The Rover Pipeline has been under construction in Ohio for about two months at this point.  It’s not making a lot of friends.

The Ohio EPA has fined Rover $431,000 for 18 separate violations.

That’s a big number, but for a project that’s going to cost an estimated $4,200,000,000, it’s kind of small.

What’s really interesting is that the head of the EPA is frustrated with Rover’s attitude.  In the Columbus Dispatch article linked above, he says, “All told, our frustration is really high. We don’t think they’re taking Ohio seriously.  Normally when we have … a series of events like this, companies respond with a whole lot of contrition and whole lot of commitment. We haven’t seen that. It’s pretty shocking.”

If Rover doesn’t get its act together, they may find themselves facing a stop work order from the State of Ohio.  They were able railroad landowners using federal law, but they are up against an entirely different animal when they tick off the head of a State agency that has the power to stop them in their tracks.

This also doesn’t inspire confidence that the end product is going to be well built.  Management problems trickle down to workers, and quality suffers.  It’s the natural way of all organizations.

UPDATE:  May 11, 2017 — The FERC has halted drilling by the Rover Pipeline at eight locations in Ohio.  Drilling already in progress is going to continue, as stopping the drilling increases the risk of collapse and spills.  The Tuscarawas River location will have independent third-party oversight.  Rover also has to double the number of environmental inspectors per construction spread.

UPDATE: May 16, 2017 — It turns out that the fine was not a fine, but a penalty that it will have to pay and that can be negotiated.  A spokesman for the Ohio EPA seems to have made that comment that’s quoted above, not the head of the Ohio EPA, and everything about the situation is pretty fluid.  It’s more than a little disappointing when facts get distorted by the news outlets.  Who do you trust?

A directional drilling rig working on the Rover Pipeline leaked a bunch of drilling fluid while it was drilling under the Tuscarawas River a little while ago.  This article from WMFD.com, a local news outlet, is a follow up story highlighting the efforts to clean the mess up and some doubts by the landowner as to whether the clean up is going well.

The Rover representative quoted in the article downplayed the seriousness of the spill, of course.  The Ohio EPA will still be levying fines and monitoring the clean up, so I guess it’s serious enough for that.

We previously noted that Rover is off to a pretty bad start and that all of it’s mistakes are going to shake confidence in the pipeline industry.  We haven’t seen anything to change that opinion yet.

The Rover Pipeline is a big project that starts in the northern part of West Virginia, crosses Ohio, and heads up to Canada.  Construction began about a month ago.  They’ve been very busy cutting trees and clearing the right of way since then.  They’ve also been busy getting in trouble.

The Ohio EPA has already issued the Rover Pipeline a Notice of Violation for spilling 2 million gallons of drilling fluid in one location, and 50,000 gallons in another.

The Rover Pipeline already has a checkered reputation as far as construction work goes.  It demolished a historic house that was being considered for the National Register of Historic Places.  It also got an injunction against landowners who were trying to stop Rover from coming onto their property, but forgot to include most of the landowners with whom the Rover Pipeline had not been able to get easement agreements from.

Basically, it feels like this project which has been in the planning stages for years is not well planned.

It does not inspire confidence that the final product will be high quality (or in other words safe).

It also does not inspire confidence that the other major pipeline projects, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, the Mountain Valley Pipeline, and the Mountaineer Xpress, will be any better.