Ohio’s Going After Energy Transfer Partners Over Spills

Ohio’s demanding nearly $1 million from Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, the company that built the Dakota Access Pipeline that drew thousands of protesters last year in North Dakota.

This time, the claim involves the company’s $4.2 billion gas pipeline called Rover which leaked more than 2 million dollars of drilling mud into Stark County wetlands.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency maintains it attempted three times to reach the company and have it create a plan for such spills. But the state EPA never received a response from the company following any of the three attempts. So now the state is filing a civil lawsuit against the company seeking $914,000 in damages.

The suit is in response to what the agency maintains was 27 violations on the Rover pipeline and more spills last week near the Tuscarawas River.

The legal action drew obvious support from Sierra Club Ohio director Jen Miller.

“The Sierra Club applauds Ohio EPA for taking action against Energy Transfer’s reckless construction of a dirty and dangerous fracked gas pipeline. We’ve always said that it’s never a question of whether a pipeline will spill, but rather a question of when. necessary.”