Company: Leak at Pennsylvania gas storage well plugged

The operator of a pure gasoline storage properly in Western Pennsylvania says staff have efficiently plugged a leak that had been spewing large quantities of planet-warming methane into the environment for 2 weeks.

Equitrans Midstream mentioned the properly at its Rager Mountain storage facility, situated in a rural space about 1.5 hours east of Pittsburgh, was sealed shut with concrete on Sunday. The properly had been venting about 100 million cubic ft of pure gasoline per day since Nov. 6, in keeping with preliminary estimates.

If correct, that will complete greater than 1.4 billion cubic ft in methane, equal to the greenhouse gasoline emissions from burning greater than 7,200 tanker vans of gasoline.

Pennsylvania environmental regulators have issued the corporate discover of 5 potential violations of state legislation.

A written assertion supplied Sunday by Equitrans says the corporate had verified a 0% gasoline studying at and across the properly. Greater than 250 ft of cement was pumped into the wellbore above two plugs to make sure venting doesn’t recur, the corporate mentioned.

The Rager facility is in Jackson Township, on the coronary heart of the Marcellus Shale formation that has seen a increase in gasoline manufacturing because the introduction of hydraulic fracturing greater than a decade in the past. Residents residing as 4 miles away from the leak advised The Related Press on Friday they might hear the roar of pressurized gasoline escaping from the properly and scent the fumes.

Methane, the first element of pure gasoline, is colorless and odorless. However when the gasoline is processed for transport and sale, producers add a chemical referred to as mercaptan to present it a particular “rotten egg” scent that helps make folks conscious of leaks.

Methane’s Earth-warming energy is a few 83 instances stronger over 20 years than the carbon dioxide that comes from automotive tailpipes and energy plant smokestacks. Oil and gasoline corporations are the highest industrial emitters of methane, which, as soon as launched into the environment, will probably be disrupting the local weather for many years, contributing to extra warmth waves, hurricanes, wildfires and floods.

The leak got here because the Environmental Safety Company on Nov. 11 up to date proposed new guidelines meant to chop methane and different dangerous emissions from oil and gasoline operations.

The citations issued towards the corporate by the Pennsylvania Division of Environmental Safety embrace failures to correctly keep and function the gasoline facility, making a public nuisance and producing a “hazard to public well being a security.” The corporate was additionally cited for failing to offer state inspectors “free and unrestricted entry.”

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Biesecker reported from Washington.