Tag: Energy & Environment

Recycling Grants Awarded in 20 West Virginia Counties

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has awarded nearly two dozen recycling grants to groups in 20 counties.

The DEP said in a news release that funding for the recycling assistance grant program is generated through a $1 assessment fee per ton of solid waste disposed at in-state landfills.

The nearly $1.3 million in grants will be distributed to some towns, nonprofit groups, recycling stations and solid waste authorities.

Those counties include Barbour, Boone, Braxton, Cabell, Calhoun, Greenbrier, Hancock, Jefferson, Kanawha, Lewis, Marion, Mercer, Monongalia, Pleasants, Pocahontas, Preston, Tucker, Upshur, Wetzel, and Wood Counties.

The grants will assist in the purchase of items such as collection bins, forklifts, trailers and other recycling vehicles, facility repairs, and fuel.

Record Lows Set in West Virginia Cities; Warmer Temps Coming

Record-low temperatures have been set in parts of West Virginia as a blast of Arctic air swept through the state.

The National Weather Service says the thermometer dipped to 14-below zero Sunday morning in Elkins. That broke the previous record of 12 below set in 1988.

In Parkersburg, the low of 7 below on Sunday broke the mark of 6 below set in 2014.

A warmup is on the way, but not before a wintry mix hits the state early Monday. Although little accumulation is expected, authorities warn that sleet and freezing rain could make for a hazardous morning commute.

The weather service says highs should rebound to the mid-60s in parts of West Virginia by Thursday.

Appalachian Underground Natural Gas Storage Hub Clears Initial Hurdle

Plans for an underground natural gas liquids storage hub pegged as a major job creator for the chemical industry in struggling Appalachia have cleared their first big hurdle.

The Appalachia Storage & Trading Hub initiative got approval Wednesday for the first of two application phases for a $1.9 billion U.S. Department of Energy loan, the Appalachia Development Group LLC said in a news release. The group heading the project said it also aims to secure $1.4 billion through other financing.

The project has taken eight years to reach this point, and Appalachia Development Group CEO Steve Hedrick said it would take several more years to come to fruition. It’s still unclear how long the second phase of the application will take, and nothing’s guaranteed.

Hedrick said the initial approval is still a win for the large-scale project. The American Chemistry Council estimates the facility could attract up to $36 billion in new chemical and plastics industry investment and create 100,000 new area jobs.

That could be life-changing for people in economically downtrodden parts of Appalachia, the northern stretches of which are drilled for natural gas in Marcellus, Utica and Rogersville Shale formations, he said.

“I’d like for them to have the opportunity to have meaningful income, in a location where they want to live, and have an opportunity to be here, be it in West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania or Kentucky,” said Hedrick, who noted that the hub’s location hasn’t been decided yet.

The project would include a piping system into the Ohio and Kanawha river valleys. Then a facility such as an ethane cracker could use the natural gas to produce ethylene, which is widely used in plastics and other chemical industries, Hedrick said. The natural gas liquids are also expected to be exported internationally for use by U.S. allies, he added.

The storage hub faces opposition from the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and other environmental groups, saying it would create a major petrochemical region with public health dangers and contribute to global warming.

But the proposal has drawn plenty of interest from lawmakers, including U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito and Rep. David McKinley of West Virginia, who hope to attract the project to their home state.

In November, state officials announced an agreement with China Energy Investment Corp. Ltd. for the company to invest $83.7 billion in shale gas development and chemical manufacturing in West Virginia over 20 years. Part of the focus is on underground storage of natural gas liquids and derivatives.

During President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing, State Commerce Secretary Woody Thrasher and China Energy President Ling Wen signed the memorandum as part of the U.S.-China trade mission and an overall $250 billion of planned Chinese investments in the U.S.

“The development and construction of a ‘hub’ to store these high value products in underground geologic formations could ultimately lead to a petrochemical manufacturing hub and a revitalization of the area’s manufacturing center,” Manchin said in a Senate subcommittee meeting in October.

Appalachia Development Group, based in Charleston, West Virginia, submitted the freshly approved first part of its federal loan application in September.

 
 

Officials: Worker Dies after Pipe Slipped, Struck Him

Officials say a worker has died after a tracked vehicle moving a piece of pipe slipped on frozen ground and struck him in West Virginia.

Ohio County Emergency Management Agency director Lou Vargo tells the Charleston Gazette-Mail that the man died Thursday night. He worked for a contractor for MarkWest Energy Partners, L.P.

Vargo says two workers, the victim among them, were holding ropes attached to the suspended pipe to control its direction. He says the victim was holding the rope downhill from the vehicle when it slipped on the ice.

Marathon Petroleum communications manager Jamal T. Kheiry said in a statement that work on that project has been immediately suspended and that MarkWest issued a safety stand-down on all similar work sites across the Tri-state region while they investigate.

Partnership to Protect 32,000 Acres for West Virginia Elk

A new partnership between West Virginia and a nonprofit group will protect about 32,000 acres of forest as habitat for the state’s new elk population.

The Herald-Dispatch reports the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources and The Conservation Fund used $12 million from the Wildlife Conservation Fund to protect the land. The Conservation Fund purchased the land in 2016 and then transferred it to the Division of Natural Resources.

The project was completed in advance of about 60 elk from Arizona that will be added to West Virginia’s elk population in early 2018.

Additional funding came from the West Virginia Outdoor Heritage Conservation Fund, Walmart, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Acres for America program, the Knobloch Family Foundation and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

Agreement Reached on West Virginia Fracking Landfill

Environmentalists have reached an agreement with Antero Treatment that calls for monitoring for radioactivity and bromide around its landfill in northern West Virginia that takes the waste from recycled groundwater used in hydraulic fracturing for natural gas.

It settles an appeal by the West Virginia Rivers Coalition and West Virginia Highlands Conservancy of the state permit for the landfill, which takes salt byproducts from Antero’s adjacent wastewater recycling facility. Both are located on 447 acres in Ritchie and Doddridge counties.

The environmental groups say the permit allows discharging stormwater runoff and associated pollutants into tributaries of the Hughes River upstream within 5 miles of Harrisville’s public water system intake.

“This is one example of how the state is tasked with evaluating new sources of pollution brought about by the fracking boom,” said Angie Rosser, executive director of West Virginia Rivers Coalition. “We need to find out sooner rather than later if we’re seeing harmful things, like radioactivity, affecting our water supplies.”

The groups say the compound bromide is known to cause problems for treating drinking water.

According to Denver-based parent company Antero Resources Corp., about 95 percent of the water it uses for fracking will be treated at the recycling facility, nearly eliminating the need for wastewater disposal wells and reducing withdrawals from West Virginia’s waterways. Salt will constitute about 92 percent of all solid byproducts, it said.

The company drills for natural gas in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Antero Treatment and Antero Resources did not immediately reply to a request for comment Tuesday.

The agreement signed Dec. 8 requires one initial year of monitoring for radioactivity in materials entering the landfill and in groundwater monthly, as well as regular monitoring for bromide and solids in surface water discharges.

That includes a monthly lab analysis of salt samples from a truck that passed through the landfill’s radiation detection equipment. If two or more lab samples significantly deviate from the detection equipment measurements, Antero will conduct an additional year of sampling.

If any monthly groundwater sampling for radium is significantly higher than background levels, the agreement says Antero will conduct another year of that sampling.

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