Wheeling, WV Wheeling News-Register story, 3/8/2010
http://www.news-register.net/page/content.detail/id/535302.html?nav=511
SILVER HILL – As Chesapeake Appalachia prepares to drill for Marcellus Shale natural gas in Oglebay Park, Wetzel County resident Raymond Renaud says those living near the proposed drilling sites may get far more than they bargained for.
Renaud, whose residence lies about a mile from a Chesapeake drilling well in the Silver Hill area, isn’t talking about money. He’s talking about the impact he and other members of the Wetzel County Action Group have seen on the surrounding area and residents’ way of life since Chesapeake began drilling there about three years ago.
“Our first concern is the traffic, by far,” said Renaud. “The situation has become quite dangerous.”
The winding roads leading to the drilling sites, he noted, are simply not designed for large trucks to travel safely.
“Our infrastructure does not support the activity. Our roads are such that a tractor-trailer simply cannot maintain his lane around our turns,” Renaud said.
He added that Chesapeake has been cooperative in taking steps to minimize the danger to residents, including putting escort vehicles in front of tractor-trailers and providing security vehicles to observe traffic conditions.
“Without those steps, we would have had countless fatalities,” said Renaud. Still, he estimated three to four accidents per day occur in the Silver Hill area involving gas drilling vehicles “going into a skid, sliding across the center line and off the road.”
Renaud said Brock Ridge and County Road 89, two major access roads for Silver Hill residents, “have taken a major beating” as they’re not designed to bear the load of so many large trucks. He said to Chesapeake’s credit, the company repaved both roads at its own expense – but the repairs haven’t held.
“They finished in the late fall, and Brock Ridge is completely destroyed,” said Renaud. “Their new paving job is gone. It’s a mud road.
“We’re talking about massive road failure. … We’re talking about some pretty massive effects. If your road totally disappears, that’s a pretty massive effect,” he continued. And during the winter, said Renaud, those roads are blocked by oversized vehicles multiple times each day.
“Locals who used to drive Brock Ridge now go out of their way and use other roads,” he said, noting he’s also a member of the Wetzel County Emergency Medical Service. “It’s normally a 14-minute trip, and I was an hour and a half getting to the Silver Hill Fire Department.”
Photo credit: Ed Wade, Wetzel County Action Group
Water pollution also is a concern, Renaud noted. He said in snowy weather, the company lays down “tremendous volumes” of cinders so its trucks can gain traction. When the snow melts, the cinders mix with the water, creating “a lava flow of cinders going into the creeks,” Renaud claims.
“The worst part about this, when it dries up, you’re inhaling tremendous volumes of cinder dust. The summer irritant for us is dust. … People have to power wash their homes,” he said.
Another worry stems from an industry process called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracing,” in which million of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are blasted into each well to break up the tightly compacted shale. Once the rock is fractured, some of the water – estimates range from 15 percent to 40 percent – comes back up the well. When it does, it can be five times saltier than seawater and laden with dissolved solids such as sulfates and chlorides, which conventional sewage and drinking water treatment plants are not equipped to remove.
Chesapeake officials have maintained they “aggressively implement best practices to reduce the possibility of leaks, spills and discharges” with regard to fracing.
Another industry practice, called flaring, occurs when drilling companies burn off surplus combustible vapors.
“They literally burn it out of the stack. Our concern is, we don’t know how toxic that gas is,” said Renaud. “If you live downwind or in a hollow, it’s a gagging odor. … It’s just not very pleasant.”
Renaud believes all these factors are adding up to plummeting property values for landowners near natural gas drilling sites.
“I moved here in the ’70s,” he said. “I moved to get away from the city, to live in a nice rural atmosphere, and now I live in an industrial zone. ”
If you live on a rural road and experience 40 trucks going by your house a day, you would have a hard time selling your house. … These people are now trying to get Chesapeake to buy their property because they can’t recover what they paid for the property. Mortgages outstanding are greater than the value of the property today,” Renaud claimed.
Renaud is calling on government officials to step in and help “exploit the Marcellus Shale in a way that benefits the citizens of Wetzel County and West Virginia.”
