Review of Powhatan Salt Company Solution Mining Well Permits for Storage of Natural Gas Liquids at the Mountaineer NGL Storage Facility near Clarington, Ohio

Background

The Powhatan Salt Company (PSC) submitted permit applications to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) for the installation of three salt solution mining wells near Clarington, Ohio along the Ohio River on March 5, 2020. The stated purpose of cavern creation is to store liquid petroleum gas (LPG) including propane (HD5 consumer-grade and HD10 commercial grade) and butane/isobutene, as well as ethane and other Y-grade or blended dry natural gas liquids (NGLs) (CEC 2018). The facility will be operated by Mountaineer NGL Storage LLC and provide approximately 2 million barrels (bbls) of baseline storage capacity, with at least 25,000 bbls per day of cycling capacity (load-in and load-out) (CEC 2018). Each storage well will have the capacity to separately store a minimum of 300,000 bbls (CEC 2018).

The ODNR opened a 30-day comment period on these permits on January 7th. PSE Healthy Energy (PSE) was tasked by the Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice with reviewing these permit applications. PSE developed a report dated February 4, 2021, outlining technical concerns with permit applications. After obligatory consideration of public comments, including comments submitted by PSE, the ODNR then issued revised well permits on March 8, 2021, and opened another 30-day public comment period. PSE was tasked by the Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice with reviewing these revised permit applications.