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
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.
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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.
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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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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
…of the 17 families [whose water has been affected] I am aware of they are not all seniors-some are younger with children. They are not all within 1000 feet of the Gesford site which was the site where the gas company contaminated the aquifer with methane gas which did not come from the Marcellus but from gas above it- isotopic testing was done. The activities of the gas company have altered the water quality in our valley and above. Today I have bubbles. Others have a film on their dishes and their animals are extremely thirsty all the time. Some families get water from the gas company most buy and haul water in. The gas company has stated that unless DEP orders them to provide water they do not have to. Also DEP does not have an accurate record of who is not drinking their water and why. Water wells are private and not regulated by DEP. So unless the water well owner calls them with a complaint they are unaware of any problems. My question is how can the “on going investigation” be accurate if all the information is not compiled. The missing info could be the key.
The gas migration issue is still being investigated-the headlines were misleading stating no fracking fluids found in Dimock water supply….the violation was that the company contaminated the aquifer-fact-they did.
As far as the “promises” we were all promised great compensation- “you’ll see $90,000 a year on as little as 5 acres! or “you won’t be living in this trailer next year. You’ll have a nice new house.” Nothing was ever disclosed to most of us concerning the nature and scope of the industrialization of our community – ONE well was mentioned with the infamous little Christmas tree pipe to mark its location. Drive around our neighborhood- you will see tall vents on water wells, jugs of water behind homes, and disillusioned folks inside the same homes they had 3 years ago. The dwindling royalty checks will soon equal the amount of money some of us spend on buying water…
Tags: Cabot, contamination, DEP, Dimock, Pennsylvania, water wells
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“Downstream Strategies, the company I used to analyze the water forwarded the WVDEP report to me and they said that all of their questions were not answered from the WVDEP which they requested under the FOIA. The just sent a second FOIA request to get the info they originally asked. Sen. Rockefeller’s office out of Fairmont called me last Thursday (I sent a letter and pictures to him in D.C.) and said they wanted to make sure the Governor had responded to me (he did) and that I had received the answers I had been seeking. After I found out they had to do a 2nd FOIA request I called them back and left a message, suggesting a phone call from them to James Martin would be helpful.
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“The creek cleaning consisted of the drilling company spraying the rocks and gunk downstream into cachment areas and then being vacuumed up. My concern was the high orange marks in the sandy soil going up the banks and being imbedded into the soil. I don’t know if they addressed that or not, they may not have even seen that. Also they had pulled the used filters out of the creek and had left them on the soil for some time also. Those were recently picked up though. I am coming back from Colorado and will be there Wednesday for a week and will spend some time going up and down the creek looking closely. I guess the lack of rain and low water has hindered the process. My new beef is that if a drilling company, the ones who produce this toxic waste, will be cleaning up their own mess, they really need to know what they are doing and have a plan in place. According the report from officer Scranage, per the DEP report I just read, he found that a new crew was on the job the second day and was going about it backwards. If the water is low and there is a lack of rain to help move the water down into cachment areas, they need to be doing something else, rather than waiting for rain. For the first 2 weeks the creek languished with oil covering the water and smelling acrid. I believe they improperly ‘limed the area’ on our property. When I questioned the inspectors and also asked James Martin about all the lime put down along the stream banks, changing the ph of the water, he only said ‘there won’t be any more liming’.
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“Thanks again for the support.”
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Louanne Fatora
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Tags: accident, Buckeye Creek, contamination, deaths, Doddridge County, hydraulic fracturing, spill, wildlife, WV
Drilling Contamination Spreads as Polluter’s Bankruptcy Looms
Joint Release: Powder River Basin Resource Council * EARTHWORKS
Clark, WY, 10/01 — Clark Resource Council has learned that Windsor Energy Group, LLC recently put its assets up for bid. At a public meeting in September Windsor representatives explained that benzene is also above regulatory levels east of Line Creek where Windsor had guaranteed it would not go. Assuming no buyer is found, the logical next step is bankruptcy: leaving the community’s groundwater, and cleanup of the pollution, in doubt.
