Ohio EPA director asks for civil penalties against Rover Pipeline
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s (OEPA) director asked Atty. Gen. Michael DeWine (R) on July 7 to seek civil penalties against Rover Pipeline LLC for bentonite slurry and other discharges along the project’s route.
OEPA also ordered Rover Pipeline to implement a release prevention and emergency response plan that day and submit a revised contingency plan within 7 days that addresses findings and orders the agency issued at that time.
“Further, if I determine that Rover Pipeline has failed to comply…, I would further request that you initiate civil proceedings to compel compliance with these orders and any other environmental law that has been violated,” OEPA Director Craig W. Butler said in his letter to DeWine.
The findings and orders deal with unauthorized discharges and water-quality violations, industrial waste disposal, and open burning. They were issued after OEPA began enforcement actions on May 5.
The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission told Rover Pipeline not to begin horizontal directional drilling in Ohio after OEPA notified the federal regulator that it began enforcement actions (OGJ Online, May 12, 2017).
Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].
Nick Snow
NICK SNOW covered oil and gas in Washington for more than 30 years. He worked in several capacities for The Oil Daily and was founding editor of Petroleum Finance Week before joining OGJ as its Washington correspondent in September 2005 and becoming its full-time Washington editor in October 2007. He retired from OGJ in January 2020.