RES Delivers for Shell Chemical’s Southwest PA Ethane Cracker

First Pennsylvania Resource, LLC, the RES operating company in Pennsylvania, has supplied the wetland and stream offsets needed to gain approval of federal and state permits for Shell Chemical’s planned ethane cracker, a world-scale petrochemical complex in the US Appalachian region that would upgrade locally-produced ethane from shale gas production. The project site is located in Potter and Center Townships in Beaver County near Monaca, Pennsylvania.

Wetland and stream mitigation for this project will replace the ecological functions and values potentially lost at the impact site including groundwater recharge/discharge, flood flow alteration, wildlife habitat, and/or sediment retention. RES delivers these wetland and stream offsets by restoring of stream and riparian buffer areas along headwater tributaries to the South Fork of Cross Creek. These areas are designated as high-quality habitat for warm water fish. The restoration project will result in improved channel stability, increased floodplain connectivity and interaction, re-established PFO floodplain wetland acreage, and increased aquatic and terrestrial habitat. From a watershed perspective, the restoration project will offset impacts to a non-attaining low-quality resource by restoring degraded streams and re- establishing wetlands within the degraded areas of this high quality warm water fishery stream system where restoration is proposed.

RES began to work closely with Shell and their environmental consultants beginning with Shell’s optioning of the former Horsehead zinc smelter and processing site and throughout the multi-year permitting process. This collaborative effort resulted in a seamless process for mitigation site qualification, mitigation plan development and mitigation solution delivery.