“Every thing Industry told us would not happen, has,” says Deb Thomas local resident and organizer for the Clark Resource Council. “Before the first operators of this project bankrupted, we were told that drilling was safe and no toxic chemicals were used. Since Windsor bought the development, we’ve had years of leaking waste pits, illegal dumping of drilling fluids, inadequate engineering, and finally, the blow out, which left us with contaminated drinking water aquifers. Windsor said the contamination plume wouldn’t move into private water wells or jump the Creek, and it did both. Now we fear that Windsor will join their predecessors by bankrupting and simply walk away from their mess.”
Windsor Energy Group’s Crosby 25-3 gas well blew out in the small community of Clark, Wyoming three years ago. Contamination plumes have continued to move since then, and how clean up will occur remains undecided. The blowout resulted in a 10 million cubic foot plume of groundwater contamination or more than 100 Olympic-size swimming pools worth.
The plume has contaminated drinking water aquifers, 2 private water wells and natural springs with benzene, diesel range organics, and an extensive list of toxic chemicals. The plume is also putting more than 20 downstream drinking water wells at risk. As much as 300,000 gallons of contaminated water has dumped daily into the Line Creek drainage, which then flows into the Clark Fork of the Yellowstone River.
Clark Resource Council, Powder River Basin Resource Council and Earthworks’ Oil and Gas Accountability Project emphasize that the experience in Clark shows that State agencies are not adequately equipped to address the impacts and risks associated with drilling projects.
“I want other communities who are facing development to understand that they’re at risk from the oil and gas industry’s cavalier regard for the environment and human health, ” says impacted resident, Dick Bilodeau. “When oil and gas companies screw up, the results are neither simple, nor cheap, to clean up. We need adequate federal oversight to protect areas under development, and complete disclosure so that impacted people can determine what health problems they’re facing now and will be in the future.”
In Wyoming the State’s Voluntary Remediation Program allows polluters like Windsor to remediate contamination and then be released from liability. With Windsor Energy Group’s bankruptcy looming, Bilodeau and other community members fear that the extent of the contamination will never be adequately assessed and clean up will never happen.
The news of contamination crossing under Line Creek and Windsor’s asset sale comes just after the EPA released it’s investigative finding on water contamination in Pavillion, Wy, which residents fear is associated with EnCana’s deep gas operations.
“These cases demonstrate the clear and present danger posed by drilling operations under current regulation,” says Bruce Baizel, staff attorney for EARTHWORKS’ Oil & Gas Accountability Project. “They clearly show the urgent need for incremental federal regulation, like the FRAC Act now before Congress, and they also show that the FRAC Act only begins to address the need for stronger oversight.”
http://www.earthworksaction.org/PR_ClarkWindsor.cfm
Tags: bankruptcy, benzene, Clark, groundwater, water wells, Windsor Energy Group, WY
- Dimock, PA, approximately Thursday, 9/3:
A blowout occurs during drilling under a road and wetland for a gas pipeline, resulting in a large spill of drilling mud. Witnesses report a greasy, gray film running down a water body. Local people who hear about the blowout have difficulty getting the straight story, despite persistently asking questions of DEP and drilling company representatives. - Dimock, PA, Wednesday, 9/16, afternoon:
“At least a thousand” gallons of frack fluid escape from the Heitsman2 well site and run down into Stevens Creek. According to the fracturing subcontractor, Halliburton, the fluid contains carcinogenic substances. - Dimock, PA, Wednesday, 9/16, late evening:
A much larger spill of the same fluid occurs. Reports say the total volume of both spills the released frack fluids is as much as 8500 gallons. - Dimock, PA, Tuesday, 9/22
Another spill of the same fluid occurs. This one is of “hundreds of gallons.”
DEP reports fish swimming erratically and kills of small aquatic life.
On 9/22, after the third spill in a week’s time, DEP cites Cabot with 5 violations.
Following DEP’s action, the fish are still dead.
On 9/25, DEP orders Cabot to stop all hydraulic fracturing activities in Susquehanna County.
