Two years and two weeks after the Revolution pipeline slid down a steep hill in Center Township and burst into flames, its owner has begun the process of repair.
Texas-based Energy Transfer Corp. got approval from state environmental regulators to reroute part of the 24-inch natural gas pipeline onto flatter ground near the area of the explosion. The company told nearby residents that it is felling trees this week and plans to be done with construction in about 45 to 60 days.
The pipeline explosion Sept. 10, 2018, was preceded by a heavy rainfall and a history of landslides in that part of Beaver County. The Revolution pipeline had been operational for only a few days before the rupture, and that part hasn’t operated since.
The project is considered a gathering pipeline — it is meant to collect gas from wells starting in Beaver and Butler counties and ferry it to an Energy Transfer gas processing plant in Washington County.
Although the company at first advised investors and clients that the Revolution pipeline would be back up and running within a few weeks, then months, regulators put a halt to those plans.
In the summer, Energy Transfer revealed what residents of nearby Ivy Lane had long suspected after the company bought out two landowners. It would seek to change the route of the pipeline to avoid the steel hill that failed to hold it. That is what the state Department of Environmental Protection recently approved.
Energy Transfer’s plan to stabilize the hillside that slipped two years ago was also approved this week, the DEP said.
Construction on the pipeline was permitted to begin Thursday. Ivy Lane resident Karen Gdula had a feeling things were about to ramp up.
“They’ve been doing a ton of stabilization all over Center Township,” she said, watchful, as ever, of the comings and goings of Energy Transfer’s contractors and large equipment.
There’s so much activity on the ground, “it’s like they’re coming in and doing an entire new pipeline,” she said.
It’s not clear when the pipeline will be put back into service or which company’s gas will be flowing through it then.
The two major shippers for Revolution in that area were EdgeMarc Energy, which declared bankruptcy allegedly because of the explosion, and PennEnergy Resources, which is involved in a contentious lawsuit against Energy Transfer over the pipeline rupture. Among other things, PennEnergy has charged that the pipeline company orchestrated a cover-up to keep from voiding its contract with the driller. A trial in that case is scheduled to begin in March.
At the present time, Energy Transfer is fighting a judge’s order to hand over root-cause reports done in the wake of the pipeline explosion by outside consultants.
Appealing the judge’s ruling, Energy Transfer said it commissioned those only for internal purposes and to prepare for lawsuits.
The company did submit those reports to Pennsylvania’s attorney general and the U.S. Department of Justice as part of those agencies’ investigations into the pipeline explosion, Energy Transfer said, but it “insisted on confidentiality protections for these productions, and the government agencies have subsequently enforced these protections.”
According to Energy Transfer’s latest public filing last month, those two investigations are ongoing.
Anya Litvak: alitvak@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1455.
Update: This story was updated on at 1:25 p.m. on Sept. 25, 2020, to reflect the DEP’s approval of Energy Transfer’s plan to stabilize the hill behind Ivy Lane where the landslide and rupture occurred in 2018. That permit was granted on Thursday.
First Published: September 25, 2020, 10:00 a.m.
Updated: September 25, 2020, 10:16 a.m.
