August 2021 Vol.76 No. 8
Newsline
Newsline
PG&E to Move 10,000 Miles of Power Lines Underground
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has announced a major new initiative to expand the undergrounding of electric distribution power lines in High Fire Threat Districts (HFTD) to further harden its system and help prevent wildfires.
The new infrastructure safety initiative, announced in Butte County by PG&E Corporation CEO Patti Poppe, is a multi-year effort to underground approximately 10,000 miles of power lines.
“We want what all of our customers want: a safe and resilient energy system,” Poppe said. “We have taken a stand that catastrophic wildfires shall stop.”
PG&E’s initiative was announced shortly after the Dixie Fire erupted in Northern California’s Butte and Plumas counties in mid-July. The aggressive fire, primed by a landscape of heat- and drought-stricken vegetation, had surpassed 100,000 acres and become California’s first “megafire” of the year at press time, with only about 17% of the blaze contained.
PG&E said in a report to the California Public Utilities Commission that its equipment may have started the Dixie Fire. One of its employees, responding to a reported outage, found two blown fuses and a tree leaning into a conductor. The conductor “was still intact and suspended on the poles,” according to the report, and there was a fire near the base of the tree. The employee reported the fire immediately, but the fire grew quickly with low humidity and gusty winds in the area.
PG&E’s equipment has caused similar incidents in the past, including a 2019 wildfire that burned through 120 square miles and destroyed 374 buildings.
The company maintains more than 25,000 miles of overhead distribution power lines in the highest fire-threat areas, which is more than 30% of its total distribution overhead system.
The exact number of projects or miles buried each year will depend on project scoping and inspections, estimating and engineering review, said PG&E, which described the initiative as the largest such effort of its kind to be undertaken as a wildfire risk-reduction measure in the United States.
In addition to reducing wildfire risk, undergrounding also lessens the risk of Public Safety Power Shutoffs, which are called as a last resort when dry, windy conditions raise the threat of trees contacting live power lines. It also eases vegetation management efforts and leaves more trees untouched.
Biden Picks Career Policy Adviser to Lead Water Agency
President Joe Biden nominated Camille Touton, a veteran congressional water policy adviser, to lead the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees water in 17 western states and power in 13.
If confirmed, Touton will be a central figure in negotiations among several states over the future of the Colorado River. The Nevada native would succeed Brenda Burman, who now works for an Arizona entity managing a canal system that delivers Colorado River water to the state’s most populous areas.
Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada,
New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and Mexico all rely on the river that flows from the Rocky Mountains into the Gulf of California.
Ongoing drought and growing demand for water have diminished the river that supplies 40 million people, and the agency is expected to mandate water cuts for the first time in 2022. Some states have already given up shares of their water voluntarily under a drought plan.
Touton was named deputy commissioner in January after working on water issues for various congressional committees and as a deputy assistant secretary in the Interior Department under the Obama administration.
Supreme Court Sides with Pipeline Developer in New Jersey Dispute
The Supreme Court sided with a pipeline company in a dispute with New Jersey over land the company needs for a natural gas pipeline.
Both liberal and conservative justices joined to rule 5-4 for the PennEast Pipeline Co. The 116-mile planned pipeline is to run from Pennsylvania’s Luzerne County to Mercer County in New Jersey. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had allowed the company’s project to move forward in 2018 by granting PennEast a certificate of public convenience and necessity, but lawsuits followed.
The company ultimately took New Jersey to court to acquire state-controlled land for its project. PennEast argued the commission’s greenlighting of its project allowed it to take New Jersey to court and to use eminent domain to acquire state-controlled properties. The Supreme Court agreed.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority that when FERC issues a certificate of public convenience and necessity, federal law authorizes the certificate’s holder “to condemn all necessary rights-of-way, whether owned by private parties or States.”
The decision from the high court doesn’t end litigation over the pipeline. A separate challenge to the pipeline involving New Jersey is pending in a federal appeals court in Washington.
Alabama City Seeks to Cut Water Use Over Leaking Pipe
Tuscaloosa, Alabama is ordering most of its water customers to use less, saying a leak in a key water line is reducing how much water it can pump out.
Mayor Walt Maddox said at a televised news conference that water treatment capacity had fallen from 40 million gallons a day to 22 million. He ordered water conservation measures for areas that included the University of Alabama campus, a Mercedes-Benz assembly plant and four rural water systems outside the city limits.
Utility officials determined that pipes carrying untreated water from Lake Tuscaloosa to a water treatment plant were leaking somewhere along a 2-mile stretch. Floodwaters from Tropical Storm Claudette were covering much of the low-lying areas where the pipes run, complicating the effort to find and fix the leak.
Environmentalists Sue Over Wastewater Leak in Florida
Efforts to clean up a leaky reservoir that dumped tens of millions of gallons of potentially hazardous gypsum wastewater into Tampa Bay must be overseen by a federal judge to guard against continued mismanagement, environmental groups claimed in a lawsuit.
More than 215 million gallons of wastewater was released earlier this year into the bay, blamed by some scientists and commercial fishermen for causing algae blooms, temporarily closing shellfish harvesting and worsening an outbreak of fish-killing toxic red tide along the Gulf coast.