Reports indicate that, subsequent to DEP’s order, the fish are still dead.
. . . .
Why do regulating agencies pretend that physics pays any attention to regulations?
Why do they pretend that their disciplinary action is effective, when no disciplinary action can reverse the damage once it’s done?
On 9/30, the NYS DEC will issue its draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement, the next step in paving the way for New York to enjoy the benefits of industrial-scale gas drilling with horizontal drilling / high-volume hydraulic fracturing in low-permeability gas reservoirs.
The fish in our brooks and rivers are, for the time being, still alive. But it’s only a matter of time and physics – not regulation – before the same fate befalls them.
See:
http://www.timesleader.com/news/ap?articleID=2868477
http://www.wayneindependent.com/news/x1699593258/Third-natural-gas-chemical-spill-reported
http://www.wayneindependent.com/news/x1128380990/DEP-notes-5-violations-for-gas-drilling-spill
http://www.wnep.com/sns-ap-pa–gasdrilling-spill,0,7426305.story
http://www.ahs2.dep.state.pa.us/newsreleases/default.asp?ID=5676&varQueryType=Detail
http://www.ahs2.dep.state.pa.us/newsreleases/default.asp?ID=5678&varQueryType=Detail
Tags: contamination, dead, DEP, Dimock, Halliburton, hydraulic fracturing, PA, SGEIS, spill, wildlife
Copied with permission from http://sootypaws.livejournal.com/
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Buckeye Creek
In late August the pit holding fracture flowback “water” for natural gas well 47-017-05815 was breached near Sherwood in Doddridge County (the north central part of the state). The pit was constructed within feet of Buckeye Creek (the state has no requirement for a minimum distance between ground or surface water for pits — see our Pits post) so the “water,” at least 2500 gallons, went into the creek.
The red gelled liquid has had a negative effect on wildlife. People were told “it was ‘just oil’ and hadn’t killed any fish and okay to be in” — kids swim and play in the Creek. Already, before the spill, a decline in fish and mussels had been noted by residents and some of the fish had raised nodules on the skin.
Here are some photos:
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Buckeye Creek was a good place to fish for bass and muskie. The contamination is plainly visible from fracture flowback chemicals and formation material (the color may be due to high iron) from a Marcellus well.
Gels are created by chemicals which can include diesel fuel or ethylene glycol, neither of which is good to swim in. A similar fracture gel release in Pennsylvania caused a fish kill. |
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A high chloride concentration is a feature of fracture flowback but we don’t think chloride killed this muskrat near its den.
High chloride will kill fish and other aquatic organisms. |
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Two ducks were unable to fly. |
Louanne (who furnished these photos and information) has a letter she wrote to Governor Manchin available online. The last I’ve heard, the gunk has been skimmed from the Creek but is lying in piles beside the Creek.
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Please visit Sootypaws at http://sootypaws.livejournal.com/
Tags: accident, Buckeye Creek, contamination, deaths, Doddridge County, hydraulic fracturing, spill, wildlife, WV
An op-ed published in the New York Times:
Recovering From Wyoming’s Energy Bender
By ALEXANDRA FULLER
Published: April 20, 2008
Wilson, Wyo.
FOR all its Old West mythology, Wyoming is and always will be a mining state, more roughneck than cowboy. Frankly, in a land of long winters and high winds, there aren’t a lot of other economic choices. And a powerful oil lobby reminds us with Orwellian regularity that we owe everything to oil and gas taxes, bullying those who disagree. (In February, a committee of the Wyoming Legislature rejected a spending increase for the University of Wyoming’s Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment and Natural Resources after institute scientists dared to raise concerns about water produced in coal-bed methane wells.) Even so, the oilier side of our nature has never threatened to unhorse the cowboy entirely, not even now, when the pressure to develop every last seam of energy is end-of-administration intense.
