Many of these lines have been built over the past five years to carry natural gas from the Marcellus Shale region of Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, where hydraulic fracturing has exploded. Only West Virginia has seen a fourfold increase in natural gas production in the last decade.
Such rapid growth has also led to hundreds of safety and environmental violations, especially under the Trump administration’s reduced oversight and simplified approvals for pipeline projects. While energy companies promise economic benefits for depressed regions, pipeline projects improve people’s lives along the way.
As a technical and professional communication scientist focused on how rural communities face complex issues and a geography scholar specializing in human-environment interactions, we came together to study the effects of pipeline development in rural Appalachia. In 2020, we surveyed and talked to dozens of people who lived near pipelines in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
What we found sheds light on the stress and uncertainty that communities experience when natural gas pipelines change their landscape. The inhabitants live in fear of disasters, the noise of construction and the anxiety of not having control over their own land.
“None of this is right”
Appalachians are no strangers to environmental risk. The region has a long and complicated history, with extractive industries, including coal and hydraulic fracturing. However, it is rare to hear reports about the long-term effects of industrial infrastructure development in rural communities, especially when it comes to pipelines, as they are the result of a more recent growth of the energy sector.
For all the people I spoke to, the pipeline development process was drawn and often confusing.
Some reported that they had never heard of a planned pipeline until a “field man” – a representative of the gas company – knocked on the door offering to buy a slice of property; others said they found out through newspaper articles or social media posts. Everyone I spoke to agreed that the burden eventually fell on them to find out what was going on in their communities.
A West Virginia woman said that after learning of plans for a pipeline feeding a petrochemical complex a few miles from her home, she began doing her own research. “I thought to myself, how did this happen? I didn’t know anything about it,” she said. “It’s not fair. None of this is right. … We’re stuck with a polluting company.”
“Lawyers ate us”
If residents do not want pipelines on their land, they can take legal action against the energy company, rather than take a solution. However, this can lead to the use of an eminent domain.
The eminent domain is a right granted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to companies to access private property if the project is considered important for public needs. Compensation is decided by the courts, based on the value of the assessed land, without taking into account intangible assets related to the loss of land around someone’s home, such as the loss of future income.
Through this process, residents may be forced to accept an amount that does not take into account all the effects of pipeline construction on their land, such as the damage that heavy equipment will do to the surrounding land and access roads.
A man I spoke to has lived on his family’s land for decades. In 2018, a company representative approached him for permission to install a new parallel pipe with one that had been in place since 1962, away from his home. However, the crews encountered problems with the steep terrain and wanted to install it much closer to his home. Dissatisfied with the new location and seeing the erosion of the pipeline construction on the ridge behind his house causing washes, he hired a lawyer. After a few months of returning and returning with the company, he said: “They gave me a choice: Either to sign the contract or to make the field eminent. And my lawyer advised me that I do not want to make an eminent field “.
The construction of the pipelines passes through the field of a farmer. Erin Brock Carlson, CC BY-SA
Among the 31 people I interviewed, there was a unanimous feeling that companies have seemingly endless financial and legal resources, which makes the battles in court unprofitable. Non-disclosure agreements can effectively silence landowners. Moreover, lawyers licensed to work in West Virginia who do not already work for gas companies may be difficult to find, and legal fees may become too high for residents to pay.
A woman, the main caretaker of the land her family has been cultivating for 80 years, has found herself facing significant legal fees after a dispute with a gas company. “We were the first and last to fight them, and then people saw what was going to happen to them and they just didn’t have it – it cost us money to get lawyers. The lawyers ate us.” she said.
The pipeline now passes through what were once hayfields. “I haven’t had any income from that hay since they took it out in 2016,” she said. “It’s nothing more than a patch of weeds.”
“I mean, who are you calling?”
Twenty-six of the 45 survey respondents reported feeling that the value of their property had declined as a result of the construction of the pipelines, citing the risks of water contamination, explosion and unusable land.
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. Hydraulic fracturing and other natural gas processes can affect drinking water resources, especially if there are leaks or improper storage procedures. In addition, methane, a strong greenhouse gas and volatile organic compounds, which can pose health risks, are by-products of the natural gas supply chain.
Oil spills are a major concern among landowners. Erin Brock Carlson, CC BY-SA
“Forty years from now, will they be able to keep track and keep up with the infrastructure? I mean, I can smell the gas when I’m here now,” a man told us. His family watched the natural gas industry move to their part of West Virginia in the mid-2010s. In addition to a 36-inch pipe on his property, there are several wells and smaller lines. “This year the company that serves the smaller lines had nine leaks … that’s what really worries me,” he said.
The main concern mentioned by the respondents to the survey was the explosions.
According to data from 2010 to 2018, an explosion of pipes took place, on average, every 11 days in the US. While major pipeline explosions are relatively 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 lanes of Highway 77 looking “like a tar pit.”
The amplification of these fears is the lack of consistent communication from corporations to residents living along the pipelines. About half of the people we interviewed reported that they did not have a contact company to call directly in the event of a pipeline emergency, such as a spill, a leak, or an explosion. – I mean, who are you calling? a woman asked.
“We continue to do the same”
Several interviewees described a fatalistic attitude towards energy development in their communities.
Energy analysts expect gas production to grow this year, following a slowdown in 2020. Pipeline companies expect to continue building. And while the Biden administration is likely to re-establish some regulations, the president has said he will not ban fracking.
“It’s kind of sad because they think, once again, this is going to save West Virginia,” said one owner. “Harvesting the wood was, then digging the coal was our salvation … And then here’s the third. We keep doing the same thing.”
Erin Brock Carlson is an assistant professor of professional writing and editing at West Virginia University.
Martina Angela Caretta is a senior lecturer in human geography at Lund University.
Disclosure Statements: Dr. Carlson received funding for this project from the West Virginia University Humanities Center.
Dr. Caretta received funding for this project from the Heinz Foundation and the West Virginia University Humanities Center.
Reposted with permission from The Conversation.
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