Overview
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. At the request of the Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice, we reviewed the permit applications, developed a report outlining our technical concerns, and participated in the public comment process through the ONDR.
Report
