EnviroPolitics Blog

Sinkholes spur action in Chester County to halt Mariner East 2 natural gas pipeline work

Creeks and wetlands in Chester County are not the only valuable things at risk from Mariner East pipeline construction; County Commissioners and residents insist the liquid gas moving through the pipes is a danger to residents. (Marlene Lang)

By Marlene Lang, Patch Staff

CHESTER COUNTY, PA — Sinkholes — one after another along Mariner East 2 construction sites in Chester County — prompted a letter from the Chester County Commissioners today calling for the work to stop.

In a letter to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC), the Chester County Commissioners on Monday requested that two Mariner East pipelines be ordered to cease operations while further investigations examine the impact on public safety from a recent outbreak of construction-induced sinkholes near the lines.

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With at least seven sinkhole formations documented this year, the Commissioners urged PUC to take swift action to protect residents’ safety.

The lines in question are Energy Transfer’s Mariner East 1 (ME1) 8-inch and 12-inch natural gas liquid (NGL) pipelines. Both pipelines have been in the ground for about 80 years but only began carrying NGLs under high pressure much more recently. A PUC document explained ME1 is used to transport liquid propane, butane, and ethane.

According to the letter from Commissioners’ Chair Marian Moskowitz, and Commissioners Josh Maxwell and Michelle Kichline, at least seven sinkholes have been caused by construction near the lines in 2021 in the fragile, hollow karst geology in West Whiteland Township. The Commissioners asked that work be halted and the cause of the sinkholes be determined.

The Commissioners’ letter reported that one recent sinkhole near the lines swallowed a tree, a phenomenon caught on video and provided with the letter to the PUC.

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Germany comes to grips with massive flood damage

German Chancellor Angela Merkel toured areas of the western state of Rhineland Palatinate where riverside communities were turned into disaster zones last week after a once-in-a-century summer rainfall. She described the scene as “haunting.”

By Loveday Morris, Washington Post

“The German language hardly knows words for the devastation that has been wrought,” she said in front of the town hall in Adenau, in Germany’s Eifel district, one of the areas hit hardest. She promised financial aid to get the affected regions back on their feet.

“Fortunately, Germany is a country that can cope with this financially,” she said. “We will resist this force of nature.

But the scale of the destruction is mammoth. The force of the water ripped facades off houses, left cars hanging in trees, and crumpled roads and bridges. Rivers are clogged with twisted railway bridges, cars, and caravans, and many areas remain without power or water.

Merkel also visited the village of Schuld, a picturesque village dotted with traditional timber-frame houses, some of which were completely swept away. From the bridge that overlooks the town, nothing but a ghostly outline of the foundations of several buildings can be seen.

Merkel walked stone-faced through the destruction hand-in-hand with Malu Dreyer, the state’s premier.

As she toured last week’s detritus, other areas were battling new floods. On Saturday night, areas of Bavaria were declared a disaster zone as the southern state on the border with Austria was hit by flash floods. At least one person died in the Berchtesgadener district.

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Moody’s gives Rider U’s bond rating an even lower failing grade

By Kelly Heyboer | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Wall Street is worried about Rider University.

Analysts at Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Rider’s bond rating earlier this week and gave the private, New Jersey university a “negative” outlook. The rating agency cited Rider’s “very weak operating performance,” reliance on a line of credit to cover its expenses, and the financial effects of the pandemic at the 4,600-student school.

The Lawrenceville university’s rating was downgraded from Ba1, or “junk bond” status, to Ba2, an even lower version of junk bond status. “Junk” is a term used for below-investment-grade bonds, meaning Moody’s is telling investors Rider is a risky investment and has a chance of not being able to pay back the money it borrows.

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“While the university has articulated strategies to improve operations, a turnaround, if achievable, will take multiple years,” said the Moody’s report issued Tuesday.

Rider is among many small- and mid-size private universities that were already struggling to stay out of the red before the pandemic wreaked further havoc on their finances. In New Jersey, Centenary University in Hackettstown and Drew University in Madison are among the private colleges that have publicly discussed their ongoing financial problems.

Many of the smaller private schools are having trouble attracting students when there are less costly public universities nearby with similar programs and amenities.

For Rider, the lower bond rating means it will be more expensive for the university to borrow money for construction or other projects. Ririder University reported approximately $89 million in outstanding debt in 2020, the analysts said. That debt rose to about $110 million with the issuance of new bonds in May.

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Anaerobic digestion companies see a clear path to scaling up food- waste processing

Anaergia, BDC, Generate Capital, and Vanguard Renewables believe they’re poised to expand organics recycling. ESG trends, disposal tip fees, and state or local policies are all key drivers.

By Cole Rosengren, Senior Editor, Waste Dive

Using anaerobic digesters to process food scraps and create energy is a well-seasoned concept used at scale throughout the world, especially in European countries, but it’s still less common in the United States. Some of the sector’s leading operators are betting that’s about to change.