Since 1996, oil and gas companies have leased from the federal government the mineral rights to nearly 27 million acres of land in the Rocky Mountain West, and Wyoming has shouldered the greatest share of that development. In the last decade, oil companies have leased a fifth to a quarter of the state’s land — 15.5 million acres administered by the Bureau of Land Management, as well of hundreds of thousands of acres of national forest and private land. If Wyoming were a country, it would be one of the largest coal-producing nations in the world, and its output of natural gas is among the greatest in American history. The argument has never been that we shouldn’t provide energy. But is that all we’re good for? And what, if anything, should we leave for future generations? These are global questions posed on a local level.
Jonah Basin, WY, 40 acre spacing
During his second term, President Bill Clinton, under pressure from a Republican Congress, leased out just as much of Wyoming’s land as the current administration has to date. The difference was that the Clinton administration enforced laws encouraging the Bureau of Land Management to “manage, protect and improve” our public lands while allowing for other values like recreation, grazing and wildlife habitat. The Bush administration, on the other hand, has lifted every possible impediment to industry.
For example, oil and gas companies are exempt from provisions of the Clean Water Act that require construction activities to reduce polluted runoff as well as from provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act that regulate underground injection of chemicals. The industry is also generously permitted to drill on critical wildlife winter range (close to 90 percent of all their requests to drill on winter range have been granted). Oil rigs are drilling for natural gas on the banks of the New Fork River (the headwaters of the Colorado) and in the foothills of the Wyoming Range. Well sites in many parts of the southern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem are so closely spaced that, with roads, gas pipelines and compressor stations, the development is continuous.
Meantime, drug treatment centers and domestic abuse shelters across the state have declared themselves overwhelmed and, in spite of what the oil companies keep telling us, we’re far from happy. Wyoming has the uneasy distinction of having one of the country’s highest suicide rates. We top the national death toll on the job with 16.8 deaths per 100,000 workers. Wyoming is responsible for by far the highest percentage of deaths on the job in the interior West’s oil and gas industry. At public meetings organized by the Bureau of Land Management to announce the development of Wyoming’s public lands, oil company executives initially argued to a largely receptive audience that a new boom would be good for the state’s economy. Lately, executives have been telling increasingly unhappy communities that domestic drilling is our moral duty, an alternative to sending more soldiers to war. They imply that anything less than full support for the oil companies is un-American. But a bumper sticker on a pick-up truck hints at the truth: “The war is over. Halliburton won.”
Meanwhile, cattle and sheep ranchers and hunting and tourist guides have found themselves wondering what has happened to their Wyoming. Wildlife suffers as oil leases overlap with habitat: 14.1 million acres of sage grouse habitat, 3.2 million acres of pronghorn winter habitat, 2.9 million acres of mule deer winter habitat and 1.1 million acres of elk winter habitat. Even most of the state’s wild horse herd management areas (the only Wyoming lands on which wild horses may legally roam) are destined for oil development.
Eighty-five water wells in the southern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem have recently tested positive for hydrocarbons, indicating that toxic chemicals from drilling have leaked into the water table. Air pollution in the same area was so great this winter that vulnerable residents were warned not to venture outside. Oil companies argued that strong winds would rectify the problem.
They were right to predict a wind of change, but it came in the form of an unprecedented experiment in the art of listening. In the last few months, Terry Tempest Williams, a writer in residence at the University of Wyoming, has taken her students on the road to conduct what she calls “weather reports” in small communities. Addressing packed rooms, Ms. Williams turns the microphone over to the people of Wyoming — a stoical populace whose habitual stance against something they don’t like is a tight lip. Astonishingly, they have opened up, voicing their concerns over the rapidity and scale of the oil and gas development.
“One day, I fear I will wake up and all that will be left of Wyoming is a hole in the ground,” one resident of the southern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem said.
Oil executives have pushed back. One oilman, State Senator Kit Jennings, took the microphone in Casper and declared that Ms. Williams had demonized the oil companies. He rejected her contention in a local newspaper article that the energy boom had helped drive up the use of crystal methamphetamine in the region and announced that he had demanded that she be fired from the university for her criticism of the industry.
Oil and gas are accustomed to dominating the debate. But Ms. Williams’s forums have created an opportunity for grass-roots rebuttal. Residents, who have so far been cowed by the enormous tax contributions that energy companies make to the state’s coffers, are upholding values not counted in dollars. “My hope is that with our backs against the wall we will finally speak up,” another weather reports participant said.
