State Officials Let Drilling Resume After Spill At Radnor Lake

Piedmont says it will mark sites to watch with GPS and look at their geology, soil and and evidence of seepage. In its request to resume drilling it says people will check on such sites at least twice a day. Map via Piedmont / BDY Natural Sciences

State officials have given Piedmont Natural Gas the go-ahead to resume drilling for a new pipeline under Radnor Lake State Park, in south Nashville.  Earlier this month Piedmont halted a horizontal drill there, after 300 gallons of wet clay lubricant seeped out into Otter Creek.

Radnor Lake is in a neighborhood of posh houses, and it took Piedmont some heavy lifting to convince people it could run a pipeline under the pristine park without sullying it.

Now the company says they’ll add more safeguards to keep mud from spilling when it’s pumped underground to lubricate the drill.  And more people will walk above the drill’s underground path to watch for leaks.

A couple endangered plant species were found downstream from the last spill, but a state expert doubts they’ll be affected.