Virtual Pipelines: A Dangerous New Way to Transport Fracked Gas by Truck

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For several years a mysterious fleet of tractor trailers loaded with natural gas cylinders has been crisscrossing U.S. roads, and in the dark early morning hours on Sunday, March 3, one drove off a highway near Cobleskill, New York, careened down an embankment, and flipped over. The driver had fallen asleep, according to a New York State police accident report, the truck was demolished, and โ€œseveral tanks ruptured and were leakingโ€ natural gas. Five nearby homes wereย evacuated.

For retired New York Department of Transportation commercial vehicle inspector Ron Barton, an alarm bell he had been ringing for months suddenly grew even more urgent. โ€œThis is a catastrophe waiting to happen,โ€ saysย Barton.

The trucks are part of a little-known system of moving natural gas called โ€œvirtualย pipelines.โ€

What Are Virtualย Pipelines?

The practice involves loading cylinders filled with compressed natural gas (CNG) onto specially designed trucks and hauling the gas between existing pipelines or to areas not connected to a natural gas distribution system, such as rural towns, and remote factories, universities andย hospitals.

Many environmental groups appear unaware of the topic, virtual pipelines have received virtually no national media attention, and some regulatory agencies seem unsure how to handleย them.

โ€œThe concept,โ€ wrote Pennsylvania energy expert John Siggins in a 2016 report, โ€œwas born out of the lack of pipeline infrastructure in the New England area,โ€ and a natural gas boom in nearby Pennsylvaniaโ€™s Marcellus shale play that lowered gas prices. โ€œAs the shale energy revolution took off,โ€ wrote Siggins, โ€œa system for off-pipeline natural gas deliveries became ofย interest.โ€

The 2016 report lists nine virtual pipeline companies, operating from Texas to Maine. Two of the most prominent companies are Xpress Natural Gas (XNG), based in Andover, Massachusetts, and Vermont-based NGย Advantage.

Xpress Natural Gas trucks filling up with compressed natural gas at a facility in Forest Lake, Pennsylvania.
Xpress Natural Gas trucks filling up with compressed natural gas at a facility in Forest Lake, Pennsylvania.ย Credit: ยฉ 2017 William Huston/Terraย Vigilate

โ€œI think itโ€™s fair to say that itโ€™s a very, very small part of the overall natural gas distribution system in the U.S. โ€” much, much less than 1 percent of total natural gas used in the country,โ€ said Kathryn Dyl, lead modeler on natural gas with the Energy Informationย Administration.

So small, her agency hasnโ€™t tabbed up data on just how many companies are involved, where they are operating, or precisely what percentage of U.S. natural gas is being distributed in this manner. Virtual pipelines are โ€œlikely to increase,โ€ said Dyl, โ€œbut certainly not to an appreciable level and will never be the preferredย option.โ€

Where Are Virtual Pipelines Movingย Gas?

Vermontโ€™s Middlebury College as well as a nearby dairy and a hard cider company were served gas by an NG Advantage virtual pipeline from 2015 until 2018, when Vermont Gas completed a pipeline to the area. Presently XNG is supplying gas via virtual pipeline from the Maritimes & Northeast pipeline, in eastern Maine, to a pair of rural medical centers and a large potatoย farm.

โ€œRather than taking two or three years to develop a pipeline, we can be there in two or three months,โ€ says CEO and co-founder John Nahill, in a promotional video on the companyโ€™sย website.

But the route that has ignited Ron Barton and others to action is in central New York, where XNG has installed a virtual pipeline in the same region where the Constitution pipeline, which faced a surge of activism and was denied a key permit by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in 2016, would have run. The virtual pipeline goes from the gas-rich Marcellus shale fields of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, to an interstate pipeline in north-central New York called theย Iroquois.

โ€œIroquois Gas Transmission is not waiting for the Constitution pipeline to get built โ€” theyโ€™ve found a way around it,โ€ stated a September 2017 article on the far-right industry news site Marcellus Drilling News. โ€œThat is โ€ฆ a virtual pipeline is now feeding an interstate pipeline in New York State with fracked gas fromย Pennsylvania.โ€


Time lapse video of Quantum Fuel Systems’ virtual pipeline trailers being produced in its Lake Forest, California, manufacturingย facility.

To those in Otsego County, home to a series of picturesque lakes, Cooperstown โ€” location of the well-visited Baseball Hall of Fame โ€” and countless scenic farms, it appears as if the company has constructed an unregulated means of shipping gas born from fracking, a fuel whose extraction their own governor hasย banned.

โ€œItโ€™s slipping through the cracks and the risks are real,โ€ said Keith Schue, an electrical engineer and member of Otsego 2000, a seasoned local environmental group that is protesting theย trucks.

โ€œThey say itโ€™s a virtual pipeline and it is,โ€ said Schue. โ€œThere are so many of these trucks barreling down the road, literally a convoy of trucks going up from Pennsylvania to Newย York.โ€

XNG has not replied toย questions.

Underย Pressure

Virtual pipeline trucks, such as those operated by XNG and NG Advantage, pull gas out of pipelines at special compression facilities that compress the gas to 3600 pounds per square inch โ€” more than two and half times the pressure of a typical interstate gas pipeline โ€” and inject it into state-of-the-art cylinders that are then loaded onto the virtual pipelineย trucks.

Two different companies have received special permits from the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, or PHMSA, to employ these cylinders, California-based Quantum Fuel Systems LLC and Hexagon Lincoln LLC, out of Lincoln, Nebraska. The special permits state the cylinders must have โ€œdemonstrated the โ€ฆ ability to protect the tubes from damage due to front, rear, or side impact, andย rollover.โ€

Ron Barton believes the repeated leaking of gas in recent rollover crashes involving virtual pipelines trucks means the trucks may currently be operating unlawfully, in violation of these special permits issued by PHMSA.