Maybe Wyomingites, justifiably proud of their roughneck heritage and anxious to keep the oil field work, have realized that this boom isn’t going away soon, and they’d like a little of Wyoming left when the oil companies move back to Texas. “We’re Mother Nature’s bodyguards,” a billboard sponsored by Sportsmen for the Wyoming Range warns. “And yes, we are heavily armed.”
Alexandra Fuller is the author of the forthcoming “The Legend of Colton H. Bryant.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/opinion/20fuller.html
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Tags: contaminated, contamination, drug use, job-related mortality, methamphetamine, water, water wells, Wyoming
WTOV9.com reports:
1 Killed, 4 Wounded In Gas Well Accident
Video: http://www.wtov9.com/news/20837210/detail.html
“One person was killed and four others injured after a gas leak at a well in Guernsey County.
“Officials said the men were working on a gas rig, preparing to cap the well, when they were overtaken by a poisonous hydrogen-sulfide gas mixture.
“The accident happened near Londonderry at the intersection of Skull Fork Road and Ginger Road. A spokesperson for Antrim Volunteer Fire Department said one man went down and the others tried to rescue him.
“Three victims were transported to Cambridge Hospital for treatment. One person was transported by medical helicopter to another Ohio hospital.
“Officials said one of the victims is in critical condition.
“The gas the men encountered is commonly referred to as “poison gas” or “sour gas” and is common in natural gas drilling.
“The men were wearing the proper meters to check for gas, officials said.
“‘It happens all over. It’s something they’re trained to deal with but, sometimes it happens so fast that their protective clothing doesn’t warn them quick enough and they’re unable to deal with it,’ said Antrim Volunteer Fire Department Chief Don Warnock.
“The men are employed for Chipco Oil and Gas Well Services. Company representatives were at the site Thursday but had no comment.”
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See this training video about hydrogen sulfide:
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See also: http://www.wtov9.com/news/20856751/detail.html : “Officials Release Name of Worker Killed By Gas Leak”
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Tags: accident, death, gas drilling, H2S, hydrogen sulfide, OH, Ohio
… and what if the well had ignited?
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports:
Trucks and other equipment worth about $8 million were destroyed late Tuesday in an explosive fire at a natural gas drilling site northwest of Joshua, officials said.
The fire started in one of the eight Kenworth trucks parked at the site operated by Chesapeake Energy in the 3200 block of County Road 913, said Gerald Mohr, emergency management coordinator for Johnson County.
Mohr said no one was hurt, but the flames were intense.
“It was a pretty good fire that generated a good bit of heat,” he said. “We had quite a few tankers hauling water.”
No natural gas contributed to the fire, which was reported at about 11:15 p.m., said Lt. Tim Jones, Johnson County Sheriff’s spokesman.
“It was all equipment and no gas,” he said. “There wasn’t a blowout or anything like that.”
Flames, however, spread to the other trucks, which were parked very close to each other, Mohr said.
The vehicles were destroyed along with pumps, blenders and other equipment used in the process of hydraulic fracturing of a gas well.
Members from several Johnson County fire departments battled flames for about four hours at the drilling site. The area is about a half-mile west of the intersection of Farm Road 1902 and CR 913, which is also called Caddo School Road.
Firefighters came from Joshua, Briar Oaks, Mid North, Godley, Bono, Burleson, Cleburne and Tarrant County, Jones said.
A lot of them were needed to haul water and operate long-distance nozzles and aerial ladder trucks, Mohr said.
He said that the blaze had to be fought at a distance to protect the firefighters, but not because it was a natural gas drilling site.
“There were trucks in there with diesel tanks on them,” he said. “All those trucks have two or three fuel tanks on them. “We had a couple explosions.”
The fire’s cause was being investigated Wednesday, said Jerri Robbins, Chesapeake spokeswoman.
“A contractor was finishing hydraulic fracturing operations when one of the blender trucks caught on fire,” she said.
