Many of these lines have been built in just the past five years to carry natural gas from the Marcellus Shale area of Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, where water breakage has grown. West Virginia alone has seen a fourfold increase in natural gas production in the last decade.
Such rapid growth has also introduced hundreds of safety and environmental breaches, most notably under less control by the Trump administration and simpler approval for pipeline projects. While energy companies promise economic benefits to depressed areas, pipeline projects are putting lives on their way.
As a technical and professional communication scholar with a focus on how rural communities deal with complex problems and a geography scholar specializing in human-environment interactions, we came together to explore the impacts of pipeline development in rural Appalachia. In 2020, we surveyed and spoke to dozens of people who live near pipes in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Our findings highlight the pressure and uncertainty that communities face when natural gas pipelines change their landscape. Residents live in fear of disasters, construction noise and worry of having no control over their own land.
‘None of this is fair’
Appalachians are no strangers to environmental threat. The area has a long and complex history with extraction industries, including coal and water breaking. However, direct accounts of the long-term impacts of business infrastructure development in rural communities, especially when it comes to pipelines, are rarely heard, as they are the result of newer growth in the energy sector.
For the people we spoke to, the pipeline development process was slow and often confusing.
Some said they had never heard of a proposed pipeline until a “landowner” – a gas company representative – knocked on their door offering to buy a slice of their property; others said they found out through newspaper articles or posts on social media. Everyone we spoke to agreed that they would ultimately be responsible for finding out what was happening in their communities.
One woman in West Virginia said that after finding out about plans for a pipeline feeding a petrochemical plant several miles from her home, she began doing her own research. “I was thinking to myself, how did this happen? We didn’t know anything about it,” she said. “It’s not fair. None of this is pretty good. … We’re involved with a polluting company.”
‘Solicitors Ate Us Up’
If residents do not want pipes on their land, they can take legal action against the energy company instead of taking a settlement. However, this can lead to land use.
Prominent land is a right granted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to companies to private properties if the project is deemed important for public use. Compensation is determined by the courts, based on the assessed value of land, without regard to the unrelated factors associated with the loss of the land around a person’s home, such as loss of income -into the future.
Through this process, residents can be made to accept an amount that ignores the impact of pipe building on their land, such as the damage caused by heavy equipment to surrounding land and access roads.
One man we spoke to has lived on his family’s land for decades. In 2018, a company representative asked for permission to lay a new pipeline parallel to a man who had been there since 1962, far away from his home. However, teams had problems with the steep ground and wanted to put it much closer to his home. Dissatisfied with the new location, and seeing erosion from the construction of a pipeline on the ridge behind his house causing laundry, he hired a lawyer. After several months back and forth with the company, he said, “They gave me a choice: Either sign the contract or make the domain famous. And the lawyer advised me that I didn’t want to land To make a reputation. “
Pipeline construction cuts through a farmer’s field. Erin Brock Carlson, CC BY-SA
There was a unanimous awareness among the 31 people we interviewed that financial and legal facilities are similar to companies, making court fights almost inaccessible. Nondisclosure agreements can effectively symbolize landlords. In addition, lawyers licensed to work in West Virginia who do not work for gas companies can be difficult to find, and legal fees can be too much for residents to pay.
One woman, the main caretaker of the land whose family has worked for 80 years, found herself facing huge legal fees following a dispute with a gas company. “We were the first and the last to fight them, and then people saw what was going to happen to them, and they didn’t have that – it cost us money to get lawyers. lawyers us up, “she said.
The pipeline now runs through what were once haystacks. “We haven’t had any income from that grass since they took it out in 2016,” she said. “It’s just a weaving loom here.”
‘I mean, who do you say? ‘
Twenty-six of the 45 survey respondents stated that they felt that the value of their property had declined as a result of the construction of a pipeline, citing the risks of water pollution, explosions and unsafe land. practice.
Many of the 31 people we interviewed were concerned about the same type of long-term concerns, as well as gas leaks and air pollution. Disruption of drinking water facilities can be affected by irrigation and other natural gas processes, particularly if there is an spill or inappropriate storage methods. In addition, the natural gas supply chain contains methane, a strong greenhouse gas, and organic manure, which can be a health hazard.
Oil spills are a major concern among landowners. Erin Brock Carlson, CC BY-SA
“Forty years away from this, are they going to be able to monitor and maintain infrastructure? I mean, I can smell gas as I sit here now, “one man told us. His family had watched the natural gas industry move into their part of West Virginia in the mid-2010s. As well as a 36-inch pipe on its building, it has several smaller wells and lines. “This year the company that serves the small lines has had nine leaks … which is what really worries me,” he said.
Explosions were the main concern cited by survey respondents.
According to data from 2010 to 2018, pipeline explosions occurred, on average, every 11 days in the U.S. Although major pipeline explosions are very rare, when they do occur, they can be devastating. In 2012, a 20-inch transmission line exploded in Sissonville, West Virginia, damaging five homes and leaving four blades of Interstate 77 looking “like a tar pit.”
Increasing that fear is a lack of regular communication from corporate to residents living across pipes. About half of the people we interviewed said they did not have company contact to contact them directly if there was a pipeline emergency, such as a spill, leak or explosion. “I mean, who do you say?” asked one woman.
‘We’ll just do the same’
Several interviewees described a deadly view of energy development in their communities.
Energy analysts expect gas production to rise this year after a slowdown in 2020. Pipeline companies expect to continue. And while the Biden administration is likely to reverse some rules, the president has said he would not prevent a breach.
“It’s just a bit sad because they think, again, that this is the health of West Virginia,” said one landowner. . And here is the third man. We just do the same thing. “
Erin Brock Carlson is an assistant professor of professional writing and editing at the University of West Virginia.
Martina Angela Caretta is a senior lecturer in human geography at Lund University.
Publication statements: Dr. Carlson has received funding from this project from the University of West Virginia Humanities Center.
Dr. Caretta has received funding for this project from the Heinz Foundation and the University of West Virginia Humanities Center.
Posted with permission from the Conversation.
From your site articles
Related Articles Across The Web