Pall's 2014 1st Quarterly Report posted to the DEQ's website in early May includes these two items:
Field Activities
"03/26/14 - 03/28/14 Leaking was discovered within the transmission pipeline between Porter lot
and Red Shed. The leak was found to be within the lower portion of the aquifer. As a result, the
flow was diverted through the reserve pipeline."
Anticipated Major Activities for the Next Quarter
"The use of the South Horizontal Well will be terminated. PLS will activate the reserve
pipeline constructed on Wagner Road."
The transmission pipeline transfers untreated purge water from extraction wells from the Evergreen and Maple Road areas back to the Pall property for partial treatment and discharge to a tributary of Honey Creek. The reported $2 million pipeline was constructed using horizontal drilling at depths up 90-100 feet in 1999 over the objections of local stakeholders concerned about it being a "back of a napkin plan." Pall chose this option to avoid having to meet city protectiveness standards if constructing the pipeline along city right-of-ways.
This is not the first leak. In July 2005, the northern portion of the transmission pipeline failed, prompting this response from the DEQ and this report from Pall. Cleanup activities at Evergreen were hampered until the transmission pipeline was replaced by shutting down and relining the north horizontal well casing to be used as a replacement pipeline. Also, the purging from the north horizontal well had to be terminated, reducing the cleanup of dioxane heading northeast and perhaps allowing faster spread of the dioxane into one of the 100-foot-long horizontal well screens, through the former horizontal well, and out the other well screen.
Now the southern portion of the transmission pipeline has had a similar failure... and both transmission pipelines will be operating without any backups. And the southern portion of the transmission pipeline will be carrying untreated dioxane in pipes only a dozen or so feet below ground instead of 90-100 feet.
SRSW awaits a formal report that answers these questions:
How was the leak discovered?
How long did it leak?
How much was leaked?
Why did it leak? (Was it the same problem that caused the north transmission pipeline to fail?)
What/where exactly is the "lower part of the aquifer"?
What is the reserve pipeline?
Was the reserve pipeline built with the same protectiveness standards as required for the Phase I pipeline?
How will the termination of the South Horizontal Well affect the cleanup?
Will dioxane plume spread faster away from the Pall property via the shutdown South Horizontal Well flowing in and out of its well screens?
Will another "reserve pipeline" be installed?
Remember that the horizontal drilling technique used was similar to that used in fracking, so what could go wrong?