“I really don’t fault the gas development companies, because if they went out of their way to satisfy what we’re asking for, it’s going to increase their costs,” he said. “They wouldn’t be able to compete. It’s an industrywide thing. To me, this is a social issue that requires local, state and federal government.”
Please go to the story to see reader comments section
Tags: brine, Chesapeake, damage, flaring, local road, natural gas extraction, property values, roads, Wetzel County, WV
Click anywhere on image to be taken to:
Tags: eminent domain, Pennsylvania, Spectra Energy, Steckman Ridge compressor station
Just what every property owner wants: exhibitionist nitwit trespassers freely accessing their properties via the pipeline easements you seized by eminent domain.
The star of this little film describes it thusly:
“just me riding a honda recon on the millenium pipeline stayed in 2ed gear because i couldent realy shift , i was holding the camra”
Jerry Lobdill, Fort Worth, Texas, writes:
“Public Education”, indeed! We know a lot about that here in Texas. We have the Barnett Shale Energy Education Council (BSEEC) here. Its director is a Ph. D. in economics who made a mint working for Enron before coming to the BS. He also thinks he looks good impersonating Yul Brynner. He is the Grover Norquist of gas drilling here. Funded lavishly by industry (who all have similarly non-technical PR types in top management) he creates the talking points of the week for industry and appears everywhere the media shows up. Yesterday he was on a right-wing radio talk show in the DFW area blowing his blue smoke.
Chesapeake has another PR guy who is the front man for their propaganda machine here. He looks awfully sharp in his $1000 suit yukking it up with City Council members and the City Attorney.
To be fair, these folks may not be aware of the fact that what money men at the very top tell them to say is not true and is laced with many lies that are designed to grow the cancer they bring to the people. We know that these “educators” have no degree in petroleum engineering, geology, chemical engineering, physics, pipeline engineering, environmental science, or any other field that was involved in designing and implementing the methods being used in these shale plays.
But, that’s enough fairness–maybe too much. How do these people sleep at night? Sorry. That presumes that they are not sociopaths. Oh, maybe some of them were brought up to ride for the brand. Deal with cognitive dissonance like a man. If you work for a man, work for him. You know–that kind of thinking.
The fact is, we don’t need any more blue smoke. With the mentality we see them demonstrating here, if you let them drill, you’re finished. It’s that simple.
—————–
In response to article in The Times Leader (Scranton, Pennsylvania)
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Gas_drilling_meeting_draws_lots_of_interest _ 02-05-2010.html
February 5
On WVIA show, members of industry admit not telling public about methods.
By Rory Sweeney
PITTSTON TWP. – Members of the gas-drilling industry acknowledged on Thursday evening a failure to inform the public about their procedures, and the audience at the WVIA call-in show reminded them of that often.
Home water supply after gas drilling, Hickory, PA
Governor Rendell, Governor Paterson, will you join us?
Mr Grannis? Mr. Gruskin? There’s plenty for all.
I live in Hickory, PA… just to update what is going on here, we had our water sent to an independent lab. The amount of toxic chemicals found were off the chart. We had the DEP come to the house (they are a complete joke!). They took a sample of the water months ago and we have had no report come back from them. My landlord called them and they said it was safe to drink. We still have had no report from them. The same day they took the water sample, I took a picture of our water, you won’t believe it.
From time to time our water quits running so I have to reset the pump, this is when this brown oily water flows through our pipes. Believe it or not, the DEP took three vials of this same water for testing. The lab told us not to drink the water, not to use it for cooking and not to use it for bathing. When you can’t [get] help and you can’t get another water supply because too many people have their pockets padded, what are you to do? We take quick, lukewarm showers (pray for me) we do not drink it and don’t use it for cooking, we buy alot of bottled water.
Here is a picture of the brown water, it’s not always brown but it’s always full of toxins!
It’s strange how people are so scared of the swine flu, but when you talk about how the gas drillers poison our water supply they think you’re crazy or they get mad because they think they can become rich off of a deal with a gas company, money is more important to them than their health. Finally, but too late for them, people’s eyes are starting to open to see the truth.
