Dear Editor:
Natural gas is 95% methane and extremely flammable.It is a vapor not a liquid. Methane is colorless, odorless, tasteless and nearly 100% combustible. It is too expensive to add the safety odorants tert-butylthiol and mercaptan to the high speeding vapor adding the rotten egg smell that alerts one to danger.
The rural routes for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline [ACP] and the Mountain Valley Pipeline [MVP] are the only routes possible because of the danger of explosions. Both pipelines are not allowed by federal law to be near highly populated areas and major highways.
Reflect, we don’t matter because we live in the country?
Every 20 miles along the route there would be a cut off valve, automatically shut down magically by computer in Clarksburg, WV, when a leak was detected.
Realize that this leak that is from 12 to 26 feet underground and the methane is expanding into the ground and ground water and air. Might not be your problem actually, for you probably won’t wake up if you are within a mile of the explosion that occurred well after the initial leak.
There is an eight minute response window for methane explosions. Our local volunteer fire departments are neither trained nor have the equipment [space suits] to put out a vapor fire [foam]. There has been absolutely no responsible actions planned for the safety and well being of the citizens affected along the two proposed routes.
There were six pipeline leaks in the USA in January, two in February. Check out wvmatters.com for more facts and the methane-95.blogspot.com to share. Our lives will be in permanent danger.
Sincerely,
Lauren D. Ragland
WVMATTERS
Green Bank