Stored Underground NGL Fire and Explosion Hazards for Two Counties in OH and Marshall County in WV
From the Concerned Ohio River Residents, January 25, 2021
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources is currently considering a permit application to construct the Mountaineer natural gas liquids (NGL) storage facility 2.5 miles from Clarington, OH, along Ohio Route 7 in Salem Township. The facility would store up to 3.25 million barrels of highly flammable, explosive natural gas liquids (NGLs) in underground caverns near dozens of frack wells and adjacent to the Ohio River, posing a significant threat to our region’s public health and natural resources.
Last Thursday, CORR and a coalition of advocacy groups hosted a community meeting on the the Mountaineer facility. We outlined the specific threats posed by the facility’s construction, including groundwater contamination, air pollution, subsidence, and an increase in fracking and fracking waste. Other underground storage facilities have seen serious and even deadly incidents caused by inadequate regulation, including fires, explosions, chemical leaks, earthquakes, and sinkholes.
How can we be sure a similar disaster wouldn’t happen to Mountaineer? Get the facts they won’t tell us:
Click here to view a recording of our Mountaineer Community Meeting.
Concerned about the Mountaineer NGL Storage Facility? You can help make a difference. Submit a public comment to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources today. You can use our draft template to quickly submit a blanket list of comments to ODNR, but we encourage you to add a few sentences about any specific concerns you may have about the facility. Unique comments carry more weight in the permit evaluation process. How would storing explosive natural gas liquids near the Ohio River affect you and your family?
Click here for more information on how to submit public comment.
Get the Facts on the Mountaineer NGL Storage Facility:
Powhatan Salt Company LLC has applied through the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for three solution mining well permits to begin creating storage caverns in the Salina salt formation, just 2.5 miles north of Clarington, OH along the Ohio River in Monroe County, so that its sister company, Mountaineer NGL Storage LLC can store natural gas liquids (NGL) next to and potentially beneath the Ohio River.
The Mountaineer NGL storage facility would store natural gas liquids like ethane, propane, and butanes extracted from fracking, supporting the industry proliferation and increasing the massive amount of toxic, radioactive waste it generates. To create these storage caverns, Powhatan Salt Company would inject millions of gallons of fresh water underground at high pressures to carve out salt cavities. Powhatan would withdraw approximately 1,928,000 gallons of fresh water each day from the Ohio River to carve out the first storage cavern. More caverns could be constructed to increase storage capacity, each of which would require approximately 380,200,000 gallons of freshwater.
We believe the existing application materials for these wells do not contain enough information for anyone to evaluate the safety of these operations. The applications do not fully consider the possibility of contaminants migrating to underground sources of drinking water, and they include no real emergency response plan. How will we find out if the caverns leak? What will we do if they leak? Without a doubt, local residents will be the ones to suffer the consequences.
Take action today. Click here to submit your concerns to ODNR.
Contact Us:
CORR’s website: www.concernedohioriverresidents.org
Email: general@concernedohioriverresidents.org
§ Concerned Ohio River Residents P.O. Box 135 Bridgeport, OH 43912
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