![](https://www.witf.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Revolution-Pipe_10-25-18o-1626x1080.jpg)
The site of the Revolution Pipeline explosion that occurred in September 2018. Officials have said said heavy rain caused a landslide, leading to the explosion, which destroyed a house.
Marcellus Air
The site of the Revolution Pipeline explosion that occurred in September 2018. Officials have said said heavy rain caused a landslide, leading to the explosion, which destroyed a house.
Marcellus Air
Marcellus Air
The site of the Revolution Pipeline explosion that occurred in September 2018. Officials have said said heavy rain caused a landslide, leading to the explosion, which destroyed a house.
A pipeline that exploded in 2018 is back in service following an agreement between the company that owns it and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.Ā
Texas-based Energy Transfer is sending gas through the Revolution pipeline, 2Ā½Ā years after a section of it failed during a landslide in Beaver County.Ā
As part of the settlement, the company will pay a $125,000 fine.Ā
The Revolution pipeline had barely been in service for a week before the explosion in September 2018. The resulting fire destroyed one building, killed animalsĀ and forced the evacuation of dozens of residents.Ā
The blast led the DEP to levy a record $30.6 million civil penalty against the company through a January 2020 consent order and agreement.
As the company rebuilt the pipeline, the DEP noted hundreds of violations, like slope failures and erosion along its route. In November, the agency barred Energy Transfer from re-starting the pipeline.Ā
The company appealed and the two sides settled in a Feb. 26 agreement.Ā
The agency said the company has put in enough safety precautions, like installing new drainage infrastructure, as well as groundwater and slope monitors, to make the ground beneath pipeline route stable. The company is required to implement additional measures at certain points in the route to stabilize the ground above the pipeline.Ā
āOnce the entire pipeline is permanently stabilized,ā said DEP spokeswoman Lauren Fraley, the ground above the pipeline will āalso have that same factor of safety.āĀ
The DEP says the company has come up with an acceptable contingency plan to empty the pipeline in the event of another landslide. The plan includes several locations for gas to be flared in case the pipeline is shut down.Ā
As part of the settlement, the company has agreed to install additional drainage features at steep slopes along the route, and submit a revised stabilization plan for one steep section near Penny Hollow Road in Beaver County. The plan will include installing āsmartā slope monitors that measure the stability of the soil, and āstrain gaugesā that monitor strain on the pipeline itself. Until the āsmartā monitors are in place, the company has agreed to monitor the site daily āto identify whether the hillside is showing signs of instability.āĀ
Energy Transfer, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment.
StateImpact Pennsylvania is a collaboration among WITF, WHYY, and the Allegheny Front. Reporters Reid Frazier, Rachel McDevitt and Susan PhillipsĀ cover the commonwealth’s energy economy. Read their reports on this site, and hear them on public radio stations across Pennsylvania.
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StateImpact Pennsylvania is a collaboration among WITF, WHYY, and the Allegheny Front. Reporters Reid Frazier, Rachel McDevitt and Susan PhillipsĀ cover the commonwealth’s energy economy. Read their reports on this site, and hear them on public radio stations across Pennsylvania.
Climate Solutions, a collaboration of news organizations, educational institutions and a theater company, uses engagement, education and storytelling to help central Pennsylvanians toward climate change literacy, resilience and adaptation. Our work will amplify how people are finding solutions to the challenges presented by a warming world.