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Environmental Groups Appeal DEP Permits For Transco Regional Energy Access Expansion Natural Gas Pipeline In Luzerne, Monroe Counties

On March 14, PennFuture and the Delaware Riverkeeper Network appealed the Department of Environmental Protection water quality permits for the Transcontinental Gas and Pipeline Company’s Regional Energy Access Expansion natural gas pipeline expansion that will run through Luzerne and Monroe Counties.

The appeal was filed with the Environmental Hearing Board.

Transco’s expanded pipeline includes 22.3 miles of pipeline cut through Luzerne County and 13.8 miles cut through Monroe County. The project also impacts Northampton, Bucks and Chester counties. Read more here.

The Transco REAE pipeline proposes to dig trenches and divide connected natural waterways and ecosystems, many of which are special protection headwaters of the Delaware River Basin.

The groups say this construction will damage 114 Exceptional Value wetlands, 77 bodies of water supporting cold water fisheries, 39 High Quality streams, 2 Exceptional Value streams, 17 Class A Wild Trout streams, 57 waterbodies with naturally reproducing trout, and 297 acres of forests.

“Waters are designated as “special protection” because they are just that - special. These designations need to be meaningful, and we will not stand by and watch them be treated as meaningless,” said Jessica O’Neill, PennFuture’s senior attorney. “These are high quality, clean water streams that provide critical habitat and some of the most pristine waters in the Basin. Protecting these headwaters is necessary for downstream drinking water resources, local recreation and tourism, and for billions of dollars in regional economic activity and ecosystem services. We cannot allow for the fracked gas industry or DEP to continue to jeopardize these special protection waters..”

“Pennsylvania DEP’s permitting process for pipelines allows for repeated harms to water resources, including Pennsylvania’s exceptional value and high quality streams and wetlands, which are supposed to receive the highest regulatory protections available. By treating anti-degradation protections as a simple box-checking exercise, the DEP is failing in its duty to preserve these invaluable resources,” says Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper and leader of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network. Adds van Rossum: “After years of witnessing, first hand, the devastating impacts fracked gas pipelines inflict on our communities and natural environments, along with an increasing awareness of how pipelines are exacerbating the climate crisis, it is disturbing to see Pennsylvania DEP continues to easily hand out permits for projects like the Transco REAE.”

According to PennFuture and the Delaware Riverkeeper Network legal filings, the permits issued to Transco fail to protect the affected Exceptional Value and High Quality streams and wetlands, and do not follow the requirements of the law that potential developers are to be held to a higher standard in these special protection areas.

These critical water resources are part of the public trust belonging to all Pennsylvanians, and the permit also therefore violates the people’s constitutional rights under the Environmental Rights Amendment.

Click Here to read the full Notice of Appeal.

PennFuture, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, and our partners previously submitted written comments during the permit process detailing a number of concerns about this exact pipeline as well as documented damage from previous gas pipelines that cut through streams and protected wetlands with irreparable destruction to natural ecosystems.

For more information, visit DEP’s Regional Energy Access Expansion Project webpage.

PA Oil & Gas Public Notice Dashboards:

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - March 11 to 17; Fracking 2 Wells Interfered With Another Shale Gas Well In Westmoreland County [PaEN]

-- PA Oil & Gas Industrial Facilities: Permit Notices/Opportunities To Comment - March 18 [PaEN]

-- DEP Posts 62 Pages Of Permit-Related Notices In March 18 PA Bulletin [PaEN]

PA Oil & Gas Compliance Reports

-- Feature: 60 Years Of Fracking, 20 Years Of Shale Gas: Pennsylvania’s Oil & Gas Industrial Infrastructure Is Hiding In Plain Sight [PaEN]

-- Conventional Oil & Gas Well Owners Failed To File Annual Production/Waste Generation Reports For 61,655 Wells; Attorney General Continues Investigation Of Road Dumping Wastewater [PaEN]

-- DEP Issued 754 Notices Of Violation For Defective Oil & Gas Well Casing, Cementing, The Fundamental Protection Needed To Prevent Gas Migration, Groundwater & Air Contamination, Explosions [PaEN]

-- DEP Report Finds: Conventional Oil & Gas Drillers Routinely Abandon Wells; Fail To Report How Millions Of Gallons Of Waste Is Disposed; And Non-Compliance Is An ‘Acceptable Norm’ [PaEN]

-- DEP 2021 Oil & Gas Program Annual Report Shows Conventional Oil & Gas Operators Received A Record 610 Notices Of Violation For Abandoning Wells Without Plugging Them [PaEN]

-- PA Oil & Gas Industry Has Record Year: Cost, Criminal Convictions Up; $3.1 Million In Penalties Collected; Record Number Of Violations Issued; Major Compliance Issues Uncovered; Evidence Of Health Impacts Mounts [PaEN]

Related Articles This Week:

-- PA Capital-Star Guest Essay: Why Your Electric/Natural Gas Utility Bill Has Gone Up And What You Can Do About It - By Patrick Cicero, Consumer Advocate Of PA, Terrance Fitzpatrick, Energy Assn. Of PA [Natural Gas Prices Tripled]

-- Wall Street Journal: Why Natural Gas Bills Are Going Crazy, With No End In Sight

-- Marcellus Drilling News: New Fortress Energy Reapplying For Wyalusing LNG Natural Gas Plant Permits In Bradford County [PaEN]

-- U.S. DOT Misses Deadline To Suspend Rule Allowing Shipping LNG Natural Gas By Rail, Including A Proposal In PA [PaEN]

-- Federal Court Rules Challenge To DEP Air Quality Permit For Adelphia Natural Gas Pipeline' Quakertown Compressor Station May Go Forward [PaEN]

-- Environmental Groups Appeal DEP Permits For Transco Regional Energy Access Expansion Natural Gas Pipeline In Luzerne, Monroe Counties [PaEN]

-- DEP To Submit Letter Of Intent To EPA As Early As This Week For Primacy To Regulate Underground Injection Wells [PaEN]

-- PA Business Groups Urge EPA To Speed Up Approval Of State Primacy Applications For Injection Well Regulation [PaEN]

-- Equitrans/DEP In Discussions To Resolve EHB Appeal Of DEP’s Order To Fix Cambria County Underground Natural Gas Storage Area Conventional Access Wells [PaEN]

-- Shell Petrochemical Plant Had 3-Hour Emergency Flaring Event To Burn Off Flammable Gases In Beaver County [PaEN]

-- Commonwealth Court Rules PUC Is ‘Obligated’ To Conduct An Environmental Review Of Projects By The Environmental Rights Amendment In Case Involving A PECO Natural Gas Pumping Station In Delaware County [PaEN]

-- Environmental Health Project: 75% Of Hazardous Waste Accepted At MAX Environmental Yukon Facility In Westmoreland County Comes From Shale Gas Industry; Sludge Proposed To Be Delisted As Hazardous Waste [PaEN]

-- Marcellus Drilling News/Wellsboro Gazette: Pine Creek Headwaters Protection Group Objects To Location Of Mt. Nessmuk Shale Gas Drill Pad In Tioga State Forest [PaEN]