Thank you and keep up the fight, I know I will, the future of our nation’s health depends on it!Hickory, PA resident, to Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, January 13, 2010
‘Petro-pirates’ robbing Alberta’s resources
Flushing justice down the pipeline with Wiebo Ludwig’s arrest
Published January 14, 2010 by Jack Locke in Viewpoint Corey Pierce
. . . . . Alberta is not a democratic province. It is a province controlled by international corporations that see profit and extraction of natural resources as their prime object.
In order to accomplish their objective, the industry will use its abundant resources to do things that are not very nice. Companies will send crews of desperate men to attack the land and lay waste on anyone who gets in their way. These crews may wear uniforms and call themselves Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Or the petro-pirates may hire private security forces to instigate dirty tricks to dissipate legitimate opposition to the destruction of Alberta’s air, water and land.
There is a great amount of opposition in Alberta to what the Progressive Conservative dynasty allows. There are voices in every Alberta city that oppose the wanton poisonings of citizens who happen to live downwind or adjacent to an oil or gas well.
But Oilberta is a one-industry town. It is run by the bosses of EnCana, Shell and other giant corporations. They have infiltrated every aspect of Alberta society: hospitals, schools and the government. They have put a clamp on dissension and discussion in a most disgraceful way.
. . . . .
I have lived 15 km downwind of a gas plant. I can tell you stories about the clouds of toxic chemicals that are emitted in the dark of night, while country children sleep in their beds. I can tell you how the Alberta government watchdog agency prohibited me from speaking at a public hearing over whether to allow Shell Canada to expand its Caroline gas plant. I can tell you how the government of Alberta intercepted my private communications for at least four months in 1999.
Nobody likes explosions of pipelines. Nobody likes to have a seismic crew destroy the ageless aquifers that provide drinking water for cattle and country folk. Nobody likes to have a gas well spewing harmful vapours into the air. But people do like automobiles, and they like to receive unnaturally healthy returns on investment. Ah, there’s the rub.
The situation in Alberta will continue for some time to come. So long as birds are found dead on tarsand tailings ponds, so long as drinking water ignites in the rural homes of Albertans, so long as the government permits these atrocities, not much will change.
All that Ludwig wanted was a decent place to live, free from the dangers of modern life. A simple rural existence, subsistence. You’d think it could be found in remote Hythe, Alta. But obviously not.
The idea of sustainable development, respect of citizens and nature and a just society are words not often heard in Alberta’s highest offices. And even if they are heard, they are meaningless in the current political environment.
. . . . .
As a large, cold nation we should develop a national policy that protects the land for future generations, one that protects our natural resources. Depletion of our life’s blood will only ensure a miserable future for our children.
Even if our governments allow for the exhaustion of our non-renewable resources, they must not prohibit legitimate debate on the subject. The word tyranny should have no place in the Canadian lexicon. Yet, the repeated arrest of Ludwig is a sad example of justice being flushed down the pipeline.
Read full piece at Fast Forward Weekly
Tags: Alberta, Canada, pipelines, police
Have you noticed how often the industry and its sympathizers repeat the refrain that fracking happens so far below the water table from which drinking water is drawn that there’s no danger of frack fluids getting into drinking water? This despite the evidence that stuff really does get around, even if they don’t understand how.
There’s another way drinking water gets contaminated: surface spills. Spilled substances can seep down to groundwater. Or, as at Buckeye Creek, a town’s drinking water can be contaminated by spills that find their way into surface waters.
In late November the Sootypaws website and blog posted an extensive update on the mysterious spill at Buckeye Creek, in Doddridge County, WV.
Make yourself a cup of coffee and settle in for an excellent and thorough account of what is known.
Timeline and links to more
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Tags: Buckeye Creek, Doddridge County, WV
The Associated Press reports:
Gas line explodes in Panhandle
Nov. 5, 2009, 9:29AM
AP
Flames blazed more than 400 feet high above a natural gas line explosion that rocked Bushland, Texas about 1 a.m. today.
