comments until April 17.
DEP scheduled the hearings to allow for additional public input after environmental groups voiced concerns about the project.
Leann Leiter of Canonsburg, a field advocate for the environmental group Earthworks, said the project would require “additional build-out” like pumping and metering stations and more supply lines that would also “lead to additional land disruption and water body impacts that are also not declared in this permit application.” She argued Shell should have to include those “key components” for the pipeline’s operations in its permit applications.
“Shell waited until it had approval of the cracker to publicly announce the plans for the pipeline,” Leiter said. “But now we’re being asked to approve this pipeline before we can learn about the pumping and metering stations that will come along with it. After that, I’m wondering what can we expect next.”
Along with the leg starting in Chartiers, another would start at facilities in Utica and Cadiz townships in Ohio and pass through the northern West Virginia panhandle en route to the cracker in Potter Township.
The group FracTracker Alliance calculated 557 single-family homes, 20 businesses and a church are within the 660 feet of the project’s centerline.
Patrick Grenter, senior campaign representative with Sierra Club, said the pipeline would also pass “dangerously close” to those homes and other areas of concern, including 240 groundwater wells and an Ambridge Reservoir service line.
Grenter, former executive director of Washington-based Center for Coalfield Justice, also warned the proposed pipeline would travel through 20 miles of undermined areas.
“The maps for these areas, particularly in Washington and Greene county we know very well, are uncertain. We’ve seen problems with fracking for years trying to map out mined areas where we don’t exactly know what’s going on underground.”
Grenter added there’s “overwhelming public sentiment against this and other frack-gas pipelines.”
“Why should we sacrifice our peace of mind, our right to clean water, our right to live on our land and maintain our property as we see fit for the benefit of oil executives?” he said.