A police report for a July 2018 crash in Exeter, New York, involving an XNG virtual pipeline truck stated that natural gas leaked from the truck. Gas leaked again in the Cobleskill crash in March, which involved a truck operated by a North Canton, Ohio-based trucking company called KAG Leasing โ€” KAG has not responded to questions on where they were hauling gas from orย to.

โ€œWhat is going to happen if there is a big roll-over in a populated area and there is a spark?โ€ said Barton. โ€œNow youโ€™ve got a flame orย fire.โ€

Cleaning up after XNG truck rolled over in Albany County, New York
Cleaning up after an Xpress Natural Gas truck carrying compressed natural gas crashed in Albany County, New York, on June 2, 2018. Credit: Courtesy of William Huston/Terraย Vigilate

The veteran inspector provides three possible pathways that would lead to a truck exploding. Some virtual pipeline trucks employ a special exhaust system, he says, and extreme heat from that could ignite leaking natural gas. The truckโ€™s brakes can get so extraordinarily hot, reaching temperatures of 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, that leaking gas would self-ignite. A severe crash could also generate aย spark.

โ€œThe fact of the matter is,โ€ Barton told DeSmog, โ€œPipeline and Hazardous Materials [PHMSA] should issue a cease and desist until the manufacturer can prove that they can meet those requirements of that special permit.โ€ And, he added, โ€œthey should be doing anย investigation.โ€

When asked for clarification on whether or not the virtual pipeline trucks were indeed violating the special permit, PHMSA spokesperson Darius Kirkwood said he could not answer theย question.

โ€œGenerally speaking,โ€ Kirkwood explained, โ€œif someone violates provisions of a special permit, the special permit could very easily be rescinded. That can happen and doesย happen

Kirkwood later contacted me to say that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, a branch of the Department of Transportation that regulates trucking, โ€œis indeed investigating the incidents.โ€ When questioned on the status of the investigation, Duane DeBruyne, Deputy Director of Media Relations for that agency, said, โ€œWe are in receipt of your inquiry and are researching responses.โ€ The agency has yet to followย up.

Mounting Risks for Kids andย Climate

On an early spring afternoon with sweeping drifts of snow still covering the central New York landscape, Otsego 2000 president Nicole Dillingham drove along the route of XNGโ€™s virtual pipeline. Earlier this year, the company moved the route away from a particularly narrow road that ran just beside a row of homes on the edge of a largeย lake.

But the destination of XNGโ€™s virtual pipeline remains the Iroquois pipeline and the companyโ€™s trucks still ply her countyโ€™s rural roads. โ€œThere are no shoulders, thereโ€™s no room for error here,โ€ she said. โ€œWe have 500,000 visitors every summer, so those trucks are sharing the road with our tourist visitors, and young children.โ€ Near the base of a famously steep incline called Vickerman Hill, she spotted an XNG truck, coming down into the town of Mohawk on state route 28. At the same moment, waiting for the truck to pass so it could turn across 28, was a school bus. โ€œThe parents with children on that bus have no idea,โ€ said Dillingham. โ€œPeople donโ€™t know how dangerous thisย is.โ€

XNG truck and school bus in New York
Near the base of a famously steep incline called Vickerman Hill, an Xpress Natural Gasย truck comes down into the town of Mohawk on state route 28, where a school bus waits for the truck to pass.ย โ€‹โ€‹โ€‹โ€‹Credit: Justinย Nobel

Records with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration indicate XNG has had nine crashes in New York since September 2017. The most frustrating part of the situation for residents like Dillingham is that her state officials have ducked theย issue.

โ€œPSC [Public Service Commission] does not have jurisdiction to investigate or impose requirements on CNG providers,โ€ Kathleen Burgess, Secretary of the New York State Public Service Commission, wrote to Dillingham in July 2017. A letter that same month from William Leonard, Director of the Office of Modal Safety & Security with New York State Department of Transportation, indicated the situation was out of their hands and should be handled by the U.S. Department ofย Transportation.

A New York Department of Transportation official said as much in email replies to my questions. Repeated emails to Governor Cuomoโ€™s office on virtual pipelines have goneย unanswered.

Above it all looms the specter of climate change. Reports by the United Nations, the U.S. government, and numerous other institutions have painted a dire picture of what will happen to the planet and our civilization if a full kick away from fossil fuels isnโ€™t swiftlyย implemented.

โ€œWe are absolutely condemning our children and grandchildren to a very unhappy future if we donโ€™t stop burning fossil fuels,โ€ said Schue, of Otsegoย 2000.

One of his biggest concerns with virtual pipelines is that their establishment helps prime a community or region for additional natural gas development. โ€œIn delivering gas to institutions you get communities hooked on gas, and that becomes the case to build the pipeline,โ€ Schue explained. โ€œIt becomes a viciousย cycle.โ€

Meanwhile, for retired New York Department of Transportation commercial vehicle inspector and whistle-blower Ron Barton, the calculus on virtual pipelines is much more simple. โ€œThese containers,โ€ he said, โ€œshould not be on theย road.โ€

Main image:ย First responders at the scene where an Xpress Natural Gas truck carrying compressed natural gas rolled over in Hartwick, New York, on September 12, 2017. Credit: Courtesy of William Huston/Terraย Vigilate

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Justin Nobel writes on issues of science and the environment for Rolling Stone. His first book,ย PETROLEUM-238: Big Oilโ€™s Dangerous Secret and the Grassroots Fight to Stop It, tells the story of a seven-year investigation into how the U.S. oil and gas industry has avoided environmental regulations and created a dangerous and radioactive public health crisis.

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