She added that “it is likely that tires on the trucks made a sound like an explosion as they were burning, not the diesel tanks.”
The equipment was operated by Denton-based Liberty Pressure Pumping which. Jones said, reported that the estimated cost of the equipment lost was $8,310,000.
Officials for that company could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
http://www.star-telegram.com/news/story/1581059.html
Tags: Chesapeake, explosion, fire, gas well, hydraulic fracturing
Letter published today in the Cleveland Sun Star Courier:
by James W. Cowden, Guest Columnist
Monday August 31, 2009, 9:24 AM
This is being sent as a result of the several letters on oil and gas drilling that have appeared in your pages over the past month.
The other paper has also published material including a column on the financial benefits to Ohio.
What has not been publicized has been the impact of oil and gas drilling on the natural resources and the public health of Ohio and its citizens.
I have been a consultant on environmental and resource issues for over 30 years. I have worked with Ohio EPA and the Division of Oil and Gas to curb and control the problems associated with the industry for a number of those years.
I have written ordinances for many cities in Northeast Ohio to allow them to control drilling in their communities. I have written a technical guide book for Ohio EPA. I have testified in court cases against drillers and their haphazard waste disposal practices, their drilling proposals, and the lack of adequate regulation.
The development of oil and gas wells is inherently a dangerous activity. Although there are few deaths and injuries reported, they do occur.
For instance, two men were killed in Marion County last October by an explosion of a crude oil storage tank.
The industry has too little concern for public health, for our groundwater resources, and for facts.
Natural gas is a highly compressible, highly expansible mixture of hydrocarbons, with approximate percentages of Methane-80%, Ethane-7%, Propane-6%, Butane-2.5%, Pentane-3% and Isobutane 1.5%.
In addition, natural gas may contain quantities of nitrogen, helium, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and water vapor. In Pennsylvania, methane related to the natural gas industry has contaminated water wells in at least seven counties since 2004.
In one case, methane was detected in water sampled over 15 square miles. In another, a methane leak led to an explosion that killed a couple and their 17 month old grandson. These cases were linked to newly drilled, active natural gas wells.
Essentially, the methane migration was linked to improper construction of gas wells that allowed gas to seep out of the well structures and into water supplies.
An adequate inspection system would have prevented these accidents from happening. Since the passage of HB 278 by our feckless state legislature, neither regulation nor inspection has been carried out adequately by the state.
Groundwater constitutes the most important mineral resource annually extracted from beneath the earth’s surface.
Water is an economic resource for Ohio and preservation is an economic necessity. Groundwater monitoring in the state is inadequate to detect water quality problems.
A product of oil and gas well drilling is brine.
What’s so bad about brines?
Brines are too concentrated, they have too much sodium and there is far too much of it, Clinton brines have 175,000-210,000 parts per million of sodium.
For comparison, ocean brines have only 18,000-35,000 ppm of sodium.
The USPHS standard at one time was a maximum of 250 ppm. One volume of Clinton brine can raise 800 volumes of fresh water above the 250 ppm limit.
There is no adequate program to address lack of disposal capacity. I do not have data beyond the 1980’s but I have no reason to believe the ratios have changed.
At that time, there were 56,000 producing wells with an average brine production of 184,000 barrels with an estimated injection well capacity of 36,000 barrels. The excess was 148,000 barrels.
That is roughly 6.2 million gallons, which if dispersed could make 4.8 billion gallons of fresh water unsuitable for use.
I tried to get legislation passed to prohibit brine in surface or groundwater in such quantity as to cause:
1. Taste and odor problems
2. Exceedance of safe drinking water standards or limit of 100 ppm of sodium
3. Damage or injury to public health or safety to include damage to the environment beyond the immediate site of drilling and storage of oil and gas.
4. This would include exposure to benzene, ethyl benzene, alkyl benzene, toluene, xylene, naphthalene, and 2,4 dimethyl-phenol that exceed drinking water standards. Also exposure to concentrations of silver, arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, mercury, lead and zinc that exceed drinking water standards.
