Smoke Over Canonsburg From MarkWest Facility, DEP Investigating

Dark grey smoke billowed over an otherwise cloud-spotted blue sky in Canonsburg - but borough officials said nothing was on fire.

The smoke was instead reportedly emanating from a MarkWest facility in Chartiers Township.

A Canon-McMillan Patch reader who lives in the county but works in Greentree said the smoke is visible from her office—and she and others indicated that they had also seen what appeared to be flare in the sky in the area of the facility.

Reached Monday morning, MarkWest spokesman Rob McHale said he was unaware of any incidents at the site but would check with the operations department.

An email sent to the office of state Rep. Jesse White, D-Cecil, from the Department of Environmental Protection indicated that a flame seen over the area was caused by a gas well flaring.

"It began at 5:16 p.m. (Sunday) and was completed at 11:40 p.m. (Sunday). MarkWest notified emergency personnel. Flaring is one of the last steps a driller takes before completing a well for production," the email indicated.

But, reached Monday afternoon, state Sen. Tim Solobay, D-Canonsburg, said that he had heard from a government relations spokesman for MarkWest, who told him that the smoke seen was the result of the company getting a new piece of equipment—known as a de-ethanizer—online at the facility.

A de-ethanizer is defined as something that "separates and removes ethane and sometimes lighter fractions from heavy substances, such as propane, by distillation."

DEP spokesman John Poister Monday afternoon issued this statement:

"We have an inspector on the scene at the Mark West Gas plant. Since yesterday they have had a problem with heavy smoke being emitted from a De-ethanizer that they are trying to put on line. This device—for which they have a DEP permit—take ethane gas out of the natural gas product. In this case, it is new equipment and they are having issues with getting it to operate up to spec. We know of two instances yesterday and two so far today involving the emission of black smoke from the plant.

We are following up on these reports with a further investigation today and if warranted we will take enforcement action."