Shell’s Falcon Pipeline would run through Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, transporting the ethane necessary to fuel the cracker plant its building in Western, PA. The cracker creates ethylene, which is used in manufacturing plastics.
Ohioans are concerned about the impact that all the new well pads, pipelines, compressor stations and diesel truck traffic are having on the environment and the quality of life in their rural communities. What can they learn from what has happened in southwestern Pennsylvania?
Gas poured from the well head at a rate estimated by the EPA of 100 million cubic feet per day for 20 days before crews were able to plug it it on March 7.
In addition to monitoring the air, regulators have set up floating booms in nearby Captina Creek to protect it from salty brine water that’s also pouring from the well.
Eastern hellbender salamanders need clean streams with high water quality and silt-free stream beds to find their prey and avoid predators. Pipeline construction isn't making that easy.
Pipeline projects are crisscrossing our region so that natural gas can get to market. One rural community in coal country is struggling to keep up with all the construction while trying to protect its natural resources.
Shell’s $6 billion ethane cracker in Beaver County could be the first of several large chemical plants in the region. That’s because there’s enough ethane being produced to provide the chemical industry with the raw material without any additional drilling.
Since energy companies have been fracking, they've been trying to figure out the best way to deal with the chemical and mineral-laced water that gurgles out of the wells. Some of the wastewater is transported to Ohio where it is injected thousands of feet into the ground, and where it's been known to cause earthquakes. But a new company in thinks it can do better by building on an old technology.