Residents talk hazards of hydrogen at ARCH 2 public comment meeting

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ARCH 2 rally
Maury Johnson speaks at the ARCH 2 rally outside of the projects open house on Nov. 7, 2024 at West Virginia State University. (Liz Partsch photo)

SALEM, Ohio — Residents and environmental organizations within the project area of the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub recently voiced concerns about the hazards of hydrogen that could soon be piped across the region.

These issues were raised during a U.S. Department of Energy virtual meeting on Jan. 16 that allowed the public to comment on the DOE’s environmental impact statement for the proposed ARCH 2 project.

Commenters cited a process called “hydrogen embrittlement,” which is when hydrogen molecules diffuse into steel causing pipelines to become brittle and more susceptible to cracking.

Pipelines, in general, are also known to rupture when certain environmental conditions are present, said Rachel Meyer, the Ohio River Valley field organizer for Moms Clean Air Force, an environmental advocacy group. She noted a hydrogen pipeline explosion that occurred in Sataria, Mississippi, in 2020 when months of rain caused the ground to shift.

“A pipeline exploded in my county in southwestern Pennsylvania for that same reason,” Meyer said, referring to the Revolution pipeline explosion in Beaver County in September 2018. “Pipelines throughout ARCH 2 will face great instability due to the topography” of the region.

What is an EIS?

ARCH 2 was promised $925 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to produce “clean” natural gas-based hydrogen using a variety of infrastructure like pipelines, power plants and underground storage sites across Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

The environmental impact statement (EIS) assesses the potential environmental impacts of giving funds to Battelle Memorial Institute, the primary funding recipient and lead ARCH 2 manager.

The statement will look at the potential impacts of the construction and operation of hydrogen technology, as well as non-site-specific impacts like land use, air quality, climate change, water quality, geology, noise and vibration and more.

Comments

Alongside the dangers of pipeline transportation, hydrogen is extremely flammable and hydrogen fires are nearly invisible, posing an added danger to first responders, said Randi Pokladnik, a Harrison County, Ohio resident and a retired Weirton Steel research chemist. Leaks are also hard to detect because hydrogen has no smell.

Other residents brought up concerns of methane emissions, which can leak during the hydrogen production process. ARCH 2 will use a process known as carbon capture and sequestration to inject carbon emissions into the ground as a way to lower emissions. However, CCS technology has never been done on such a big scale, said commenters, and it does not capture methane emissions.

Those who spoke at the meeting were also concerned over the timing of the EIS, as little to no information regarding the specifics of ARCH 2 site locations have been released.

There is no point of this EIS “if it does not identify and analyze these specific sites,” said James Kotcon, who serves as chair of the West Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club. “The majority of issues that the (DOE) identified in (its) opening presentation require site-specific analysis, things like noise.”

The public comment period for the ARCH 2 project’s EIS will last 75 days, ending on March 3. The DOE will be taking written comments online and oral comments in person at three in-person meetings in each state. Visit www.energy.gov/nepa/articles/doeeis-0569-scoping-materials-december-2024 for more information.

(Liz Partsch can be reached at epartsch@farmanddairy.com or 330-337-3419.)

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