HDD Activities Can Resume on Rover Pipeline in Michigan

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has authorized Energy Transfer Partners request to resume horizontal directional drilling (HDD) activities at the following locations along the Rover Pipeline Project:

• East Austin Road, between mileposts 62.62 and 63.14
• Interstate 71, between mileposts 91.82 and 92.06
• Interstate 94, between mileposts 74.68 and 75.09
• Portage River, between mileposts 84.79 and 85.18

According to FERC’s J. Rich McGuire, Energy Transfer Partners has committed to following specific measures to address the recommendations of the J.D. Hair & Associates report issued on July 31, 2017 and August 22, 2017, as well as FERC staff’s site-specific recommendations for the referenced four crossings. McGuire added that the company has provided third-party independent inspectors to oversee the HDDs to further safeguard against future inadvertent releases to sensitive environmental features or contamination of drilling fluids utilized at HDD sites, and will use an annular pressure tool for monitoring beneath the emergent wetland on the entry side of the I-94 HDD.  If any releases of any drilling fluids occur within the River Raisin or Portage River in Michigan, Energy Transfer Partners must notify the Michigan Field Office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service within 24 hours.

In addition, this authorization to re-commence certain HDD activities does not impact the Office of Enforcement’s ongoing investigation into the circumstances of the drilling fluid contamination at the Tuscarawas River HDD site, and the company is expected to fully cooperate with that investigation.

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