By Sue Sturgis
While Dominion Energy and Duke Energy recently canceled the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) that had been planned to carry fracked gas from West Virginia to Virginia and North Carolina, number of large epoxy-coated steel pipes for the project that remain stored improperly outside, posing immediate toxic risks to nearby communities and increasing the risk of explosion if the pipes are eventually used elsewhere: 80,000
Number of storage yards where the pipe is now being stockpiled in Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina, in some cases close to housing developments, public buildings, churches, shopping malls, golf courses, and major water bodies: 6*
Date on which the North Carolina climate justice group NC WARN filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission a report about the pipe-coating corrosion problem written by William Limpert, a longtime environmental regulator in Maryland who used to own property along the ACP’s route in Virginia: 7/2/2020
According to a pipe coating trade association, maximum number of months pipes with this anti-corrosion coating — 3M Scotchkote Fusion Bonded Epoxy 6233 — should be left in the sun without protection from ultraviolet damage, which can break down the material and cause the carcinogenic, mutagenic, and other toxic substances it contains to be released into the environment: 6
Number of months for which ACP pipes have been exposed to sunlight: 48
Year in which the ACP submitted its own commissioned study to FERC claiming the coating does not threaten public health or the environment, conclusions the new report calls into question: 2019
Year by which evidence shows most of the ACP pipe already had degraded coating: 2017
According to 3M, typical rate of the coating’s degradation per year measured in thousandths of an inch, with the degradation happening faster in higher temperatures, higher humidity, and wetter conditions: 0.375 to 1.5
Percent of all adverse pipeline incidents, including explosions, that are caused by pipe corrosion: 18
In 2019 alone, number of pipeline explosions in the U.S. that injured or killed people: at least 8