BUSHLAND — A natural gas pipeline exploded in the Texas Panhandle on Thursday, shaking homes, melting window blinds and shooting flames hundreds of feet into the air, authorities said. Three people were injured in the blast, which occurred at 1 a.m. near Amarillo, and they were taken to an area hospital with burns, said Potter County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Roger Short. “My home is about 20 miles something away and I could see the flames from my home,” Short said. “You could hear the roar of the flames 20 miles away.” Firefighters were able to contain most of the flames by 5:30 a.m. though small grass fires continued to burn, Short said. Nearby residents were evacuated, and the pipeline’s gas was shut off, Short said. One house was destroyed, and several others were damaged in Bushland, about 15 miles west of Amarillo, he said. “The heat onto the homes, it did a lot of damage. You could see blinds inside the homes that were melted … it was very hot,” Short said. Bushland Middle School principal, Mark Reasor, said about 60 people who were evacuated took shelter at the school for a few hours before returning home before dawn. Gas service had been cut off to nearby homes and Bushland’s schools, officials said. Messages left with the hospital for conditions of those injured were not immediately returned Thursday. A team of investigators was heading to the pipeline, said Robert Newberry, a spokesman for El Paso Natural Gas. El Paso Natural Gas is a subsidiary of Houston-based El Paso Corporation.
Tags: pipelines
A November 4th press release from the PA DEP reveals that while “numerous” people in Dimock have been without good water for, oh, a year, give or take, it takes an agreement process with DEP to force Cabot Oil & Gas to address residents’ need for “replacement” water. It takes an agreement process with DEP to force Cabot Oil & Gas to release to DEP a complete list of people who have reported issues with their water.
DEP says this will provide a “long-term solution.” That seems optimistic. How do you “replace” someone’s own clean, clear, safe spring or well water? And, you have to wonder, eventually, after northeastern PA and New York’s Southern Tier are pincushioned with gas wells, where will the “replacement” water come from? And what will we use to schlep it from hither to thither? Oh, yeah, now I remember: diesel fuel made from foreign oil. Yup, that stuff that natural gas was supposed to free us from depending on.
________________________________
Pennsylvania DEP Reaches Agreement with Cabot to Prevent Gas Migration,
Restore Water Supplies in Dimock Township
Agreement Requires DEP Approval for Well Casing, Cementing
MEADVILLE, Pa., Nov. 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Department of
Environmental Protection and Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. have executed a consent
order and agreement that will provide a long-term solution for migrating gas
that has affected 13 water supplies in Dimock Township, Susquehanna County.
The affected area covers nine square miles around Carter Road.
The consent order and agreement outlines a process that will give DEP more
oversight of Cabot’s new well construction work in the affected area. Prior to
drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or hydro fracking, the company will submit
well casing and cementing plans to DEP. Once DEP provides written approval,
Cabot may proceed.
“The goal of the consent order and agreement is to ensure a long-term
resolution to issues that have emerged in Dimock,” said DEP Northwest Regional
Director Kelly Burch. “The company will focus on the integrity of the wells in
the affected area in an attempt to determine the source of the migrating gas.”
This past week, Cabot has provided an interim solution for all of the homes
where water supplies have been affected. Cabot must develop a plan by March 31
to restore or replace the affected water supplies permanently.
Under the consent order and agreement, Cabot must additionally submit to DEP:
– Information on all parties who have contacted the company about water
quantity or quality issues; and
– A plan that specifically identifies how the company intends to prove the
integrity of the casing and cementing on existing wells and fix
defective casing and cementing by March 31.
If Cabot fails to fix the defective casing and cementing by the March
deadline, the company must plug defective wells or implement another
alternative as approved by DEP.
In addition, Cabot paid a $120,000 civil penalty for violations of the Oil and
Gas Act, the Solid Waste Management Act and the Clean Streams Law.
The consent order and agreement caps a DEP investigation that began early this
year when numerous Dimock area residents reported evidence of natural gas in
their water supplies. DEP inspectors discovered that the well casings on some
of Cabot’s natural gas wells were cemented improperly or insufficiently,
allowing natural gas to migrate to groundwater.
On Sept. 25, following a series of wastewater spills, DEP ordered Cabot to
cease hydro fracking natural gas wells throughout Susquehanna County. The
prohibition was removed after the company completed a number of important
engineering and safety tasks.
Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. is a Delaware-based company with a mailing address in
Pittsburgh.
