Underground Construction - December 2022 - 12

NEWSLINE LATEST INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENTS
Mississippi Water Investigations
Said to Test Biden Commitment
to Racial Equity
Federal investigations into public spending on
the failing water system in Mississippi's majorityBlack
capital city are a test of President Joe
Biden's commitment to racial equity, one of his
congressional allies told hundreds of people at a
town hall meeting hosted by the NAACP.
" President Biden has made a fundamental
policy in his administration to talk about equity.
And this is an issue of equity and fair treatment
about the citizens of Jackson, " Democratic Rep.
Bennie Thompson at Jackson's New Hope
Baptist Church - the same spacious sanctuary
where Biden spoke during the 2020 campaign.
The Environmental Protection Agency
announced in late October that it is
investigating whether Mississippi state agencies
have discriminated against Jackson by refusing
to fund water system improvements in the
city of 150,000, where more than 80% of
residents are Black and about a quarter of
the population lives in poverty.
Thompson said the EPA civil investigation is
expected to take about four months. The federal
agency could withhold money from the state
if it finds wrongdoing - potentially millions of
dollars. If the state agencies don't cooperate
with the investigation, the EPA could refer the
case to the Department of Justice.
Thompson's congressional district includes
most of Jackson. He is chairman of the
House Homeland Security Committee -
one of two congressional committees that
also are investigating how Republican-led
Mississippi is spending federal money for
water system improvements.
Williams, Sempra to Develop
LNG, NatGas Pipelines
in Texas and Louisiana
Williams said it has agreed with Sempra
Infrastructure to establish the elements of an
integrated platform to further connect the
natural gas-rich Haynesville Basin to growing
LNG export facilities along the U.S. Gulf Coast.
As part of the proposed transaction, the
companies plan to form a strategic joint venture
to own, expand and operate the Cameron
Interstate Pipeline, which is expected to deliver
natural gas to the proposed Cameron LNG
Phase 2 in Hackberry, Louisiana. They also
expect the JV to own the Louisiana Connector
12 DECEMBER 2022 | UCONonline.com
Pipeline, which is expected to deliver natural gas
to Sempra Infrastructure's proposed LNG facility
in Port Arthur, Texas.
The agreement contemplates long-term
gas sales of approximately 500 MMcf/delivered
near Gillis, Louisiana, and two LNG offtake
agreements for approximately 3 million tons per
annum (MTPA) in the aggregate from Sempra
Infrastructure's proposed Cameron LNG Phase 2
and Port Arthur LNG projects.
Williams said the proposed transactions
complement its recently sanctioned low-carbon
Louisiana Energy Gateway (LEG) gathering
project and are expected to include connections
to pipelines serving Sempra Infrastructure's LNG
export facilities.
Williams' LEG project, which is expected
to go into service in late 2024, will gather
1.8 Bcf/d of natural gas in the Haynesville basin.
Its partnerships with Context Labs, Encino
Environmental and Satlantis will enable the
measurement of end-to-end, verifiable and
transparent emissions data to demonstrate the
low carbon benefits of produced and delivered
Haynesville natural gas, Williams said.
Ohio City Agrees to Spend
$85 million to Reduce
Sewage Discharge
The city of Lakewood, Ohio, has agreed to
perform work that will significantly reduce
discharges of untreated sewage from its sewer
system into Lake Erie and the Rocky River.
The settlement is set forth in an interim partial
consent decree that was filed in federal court in
the Northern District of Ohio.
The decree requires Lakewood to complete
construction of a high-rate treatment system
that will treat combined sewer overflows and
build two large storage basins that will hold
millions of gallons of wastewater until it can be
sent to the wastewater treatment plant. Under
the decree, Lakewood will spend about $85
million to improve its sewer system and will pay
a civil penalty of $100,000, split evenly between
the United States and Ohio.
Lakewood will also conduct multiple pipe
lining and repair projects within its sewer
system designed to eliminate causes of sanitary
sewer overflows. Lakewood will also undertake
a sampling pilot study designed to identify
sewage in stormwater outfalls and a one-year
post-construction monitoring program, which
will provide the data needed for future work in
Lakewood's sewer system.
The decree would partially resolve the
violations alleged in the underlying complaint
filed by the United States and the state of
Ohio. The complaint alleges that Lakewood
discharged untreated sanitary sewage into
the Rocky River or directly into Lake Erie on
at least 1,933 occasions from January 2016
through the present.
The complaint also alleges that on numerous
occasions since January 2016, Lakewood
discharged water from combined sewer outfalls
that violated the effluent limitations included
in its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination
System permit.
Equitrans Wants
US Legislation to Help Finish
Mountain Valley Pipeline
U.S. energy company Equitrans Midstream Corp.
said that the best path to complete its Mountain
Valley (MVP) natural gas pipeline from West
Virginia to Virginia by the second half of 2023
was through U.S. permitting reform legislation.
Equitrans also said that federal legislation
would help the company stick to its previously
announced $6.6 billion budget for the project.
Mountain Valley - the only big gas pipe under
construction in Appalachia - is one of several
U.S. pipeline projects delayed by regulatory and
legal fights with environmental and local groups.
The fights relate to federal permitting during
President Donald Trump's administration.
In early August, Democratic U.S. Senator Joe
Manchin secured a commitment from President
Joe Biden and Senate and House leadership to
support permitting reform legislation that would
also allow completion of MVP, but it reportedly
failed because there wasn't enough additional
support in Congress.
Pennsylvania's Wastewater
Infrastructure Rated " Poor "
by Engineering Group
The Pennsylvania Council of the American
Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released
the 2022 Report Card for Pennsylvania's
Infrastructure in November, with 15 categories
of infrastructure receiving an overall grade of
" C- " . Specifically, the state's water infrastructure
received a grade of " D. " According to the report,
a C is considered " mediocre " while a D is " poor. "
Each category was evaluated on the basis
of capacity, condition, funding, future need,
operation and maintenance, public safety,
resilience, and innovation.
http://www.UCONonline.com
Underground Construction - December 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Underground Construction - December 2022
