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Author Image Posted By : admin 1 Oct
Pinochio Award for Spectra Energy’s ‘Ground Game’ on Sabal Trail Pipeline,

While Company Pushes 8 Pipeline Projects in 14 States; 

Meanwhile PHMSA Documents Corrosion Problems

Spectra Energy (NYSE:  SE) has eight new pipeline projects in the U.S. that, if approved, will result in more than 830 miles of pipeline in 14 states.  In addition, it is constructing a new underground natural gas storage reservoir in Louisiana with a capacity of 15 billion cubic feet.

In Canada, Spectra Energy is busy with three major projects, all in British Columbia.  These involve two processing plants for raw nat gas and a huge “transportation system” – the word pipeline is never used – that is 525 miles in length.  Check for your state in the highlight list below under Links & Resources.1

With all this experience, property owners and communities might expect Spectra Energy execs to be on top of their game when it comes to a knowledgeable response to questions about its pipelines and corporate performance record.

Or maybe not. Click Here to read about OP-ED — Spectra Energy: Trust Facts Not Promises.

Largest Pipeline Project

In the U.S. the company’s largest pipeline project is the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline aimed at cutting a 475 mile swath through three states:  Georgia, Alabama and Florida.

Surely this is a platform for Spectra Energy to demonstrate best-in-class response to questions – to not only reassure communities but to impress federal agencies like the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)?

Or maybe not.

Property owners make clear their opposition to Sable Trail pipeline. (Photo courtesy of Carol Singletary.) 

1st Pinochio Award

For example, Andrea Grover, Spectra Energy Director of Stakeholder Outreach (ironic title), asserts at a public pipeline meeting in Georgia that property owners at Spectra Energy’s huge Steckman Ridge compressor/storage facility in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, are “happy” despite ongoing problems there for 5 years, and a consistent lack of response from Spectra Energy to questions.

Thanks to word-of-web, Georgia property owners know Grover’s assertion is a lie.  What else does one call it – an error, slip of the tongue, disingenuous?

FACT:  More than a dozen families who live next to or near the problematic Steckman Ridge compressor/storage facility have complained to Spectra Energy management about a ring of health, water and operational issues surrounding this facility since operations began in 2009.

They have also complained in writing to the federal Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).

Based on record keeping by neighbors, there have been some 60 shutdowns, blowdowns and related incidents at the Steckman Ridge compressor station and underground natural gas storage facility between August 2009 and the present.

2nd Pinochio Award

The same Spectra Energy executive, Andrea Grover, asserts to Georgia property owners that uncontrolled releases of methane and other hydrocarbons at the Steckman Ridge compressor facility are “normal.” Let’s hope not.

FACT:  Grover should recall the March 9-10 incident last year at Spectra Energy’s Steckman Ridge facility because she was directly involved.  This was yet another uncontrolled release that resulted in 431.5 thousand cubic feet of methane and other hydrocarbons vented to the atmosphere over a two-day period.

Before property owners discovered on their own the size of the leak, Grover asserted to the Associate Editor of the Bedford Gazette that only a “small volume” escaped.  Grover and her Spectra Energy management team all the way up to Canadian CEO Greg Ebel still refuse to publicly acknowledge the size of its fugitive methane release.2

Andrea Grover, Spectra Energy’s Director of Stakeholder Outreach.

3rd Pinochio Award

At the same public meeting in Georgia, Grover asserted to property owners and the news media that she is unfamiliar with the federal Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s (PHMSA) 6-figure fine levied against Spectra Energy CEO Greg Ebel.

FACT:  How is it that a veteran of the industry and Spectra Energy whose job is about pipelines remains unaware of such facts?  Does Grover really not know that in December 2012, PHMSA issued her CEO Greg Ebel a “Final Order” and civil penalty of $134,500 related to various violations across several states.

7-year Track Record – Pipeline Corrosion Incidents

Thirteen of the 21 incident causes are attributed to “internal corrosion” –  that’s 65%.  Five of the 21 incident causes are listed as “Material/Weld/Equipment” failure.  None of the incidents are attributed to excavation.

 Spectra Energy’s Pipeline Corrosion Problem

Failure rates offer a real-world metric – much more valuable than promises about “safety.”  Thus, Spectra Energy’s track record, documented by the federal government (PHMSA), reveals internal pipeline corrosion is the chief cause of “significant” pipeline incidents for Spectra Energy over the last 7 years.

Remember three lessons:  Track record, track record, track record.

Spectra Energy’s challenge is simple:  Practice full disclosure about its performance record – full disclosure about the company’s fugitive methane emissions, valve failures, corrosion incidents, and catastrophic failures where they have occurred.

Links & Resources

  • Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) Project – 21.4 miles of pipeline through New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island & Massachusetts; agreements signed; regulatory review to come; completion date – November 2016
  • Kingsport Expansion – 15.5 miles of pipeline expansion in Sullivan County, Tennessee, Washington & Smyth Counties, Virginia; project is in regulatory review with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
  • NEXUS Gas Transmission – 250 miles of pipeline through Ohio, Michigan, Ontario, Canada; currently in evaluation stage
  • Ohio Pipeline Energy Network (OPEN) – 36 miles of new transmission pipeline through Columbiana, Carroll, Jefferson, Belmont & Monroe counties, Ohio; project completion date – 4th quarter 2015; currently in regulatory review with FERC
  • Sabal Trail Transmission Expansion – 474 miles of new transmission pipeline through Alabama, Georgia and Florida; project completion date – May 2017; currently in regulatory review with FERC
  • Salem Lateral Project – 1.2 miles of new 16-inch diameter lateral pipeline in Salem, Massachusetts; completion date – November 2015; currently in evaluation state
  • Texas Eastern’s Appalachia to Market Expansion (TEAM) – 33.6 miles of new 36-inch diameter pipeline and above-ground facilities (compressor units) in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi aimed at “bi-directional flow” on the Texas Eastern pipeline system.  Project completion – November 2014; currently in regulatory review with FERC
  • Uniontown to Gas City Expansion Project (U2GC) – multiple compressor station and meter station modifications to permit “bi-directional” flow of gas in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania.  Project completion in November 2015.

