MarkWest Pipeline Construction Spills in Area Draw the Attention of Ohio EPA

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Slurry isn't poisonous, but still
has damaging effects
(Photo: Columbus Dispatch)
From The Columbus Dispatch:
A series of pipeline-construction spills by one company has the Ohio EPA demanding answers and environmental-advocacy groups warning that this is one more activity tied to fracking that is endangering streams and wetlands.
Ohio Environmental Protection Agency officials call the spills “ inadvertent returns.” They involve a lubricant made of clay and water that sometimes gushes unexpectedly from the ground when builders drill tunnels to install natural-gas pipelines.
Ohio EPA records show that Denver-based MarkWest Energy had four spills between Sept. 17 and Feb. 9, polluting streams and wetlands in Harrison and Belmont counties. The Harrison County spills included one late last summer affecting Brushy Fork near Cadiz, and a Nov. 4 spill near Cadiz that fouled 1 1/2 miles of Boggs Fork and a nearby wetland and took more than three months to clean up.
“I find the repeated nature and magnitude of these releases unacceptable,” Scott Nally, the Ohio EPA’s director, wrote to the company on March 8.
Read the whole article by clicking here. 

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