Underground Infrastructure - August 2023 - 8

NEWSLINE LATEST INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENTS
3M Reaches $10.3 Billion
Settlement over Water
Contamination with
'Forever Chemicals'
Chemical manufacturer 3M Co. will pay
at least $10.3 billion to settle lawsuits over
contamination of many U.S. public drinking
water systems with potentially harmful
compounds used in fi refi ghting foam and a host
of consumer products, the company said.
The deal would compensate water providers
for pollution with per- and polyfl uorinated
substances, known collectively as PFAS.
Described as " forever chemicals " because they
don't degrade naturally in the environment,
PFAS have been linked to a variety of health
problems, including liver and immune-system
damage and some cancers.
The compounds have been detected at
varying levels in drinking water around the nation.
The Environmental Protection Agency in March
proposed strict limits on two common types,
PFOA and PFOS, and said it wanted to regulate
four others. Water providers would be responsible
for monitoring their systems for the chemicals.
The agreement would settle a case that was
scheduled for trial earlier this month involving
a claim by Stuart, Fla., one of about 300
communities that have fi led similar suits against
companies that produced fi refi ghting foam or
the PFAS it contained.
The settlement will be paid over 13 years and
could reach as high as $12.5 billion, depending
on how many public water systems detect PFAS
during testing that EPA has required in the next
three years, said Dallas-based attorney Scott
Summy, one of the lead attorneys for those
suing 3M and other manufacturers.
Mountain Valley Pipeline Urges
Supreme Court to Lift Stays,
Resume Construction
Mountain Valley Pipeline has submitted a request
to the U.S. Supreme Court to lift stays issued by a
federal court that had stopped work on a section
of its West Virginia-to-Virginia natural gas pipeline.
On July 10, a Virginia appeals court blocked
work on the fi nal short stretch of the 303-mile
(488-km) pipeline that would have passed
through the Jeff erson National Forest, which
is controlled by the federal government.
Construction on that segment should cease
while the court reviews the project's federal
approvals, the court ruled with environmentalists
8 AUGUST 2023 | UndergroundInfrastructure.com
who were opposed to the project.
Conservative Democratic Senator Joe
Manchin of West Virginia has long backed
approval of the Mountain Valley project. In the
debt ceiling agreement reached in May between
President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and Speaker
of the House Kevin McCarthy, a Republican,
approval of Mountain Valley was also included.
The pipeline is seen to be crucial for releasing
greater gas supplies from Appalachia, the
country's largest shale gas producing zone,
according to Reuters. The Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC) ruled in June
that construction of the project could restart.
The debt agreement passed by Congress
stated that the pipeline was in the national
interest and " expressly stripped all courts " of
jurisdiction to review decisions made by federal
agencies regarding its approval, according to
Mountain Valley, who claimed that the appellate
court lacked jurisdiction to halt construction.
Equitrans Midstream, the principal partner
in developing the pipe, together with NextEra
Energy, Consolidated Edison, AltaGas, and RGC
Resources control portions of Mountain Valley.
OSHA Cites Chicago Company
for Fatal Trench Collapse
Federal workplace safety regulators have cited
a suburban Chicago plumbing company for a
trench collapse last year in which a worker died.
Nikodem Zarembra, 27, of Elmwood Park,
was buried for more than an hour and stopped
breathing while in the trench in Buff alo Grove
on Dec. 12, authorities said. He died later at a
hospital. He was trying to fi x a residential water
line at the time of the collapse.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) inspectors determined his employer,
Rooter Solutions Inc. of Burr Ridge, failed to
install cave-in protection in the trench and did
not require head protection, the agency said.
The trench was about 13 ft. long, 9 ft. wide
and 8 ft. deep, OSHA said. Protective systems are
required for trenches that are deeper than 5 ft.
The company was issued a citation for one
willful violation and one serious violation
with proposed penalties of nearly $36,000,
WFLD-TV reported.
Oregon City Pursues
Water Pipeline Upgrades for
Reliability During Earthquakes
The Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB)
in Oregon has announced the start of work
on a series of pipeline enhancement projects
to improve system reliability in the event of
earthquakes.
One of the largest projects will be the
construction of transmission lines from newly
constructed earthquake-resistant storage tanks.
Welded steel will be used for the transmission
main, while ductile iron will be utilized for
smaller water pipes and is anticipated to have
a lifespan of more than 100 years, according
to EWEB. Multiple anti-corrosion barriers will
increase durability, it said.
EWEB said it will upgrade a half-mile section of
six-inch cast iron pipe to eight-inch ductile iron
pipe and replace a 14-mile section of 12-inch cast
iron pipeline with a new 12-inch ductile iron pipe.
A six-inch to eight-inch main line improvement
and pipeline loops will also improve water fl ow
for fi refi ghting operations, the agency said.
Consumers Energy Proposes
New Buried Power Line Program
to Strengthen Michigan Grid
Consumers Energy is proposing a targeted
undergrounding pilot program pending approval
from the Michigan Public Service Commission.
The program is meant to help the company
better understand how to bury power lines in
a cost-eff ective way to strengthen Michigan's
electric grid and reduce outages.
The pilot will study real-world resiliency
improvements that result from burying power
lines, and how those improvements compare with
other approaches to improving electric service for
nearly 2 million Michigan homes and businesses.
Based on results from other states and energy
providers that have moved overhead lines
underground, Consumers Energy estimates it
can improve resiliency 90 percent along circuits
where lines are buried.
" Historically, the costs to bury lines have
been too expensive, but we have driven down
the cost per mile to be equivalent to aboveground
hardening costs, " said Greg Salisbury,
Consumers Energy's vice president of Electric
Distribution Engineering. " This pilot will help us
learn even more about how to bury lines in ways
that keep costs as low as possible, allowing us to
bury additional lines in the future. "
Consumers Energy said it aims to place 400
miles of line underground annually. Today,
about 15 percent of Consumers Energy lines are
underground, and most are in subdivisions and
areas with high population density.
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Underground Infrastructure - August 2023

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