The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is inviting public comments on a proposed water obstruction and encroachment permits for a nearly 60 mile ethane pipeline by the Shell Pipeline Company. Royal Dutch Shell is building the $6 billion facility on the Ohio River in Beaver with a view toward using ethane from the Marcellus shale play and processing it into ethylene and, finally, polyethylene for the plastics industry.
The 12-inch pipeline would connect the Shell ethane plant in Beaver County with facilities in other parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio, according to DEP.