According to the latest U.S. EPA survey data, the country has an estimated 200 digesters specifically accepting food waste across dozens of states. This included standalone and farm-based sites as well as facilities co-digesting food scraps at wastewater treatment plants. But the pace of development has been slow. Prior operational issues have led to multiple project closures and have created an opinion among some on the MSW (municipal solid waste) side that the concept isn’t financially viable. At the same time, a combination of policy drivers; corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) pressures; rising disposal tip fees in some regions, and other factors have created a strong tailwind for organics recycling.

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“We look at organics as the next solid waste commodity,” said Debra Darby, manager of organics sustainability solutions at Tetra Tech, during a recent WasteExpo session. “Organics management is a new thinking of solid waste as a resource.”

While composting is still the more common path for traditional solid waste service providers looking to build their own organics infrastructure, and is also poised for notable expansion, anaerobic digestion (AD) is seeing a lot of new investment. After years of ups and downs for the sector, four companies frequently come up as among the top ones to follow at scale – Anaergia, Bioenergy DevCo (BDC), Generate Capital, and Vanguard Renewables.

“The strongest have survived,” said BDC CEO Shawn Kreloff in a recent interview.

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Composting has spiked since food scraps were banned from Vt landfills

Chickens feed on food scraps blended with other ingredients at the Vermont Compost farm in Montpelier. Courtesy photo.

By Ashley DeLeon, VT Digger

It’s been just over a year since food scraps were banned from Vermont landfills, prompting a statewide composting spike.

The Universal Recycling Law (Act 148) was passed unanimously by the Vermont Legislature in 2012, then updated in 2018, 2019, and 2020. The law aimed to “reduce landfill waste, increase recycling, increase composting, and try to meet the state’s 50% recycling goal,” said Josh Kelly, materials management section manager of the Department of Environmental Conservation.

The recycling law really tightened up in 2020 when Rep. James Harrison, R-Chittenden, introduced the proposal to ban the disposal of food waste in landfills, and Gov. Phil Scott signed it on July 1 of last year.

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The new law led to a surge in the number of residential and commercial compost services in Vermont.

“I was out of work last spring. I was reading about that law, and so I started this business based on what I thought would be a residential need,” said Zach Cavacas, owner and operator of Music Mountain Compost, based in Stockbridge. The company offers bi-weekly residential and commercial compost pickup and Cavacas says it has diverted over 40 tons of food waste over the past year.

In its first year, Music Mountain Compost has grown from zero to more than 300 customers.

“The growth rate is incredible, and I’ve also been to over 70 towns. There’s a huge need for this,” Cavacas said.

“If you compost food scraps that Vermont landfills each year, it would be the same as taking over 9,000 cars off the road,” Kelly said.

The Department of Environmental Conservation estimates that the number of food scrap haulers has more than tripled, from 12 haulers in 2012, to 45 in 2021.

Vermont’s sales of supplies for backyard composters (compost bins, kitchen countertop collectors, food scrap buckets, etc.) rose from $7,132 to $19,681 in the past year, said Susan Alexander, manager of the Lamoille Regional Solid Waste District. In 2020 alone, the district took in 146 tons of food scraps for composting; that rose to 166 tons in the past six months.

The waste district established Lamoille Soil in Johnson as a composting operation, and business is booming.

“Since the Universal Recycling Law has gone into effect, it’s gone up. We’re really excited to see people being able to find a way to bring their food scraps to our six dropoff facilities,” Alexander said.

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Gibbons Renewable Energy Alert

By Frank T. Cannone, Jason J. Redd, and Karl Teo Molin, III
Gibbons P.C.

Last month, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) made history when it awarded a combined 2,658 MW of offshore wind capacity to two wind energy companies. This award was the largest collective MW award in the United States to date, and it raised New Jersey’s total planned capacity to over 3,700 MW. This award is a significant step toward reaching Governor Phil Murphy’s goal of 7,500 MW of offshore wind by 2035 and 100 percent clean energy by 2050.

In May 2018, Governor Murphy signed Executive Order No. 28, which directed the NJBPU, in partnership with other state agencies, to develop this statewide clean energy plan and shift away from energy production that contributes to climate change. In the ensuing months, the NJBPU led a series of meetings with stakeholders throughout New Jersey to gather input on the plan.

These meetings culminated in the release of the State of New Jersey’s Energy Master Plan in January 2020 (the “Plan”). The Plan contained seven strategies to achieve the goal of 100 percent clean energy by 2050. The seven strategies are:

An Reducing Energy Consumption and Emissions from the Transportation Sector
An Accelerating Deployment of Renewable Energy and Distributed Energy Resource
An Maximizing Energy Efficiency and Conservation and Reducing Peak Demand
An Reducing Energy Consumption and Emissions from the Building Sector
An Decarbonizing and Modernizing New Jersey’s Energy System
An Supporting Community Energy Planning and Action in Underserved Communities
An Expanding the Clean Energy Innovation Economy

In addition to the progress with wind energy, New Jersey is aggressively moving forward to encourage growth in solar projects throughout the state. During his testimony before the Assembly Budget Committee, NJBPU President Joseph L. Fiordaliso touted New Jersey’s more than 134,000 solar installations, making the Garden State the #1 state for installed solar per square mile.

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