For more information on oil and gas wells, visit www.depweb@state.pa.us,
keyword: Oil and gas.
See it November 19, 7pm at the Bouck Auditorium, SUNY Cobleskill. The Student Environmental Action Coalition presents: A Snowmobile for George. “A rambunctious road trip reveals the toll that environmental deregulation has had on the lives of ordinary people.”
Tags: film
Reported by PhillyIMC – Philadelphia Independent Media Center
Residents report Toxic Clouds of Gas near a MarkWest Compressor Station
Nastassja Noell | 10.23.2009
The Marcellus Shale is said to be the third largest natural gas field in the world, but the gas is trapped as small pockets inside of rock. During the past 5 years, as rising prices have made unconventional gas sources profitable for the industry, a frenzy of drilling rigs have entered the Northeastern US. Natural gas drilling infrastructure requires CNG compressor stations, which are known for having incidents such as explosions or high pressure releases.
Reporting from Binghamton, NY: On Tuesday, residents near the Nancy Stewart Compressor station in Mt. Pleasant Township, PA reported an incident involving natural gas occurring at around 1:15pm. Raw natural gas was escaping from a pipeline with such force that it caused nearby homes to shake. The high pressure gas was not being burned and was released for over an hour, causing a loud sustained noise to be heard throughout the area. “It sounded like a rocket taking off,” said Martin O’Lear, who lives about a quarter mile from the compressor station.
“My eyes started to burn, and then I started to cough which lasted through the afternoon and night” said Mr O’Lear, who lives uphill from the compressor station. “I’ve lived here for 34 years and never before had my eyes start to burn when I stepped outside.”
MarkWest Liberty and Resources LLC, could not be reached for comment.
The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) stated that the incident was normal operating procedure. “At this point what we understand is that they were conducting some maintenance and repair on the pipeline near to the station,” Helen Humphreys, the community relations coordinator for the DEP, told Indymedia on Wednesday afternoon. “We are continuing to investigate to see if there is more to the story.”
The DEP reported that they are currently performing air tests in the areas surrounding the MarkWest compressor station; air tests were stated to have been performed the day after the incident occurred. Test results may be available next week.
Raw natural gas may include the known carcinogen benzene. Residents stated that the fumes were strong, similar to kerosene oil, but did not smell like sulfur – which would indicate the presence of hydrogen sulfide in the gas. Washington Hospital and the local veterinarian clinic reported that no patients have exhibited symptoms of hydrogen sulfide poisoning as of Wednesday afternoon.
CNG compressor stations use engines to push the gas down the pipeline and are a major component of the modern natural gas infrastructure. Many CNG compressor stations also refine the natural gas coming out of the well head by removing the water and other contaminants. Incidents involving compressor stations are common in natural gas drilling areas.
“We [in Louisiana and Texas] frequently have compressor stations that have either had an explosion or an over-pressurization” said Wilma Subra, a chemist who founded the Oil and Gas Accountability Project. On Tuesday, Dr. Subra spoke at length about air pollution associated with CNG facilities on WHRW Binghamton’s radio show “The Point.”
On August 23 in Clearville, PA, a compressor station operated by Spectra had an emergency shutdown which caused surrounding fields to be covered with an oily substance as large amounts of natural gas were vented into the atmosphere.
MarkWest owns and operates at least 9 compressor stations in Washington County, there are at least two MarkWest compressors stations in Mt. Pleasant.
If residents smell an egg sulfur smell near a gas pipeline or gas well, this may be an indication of hydrogen sulfide, a known toxin. Please call your local Emergency Management Agency (EMA).
http://www.phillyimc.org/en/residents-report-toxic-clouds-gas-near-markwest-compressor-station
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From the Chesapeake Bay Foundation blog:
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My Road Trip to Frackville, Heart of the Drilling Boom
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Published at http://www.windturbinesyndrome.com/?p=4264
September 26, 2009
Dear Dr. Pierpont,
I would like to thank you for making time to read this. Also, for your excellent work on WTS. It is so similar to VAD Vibroacoustic Disease caused by low frequency noise. Initially identified in the aeronautical field, by military pilots and aircrew. I am sure you are aware of Vieques, Puerto Rico studies. The Navy bought the end of this small island for artillery practice. Poor people lived at the other end of the island. They have since suffered high cancer rates, heart problems, internal problems, and low birth weights.