Spectra Energy’s New Storage projects in the U.S.

Buyers Advocates
Author Image Posted By : admin 29 Nov
Listen to Property Owners Near Spectra Energy Facilities

Note:  The best way to evaluate Spectra Energy is to evaluate its track record, not its promises.  Any evaluation of its track record should include listening to stakeholders who live near Spectra Energy facilities.  

Testimony of Angel and Wayne Smith
Property Owners in Clearville, Bedford County, PA

Regarding Spectra Energy’s Steckman Ridge

Underground Gas Storage and Compressor Facility

EPA Science Advisory Board
Hydraulic Fracturing Research Advisory Panel
February 1, 2016 Public Teleconference

Hello.

My name is Angel Smith and my husband, Wayne, and I are providing this testimony based on our personal experience with Spectra Energy’s Steckman Ridge underground gas storage and compressor station, located near our property in Clearville, Bedford County, Pennsylvania. We are about two hours from Washington, DC.

For the record, we are neighbors to a 12-billion cubic feet underground natural gas storage reservoir with a 5,000 horsepower compressor station, 13 injection/withdrawal wells and related pipelines. This facility stores and pumps shale gas through the Spectra Energy pipeline system.

We are not Ph.Ds or MD’s; but we are experts on what has happened to us and our animals when drilling and gas storage happened near our property.

  • We watched our artesian water well run over the well casing for months after the compressor went into operation;
  • We watched our animals die – chickens, a horse, several healthy cows, calves (that seemed to be okay for a few days, then dead), and still born calves.

We called the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) several times; and they would show up after the fact.

DEP reps would pull WATER samples and dump them out in front of us. They would take samples and give us a report with iron levels at 10.3 mg/l and manganese 3.228 mg/l. The secondary standards being iron at 0.3 mg/l and manganese at 0.05 mg/l – which means our levels were well over acceptable limits. And a nice letter from DEP that would state, “Drilling has NOT affected your water supply.”

When they were called again, the DEP rep would arrive only to tell us he did not bring enough bottles to pull samples for testing. Once we were told, you’re so close to the Maryland state line, we don’t care.

Then the next letter would arrive claiming our water quality “has improved since drilling” and operations at the compressor station began. DEP was using its now infamous 942 codes, which ignore levels of high iron, high manganese, high arsenic, toluene, and methane in all of our water supplies!

Since 2009 when Spectra Energy put its Steckman Ridge underground storage and compressor station in service, there have been more than 60 shutdowns and related incidents at its facility. And we are still counting.

Spectra Energy’s track record at Steckman Ridge includes deception. For example in March 2013, there was an uncontrolled leak of 431.5 thousand cubic feet of natural gas vented to the atmosphere over a two-day period.  The incident was so disturbing to neighbors that fire trucks rolled to the facility.

Despite the reality that evening, Spectra Energy’s directors of stakeholder outreach first claimed “Nothing was released. There was no smoke. No incident.” By the next day, the company retreated and claimed only a “small volume” of methane was released. To this day, the company refuses to say publicly how much was released. But we have the document in which the company admits this was anything but a small volume. So Spectra says one thing publicly while privately documenting the uncontrolled release of a huge volume of methane.

When Spectra Energy’s Steckman Ridge operation drilled injection/withdrawal well SR 6, not far from our property line, we had a spring pop up inside our barn that we had to fix. There was so much water in our barn, it was running down the driveway onto the paved road.

On November 25th, 2009, we were still drinking our spring water because it did not test positive for arsenic, as our well had. That morning I made coffee, and noticed the water was brown. Up to that point, it never dawned on us that the spring water was now contaminated. We were sick for months!

Again DEP told us our water quality had improved!

After that we installed a $10,000 water treatment system in our house and for our animals. We have watched our pond go up and down in synch with Steckman Ridge’s injection and withdrawal of gas, and our pond turn red.

From 2007 thru 2015, we have watched our pets and livestock die! As noted, our chickens all died; big healthy cattle would fall over and kick their feet and die.  We had one cow tested and it tested positive for liver disease. With four dead dogs, we had one tested and it tested positive for kidney and stage 4 liver disease; its kidneys shut down, and it had an enlarged liver.

The horse DIED the same way as the cattle, kicking its feet, unable to stand – DEAD!  In addition, neighbors have reported losing cattle, dogs, and goats.

At this point, my husband experienced memory loss, lesions on his lungs; and he has an over load of iron. FOR MYSELF, I’VE BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH enlarged liver, liver disease, and lesions on the liver.  This medical diagnosis is based on liver biopsies for both of us.

The creek that runs through our property tested positive for MBAS, a surfactant. To this day we still have large amounts of foam going down this creek.

Our neighbors have their homes for sale, but there is no interest from potential buyers because of the water contamination and air pollution driven by releases at the Spectra Energy compressor station.

We did not ask to be lab rats, we just wanted to raise our cattle for supplying meat to American families, enjoy our pets, and enjoy life — not ever did it cross our minds to worry about what we are drinking or breathing.

I ask you: Do not let this continue! We cannot allow anybody to say drilling doesn’t affect our water and air. My husband and I are living proof that it does. Please do the right thing. Nobody should ever have to live through what we do.