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A unstabilized pipeline right of way shown here during a DEP inspection of the Beta Trunkline project in Greene County on April 12, 2018.
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Greene County gas line transferred from Rice to Equitrans garners $1.5 million fine

Department of Environmental Protection

Greene County gas line transferred from Rice to Equitrans garners $1.5 million fine

A natural gas pipeline project in Greene County that has been on unstable ground for more than a year has resulted in a $1.5 million fine against Equitrans Midstream Corp.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection found multiple cases of poor erosion controls and sediment flowing into streams on a section of a gas gathering line in Aleppo and Richhill townships.

The 7.5-mile Beta Trunk pipeline construction project belonged to Rice Midstream Partners when it was permitted in July 2017. It was designed to collect natural gas from nearby wells and bring them into the transmission system.

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The project transferred to Downtown-based EQT Corp. when it bought Rice Energy Inc. in November 2017. When EQT spun off Equitrans to operate pipelines in November 2018, the Beta Trunk pipeline went with it.

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The first problems with the project surfaced in October 2017.

Sediment flowed into tributaries that feed Mudlick Fork and Harts run. Erosion controls “were not properly maintained or not installed at all,” the DEP found.

Inspectors found similar problems along the pipeline route on seven other occasions between January and March of last year.

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At that point, the company voluntarily stopped trying to build the pipeline and focused on stabilizing the ground. It brought in six different contractors to get the situation under control, a DEP inspection report said. By the end of April, it had resolved the violations, the DEP said.

But less than a month later, EQT notified regulators about three “significant slope failures” along and outside the right of way. Other erosion issues were found on a different portion of the pipeline “and soil was stockpiled in a wetland.” That was corrected by July 5, the DEP said.

The agency said it asked for detailed plans to repair slope failures and approved a permit modification in December to address the stability of the project, portions of which are active while some are still under construction.

Problems with the pipeline continued into this year, a review of DEP records shows.

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In January, Equitrans notified regulators that a landslide occurred in an area that it had previously stabilized.

The company determined that “significant rainfall runoff and frost heaving (freeze/thaw)” caused the slide.

The January event is not covered by the $1.5 million fine and consent agreement signed last month.

Anya Litvak: alitvak@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1455.

First Published: March 5, 2019, 12:04 a.m.

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A unstabilized pipeline right of way shown here during a DEP inspection of the Beta Trunkline project in Greene County on April 12, 2018.  (Department of Environmental Protection)
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