I live in Texas, the state with the most gas wells (95,000+). The gas from the wells is piped to compressor stations. Our county has 130 or more compressor stations. The low frequency noise travels up to 5 miles radius, thereby overlapping.
Our director, Charles Morgan, has been diagnosed with VAD by a Dr. Wright in Indiana. Feel so bad for him. Sometimes he drives 150 miles just to sleep. His eardrums have burst twice. He has very bad headaches and burning in his veins.
We have tried all means to get to get Noise Law (1982) given to states re-enacted, to no avail. We have tried to get school districts to have a noise assessment. We have been to Austin to see Representatives and Senators. We are not trying to stop big oil & gas, just get them to give up some of those billions in profit and do the responsible thing by enclosing, or using noise abatement, on these compressor stations. Yes, even the rural ones. To protect us and the wildlife.
Could I be so bold to ask if you could do a paper or write something on this subject you know so much about? Please help us! I wear earphones and take [redacted] medicine, and can’t afford to move away.
Enclosed please find our brochure. Thank you again for your time.
Sincerely
Sharon Ward, Secretary
Fairfield, TX 75840
.
What kind of system allows an industry to run amok and ruin peoples’ lives and health?
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Tags: compressor station, noise pollution, Texas, VAD, vibroacousic disease
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/article/20091031/NEWS01/91031008
Two teens killed in gas pipeline explosion
Two teenagers died in an early morning explosion at a gas pipeline in Carnes.
Wade White, 18, and Devon Byrd, 16, died at site of the explosion, which happened around 4 a.m. today near White’s home on Phillip White Road.
Byrd was a sophomore at Forrest County Agricultural High School and White had just graduated.
“They were two wonderful kids,” said Wanda White, Wade’s mother. “We just can’t understand what happened. My babies are gone.”
White said she and her husband were awakened by a noise early in the morning. After discovering the boys weren’t in the house, they discovered the fire just a stone’s throw from their home.
Remember this?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/19/world/asia/19mud.html?_r=1&ref=world
Well, never let it be said that the energy industries won’t find a way to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear:
At http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,501061211-1565620,00.html
It’s tough to put a positive spin on the massive eruption of mud that has displaced more than 12,000 people and buried a large swath of eastern Java in roiling, putrid sludge. But PT Lapindo Brantas, the Indonesian mining company widely blamed for releasing the reservoir of pressurized mud following a drilling accident last May, has come up with a novel form of damage control: sponsoring a sinetron, or Indonesian soap opera, on Surabaya TV station JTV. The 13-part series, Gali Lubang, Tutup Lubang (Digging a Hole, Filling a Hole), is a love story set among refugees left homeless by the mud volcano. “We wanted to show a real story about human interest,” says JTV executive producer Awi Setiawan, who adds that Lapindo paid about $3,300 per episode.It may cost Lapindo far more to dig itself out of this particular corporate hole, however. On Nov. 22 at least 11 people were killed by a gas pipeline explosion caused when a dike built to contain the mud flow collapsed—the latest in a string of public debacles for the company, which is part of a conglomerate controlled by the family of Aburizal Bakrie, the country’s influential Welfare Minister. In the past two months, Lapindo’s corporate parent, PT Energi Mega Persada, has unsuccessfully attempted to unload the beleaguered mining business twice: first, to another Bakrie Group subsidiary for the princely sum of $2; then to the British Virgin Islands-based investment firm Freehold Group. The latter deal collapsed last week after a public outcry, with many Indonesians fearing that the sale might prefigure an attempt by a new owner to declare Lapindo bankrupt, potentially leaving the government to pay for a disaster that one environmental group estimates has already caused $3.6 billion in damage.
Thus far, the soap opera hasn’t been enough to dispel that worry, or polish Lapindo’s befouled image. But with the mud still erupting at a rate of 120,000 cu m per day and all efforts to stanch the flow failing, there may be plenty of time for a sequel.
Tags: Brantas, deaths, Indonesia, mud spill, pipelines
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