After the leak occurred, the Legislature approved $100 million for a plan to permanently close the reservoir. Officials also say the state will hold accountable those responsible for the leak, which was caused when tears in a plastic liner threatened to trigger a major breach that could have unleashed even more contaminated water.
Increased Water Pumping Worries Line 3 Pipeline Opponents
Opponents of Enbridge’s Line 3 oil pipeline project say they are worried about the potential impact of the company’s plan to temporarily pump as much as 10 times more groundwater out of the construction area than once planned.
Enbridge originally got permission to pump about 510 million gallons of water from the trenches it’s digging as it replaces the current, aging Line 3 pipeline along a partly new, 340-mile route across northern Minnesota.
But the Calgary, Alberta-based company encountered more groundwater than it anticipated, and it obtained a permit in June from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to pump up to nearly 5 billion gallons for the remaining 145 miles of pipeline it has left to build, Minnesota Public Radio reported.
Groups fighting the project say the pumping could affect groundwater quality and environmentally sensitive areas along the route. But the Department of Natural Resources says it determined that the increased pumping won’t threaten groundwater sustainability or have other harmful impacts on natural resources.
The tunnel would house a replacement for a portion of Enbridge’s Line 5 that crosses the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac, a roughly four-mile-long waterway connecting Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.
Enbridge had pledged to complete the tunnel by 2024 but is “evaluating the timeline” in view of the government’s decision, which will hold up construction, spokesman Ryan Duffy said.
Indiana Sewage Tunnel Project Completes Latest Phase
The largest construction project in Fort Wayne, Indiana’s history recently struck a new milestone with the conclusion of boring for a new sewer tunnel.
City officials and residents celebrated the work of MamaJo — a tunnel-boring machine deriving its name from three Fort Wayne rivers — that dug through roughly 5 miles of bedrock since February 2019, The Journal Gazette reported.
The tunnel connects with 14 neighborhoods, storing and transporting sewage during heavy rain and reducing overflows into local rivers.
MamaJo’s tunnel has been the largest part of the project’s scope, Deputy Director of City Utilities Matthew Wirtz said. The 14-year construction endeavor has been decades in the making. The tunnel is slated to be fully operational by the end of 2023.
Once completed, the Deep Rock Tunnel will be able to handle 850 million gallons (3.2 million liters) of combined sewage traveling through it each day, city officials said.
US Agency Offers $307 Million for Rural Water Projects
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said it will issue up to $307 million in grants and low-interest loans to help modernize water infrastructure for towns with less than 10,000 people in 34 states and the territory of Puerto Rico.
Officials made the announcement at a wastewater treatment center in the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, north of Santa Fe, New Mexico, where employees have worked to keep the aging plant running for its thousands of residents along the Rio Grande.
The announcement is part of a multistate push by President Joe Biden and his administration to gain more support for a $973 billion infrastructure package that includes more than a half-trillion dollars in new spending.
The Pueblo will receive a $610,000 loan and a $1.6 million grant to improve its wastewater treatment plant, part of a $4 million investment in the state. Federal officials say it will allow the tribe to start extending service to over 1,000 residents who are disconnected by treating 33% more water each day.
EPA Joins Review of Lead Water Lines in West Virginia City
Federal regulators have joined West Virginia officials in reviewing lead service lines in Clarksburg for elevated levels of the toxin in drinking water.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will assist the state Department of Health and Human Resources and the Clarksburg Water System in the review, the DHHR said. Sampling in several homes showed lead levels above a limit set by the EPA.
Lead lines were phased out in the 1950s and its unlikely homes built after 1960 would have them. The DHHR is encouraging residents of homes built before 1950 to use bottled water for consumption and have children younger than age 6 evaluated for lead, Ayne Amjad, the state health officer, said in the statement.
The issue of lead service lines was first identified by Bureau for Public Health staff during assessments conducted in the homes of children diagnosed with elevated blood lead levels.
EPA Grant to Help Grand Rapids Replace Lead Service Lines
A western Michigan city will use a $5.1 million federal grant to help replace about 1,600 private service lines over the next four years due to concerns over lead.
The Grand Rapids City Commission approved and accepted the U.S. EPA grant, which is part of the city’s four-year project to replace private lead service lines in 10 census tracts with copper pipe. The funding will complement another planned $16 million in capital investment for lead service line replacements over the same period.
There are more than 24,000 lead service lines in Grand Rapids and about 1,700 have been replaced since 2017, according to the city.
Construction Begins on ND Natural Gas Pipeline Project
MDU Resources subsidiary WBI Energy has started construction on the North Bakken Expansion project in northwestern North Dakota. This natural gas pipeline expansion will have the capacity to transport 250 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from the Bakken Formation. WBI Energy received a notice to proceed on July 8 from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, allowing construction to commence.
The North Bakken Expansion project includes the construction of approximately 63 miles of 24-inch natural gas pipeline and 30 miles of 12-inch natural gas pipeline, as well as a new compressor station and additional associated infrastructure.
It is estimated to cost $260 million and is expected to employ up to 450 people during peak construction, WBI said. The company expects to have the pipeline in service by the end of the year.
“WBI Energy transports more than 50 percent of the natural gas produced from the Bakken. This project will bring WBI’s total pipeline system capacity to more than 2.4 billion cubic feet per day while reducing natural gas flaring in the region by allowing producers to move more gas to market,” said David L. Goodin, president and CEO of MDU Resources.
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