Company says Kanawha County gas storage and pipeline project facilities in service

Last year, the Houston-based company told the commission it was moving forward with its plan to construct and operate two new injection and withdrawal wells, and 586 feet of related pipeline, as well as abandon more than 5,000 feet of pipeline in the Coco B storage field near Pinch.

Last month, the commission granted a Columbia request to place the facilities into service. The agency noted in its approval letter that Columbia had fully restored project well pad areas and that restoration of the remaining pipeline portion of the project was “proceeding satisfactorily.� FERC approval of the project came in February 2023.

In a Nov. 4 letter to the commission, Columbia included project photos that it said showed restoration progressing near a well pad while work on well lines and pipeline installation moved forward in the background.

In a letter last year, Columbia told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which approved the project in February, that “bona fide construction activities� began Dec. 18, 2023.

The project was planned within 50 feet of 10 residences.

Thousands of feet of pipeline consigned to abandonment

Filings indicated the wells replacement project included:

• Plugging and abandoning 4,927 feet of pipeline in place
• Abandoning 251 feet of pipeline by removal
• Plugging and abandoning four injection and withdrawal wells

Columbia said it aimed to protect the storage field’s integrity by abandoning the four existing wells because of their integrity and use the new wells to maintain storage field deliverability. Abandoning the old wells would reduce physical location risk in line with a federal Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration rule on well storage, according to a FERC environmental assessment for the project.

Ten residences, five nonresidential structures and one inactive commercial structure were within 50 feet of proposed project construction areas. Columbia prepared a residential construction plan for each of the three residences within 25 feet of those areas.

The residences are near the Upper Pinch Estates road north of Upper Pinch Road above Pinch Creek, just west of the First Baptist Church of Pinch.

Construction was flagged as emissions source

Estimated construction emissions were projected at roughly 43 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent and 171 tons of particulate matter in 2023, according to the assessment.

The project was slated to cross eight bodies of water, including Pinch Creek, and unnamed tributaries to the creek and Potato Fork.

FERC staff predicted that significant flooding effects aren’t expected, because of the relatively small area within the Special Flood Hazard Area to be permanently affected.

TC Energy acquired the Columbia Gas Transmission system in 2016.