[image-1]The Rover pipeline spilled an estimated 2 million gallons of drilling fluid pollutants into wetlands “adjacent to” the Tuscarawas River in Navarre, Ohio, last week, according to a notice of violation filed by the Ohio EPA. Another 50,000 gallons of fluid were spilled into wetlands closer to Columbus. The pipeline just began construction last month — thanks to a last-minute certificate from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission — and it’s been an extremely rocky road so far.

Read the full report below.

The Ohio EPA document confirms that pollutants, including bentonite, were released in two separate spill incidents. The fluids “impacted water quality,” though the extent of the health hazard is not clear. Rover Pipeline LLC was ordered to stop the spill immediately, establish “containment points,” remove the pollutants from the area’s surface water and just generally “follow procedures.”

That last part will apparently be tricky for the company, which has already demolished a house in Leesville that was being considered for the National Register of Historic Places and tripped over itself trying to cut down 3,000 trees in just a few weeks to meet a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services deadline.

Rover Pipeline LLC, which is owned by Energy Transfer Partners, acknowledged these most recent violations and referred to them as “inadvertent returns of horizontal directional drilling fluid.” It’s not yet clear how long the clean-up process will take. All costs will be borne by Rover, and the Ohio EPA has noted that these notices are not the final action in this process. More to come.

Relatedly: WMFD has some great drone video footage of the Rover pipeline construction, clearly showing how the 100-foot build-out easement affects private property. That process is precisely what Nexus is hoping to accomplish if it were to receive certification by FERC. (Nexus would traverse Summit and Medina counties, according to the project’s environmental impact statement.)

Notice of Violation: Rover Pipeline LLC by sandyatscene on Scribd

This article appears in Apr 19-25, 2017.

Eric Sandy is an award-winning Cleveland-based journalist. For a while, he was the managing editor of Scene. He now contributes jam band features every now and then.

19 replies on “Rover Pipeline Spills More Than 2 Million Gallons of ‘Drilling Fluid’ in Ohio Wetlands, One Month After Construction Began”

  2. I sent and email to Gov. Kasich asking him to intervene and execute a “stop work” order and file a lawsuit against the company for “illegal destruction of our wetlands.” For what it’s worth.

  3. The fluids spilled (including your scary bentonite) are all natural and pose no threat or harm to the environment, other than some white-ish grey-pigment in the water and dust on dry surfaces. The company’s other blunders and issues are no different (and even less dramatic) than those of any large commercial, industrial, or even residential project.

  4. Just because something is natural, doesn’t mean it’s safe for the environment., especially with the huge amount spilled. The chemical impact of drilling mud (the solution that was released) will definitely cause an increase in silt, it will smother and displace macrointertebrates, reduces food to the upper trophic levels, reduces quality of fish spawning areas, reduces the number of fish, suspended solids interfere with fish gills, interferes with the hydrology of wetlands (water levels, circulation, soil saturation, etc.), smother plants and amphibians.

  8. With Lakemans logic, you should be able to get away with all kinds of screw ups just cause they are “no threat”.

  11. Another incompetent company rushing to get things done instead of doing them right. The potential fines for stupid things like this should be so expensive that it basically puts a company out of business if they screw up on this scale.

  12. John “I am Harold Stassen” Kasich can’t be bothered……since he has embarked on a 2020 presidential bid…..or is it 2024…..maybe 2028.

  13. So the Rover pipeline caused a mess? Sounds a lot like that other Rover, the mess on morning drive-time radio. He pollutes the airwaves every weekday. And what the hell is drilling fluid, anyway? Two million gallons? The mind boggles.

    Who is bentonite named for? Thomas Hart Benton? Barbi Benton? Inquiring minds wanna know!

    Sounds like business as usual in North Missitucky…another day, another dollar.

    Chuckles the Clown

  14. I guess we need to shut everything down and move back into tepees, caves and tents.

    Look what inner city youth had done to Cleveland and Chicago and Detroit. Let’s clean up that mess first.

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