Maryland Approves the Potomac Pipeline

On March 16th the Maryland Department of the Environment last week issued a state wetlands and waterways permit for the proposed Columbia Gas pipeline in Western Maryland that includes customized conditions specific to the project and its location to ensure protection of public health and the environment.

The head of Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) Secretary Ben Grumbles said the state is holding the project to almost two dozen environmental conditions that he said “go above and beyond” requirements already imposed by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. They include the following:

• To protect both private and public drinking water wells, MDE included a requirement that all work must be carried out in a manner that does not damage or degrade any wells during construction. 
• The MDE approved a horizontal directional drilling plan, which TransCanada claims will minimise environmental impacts of construction. Safeguards are included, with limits of allowable drilling fluids to water and bentonite clay, with no additives without prior approval. 
• Visual monitoring is required of the Potomac River by boat from sunrise to sunset for early detection of any pollution. 
• MDE prohibited blasting without prior department approval. 

As you recall, Columbia Gas Transmission is proposing a new 3.9 mile, 8-inch diameter pipeline to connect Mountaineer Gas (the West Virginia consumer gas distribution company) to gas supplies in Pennsylvania. The proposed pipeline will be run about 72 feet below the river bed. The new pipeline will bring gas from the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and Ohio to a new proposed Mountaineer Gas pipeline, The Mountaineer Xpress project.

Columbia Pipeline Group, Inc. (Columbia) is planning to construct and operate approximately 165 miles of pipeline and three new compressor stations in addition to upgrading three existing compressor stations and one regulating station. The project called the Mountaineer XPress project (MXP) would be able to move an additional 2.7 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale production areas to commercial and consumer markets on the Columbia Gas Transmission system, including markets in western West Virginia. West Virginia’s Department of Environmental Protection approved a permit for the Eastern Panhandle Expansion Project last month.

The abundance of shale natural gas coming from the Marcellus is expected to keep prices for natural gas low for the foreseeable future and has created a glut in natural gas. In Pennsylvania and Ohio power companies are building new generation gas fired power plants using the Marcelles shale natural gas to replace coal fired plants.

The new plants use a gas and steam turbine together to produce more electricity per gas BTU. Coal plants generate about twice the CO2 per megawatt of power and have higher particulate pollution than gas fired electrical power plants. Though electric demand is not growing nationally, the closing of aging coal plants has left the PJM (Pennsylvania, Jersey, Maryland) power grid short of power. In the past three years 9.3 gigawatts of coal generating capacity has been retired while 8.7 gigawatts have been added so far, but currently there is 8.6 gigawatts of natural-gas electrical power plants under construction in Pennsylvania and Ohio. This could utilize  more of the natural gas in Pennsylvania.