This came from “Toxicological Analysis of Ohio Brine Constituents and Their Potential Impact on Human Health.” By Dr. Gerald Poje.
Regulation 1501-9-9-02 at one time required all reasonable means to safeguard against hazards to life, limb and property. It should require notification of local fire officials of fire, explosion, major gas leaks, water and air pollution and training on how to cope.
There are a number of recommendations I would make to amend state law and regulations and require compliance.
First would be to abolish the subservience of the legislature to the oil and gas industry and think about the public they supposedly serve.
There is a need to redefine the ground surface water system and restructure the approach from correction to prevention.
But unless the Division of Mineral Resources is mandated to protect human health and drinking water and is given the funds and staff to accomplish this, both public health and the economy will continue to suffer.
__________________________________
James W. Cowden is a resident of Brecksville. He has been a researcher, educator, coordinator and consultant at Kent State University and Hiram College and has written extensively and provided expert testimony on a range of topics including water resources planning, pollution control, public health and public involvement in policy development.
http://www.cleveland.com/sunstarcourier/index.ssf/2009/08/brecksville_resident_weighs_in.html
Tags: brine, contamination, DMR, explosion, gas leak, groundwater, Marcellus, natural gas, OH, regulators
The Shreveport Times reports:
Recent incidents raise issues on drilling, environment
By Alisa Stingley
astingley@gannett.com
Blanche Jefferson lives in Shreveport, but her worries are all south of here.
Her granddaughter and five great-grandchildren live south of Spring Ridge and close to where 17 cows died after ingesting liquid that spilled from a nearby natural gas drilling rig site into a pasture.
“I’m mostly concerned … stuff might get in the water,” said Jefferson, 79, adding that the family depends on well water.
The environmental impact of drilling has her so concerned that she’s rethinking whether she wants to lease mineral rights from property she owns in that area to an energy company in the future.
“Money is nothing if something happened to them,” she says of the children.
. . . . . Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality is reviewing several area incidents:
April: Seventeen cows died in a south Caddo Parish pasture after ingesting a liquid found pooled in the pasture, a spill from a nearby Chesapeake Energy drilling site. No reports on what killed the cows have been made public.
May: Fifteen Naborton families evacuated when a Chesapeake well east of Mansfield began blowing natural gas into the air. The air quality was monitored, and a Chesapeake spokesman said there was no threat to public safety or the environment. According to DEQ files on the case, 50 million standard cubic feet of methane gas — the main component of natural gas — was discharged after a casing valve failed.
DEQ doesn’t require notification of the release of 1 million standard cubic feet but does require notification of more than 2.5 million in a planned release. The Naborton release, however, was unplanned. Otis Randle, manager of the DEQ regional office here, said 50 million is “a lot of gas.” But he said people would not suffer health problems unless they breathed in a concentrated amount.
The main risk to nearby residents is the potential for explosion, and methane causes an adverse impact on the planet’s ozone layer, since methane is a greenhouse gas. The DEQ report on the Naborton well said the release did not have an off-site environmental impact. (un-naturalgas.org note: guess the atmosphere doesn’t count)
July: A natural gas well blowout occurred in north Sabine Parish, about six miles east of Converse. No residents were evacuated. The well was owned by Chesapeake, whose spokesman said there was no threat to the public or environment, and air quality was being monitored as a precaution. DEQ’s regional office in Shreveport investigated the blowout, finding it “pretty routine,” said Randle. No details on the amount released were available.
There are environmental concerns beyond reported incidents too:
Ground and surface water issues have arisen, particularly in south Caddo and DeSoto parishes, which heavily depend on the fragile Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer. On the last day of June, about 1,000 customers of South DeSoto Water System had no water while workers replaced a pump. Officials wondered publicly if a natural gas drilling operation just 500 feet from their water well was making their equipment work harder to pump.
. . . . .
Many of the Web sites of the major competitors in the Haynesville Shale tout their dedication to preserving the environment.
Chesapeake’s page notes that it is a key contributor to The Nature Conservancy, and “our objective is to leave each site in as good, if not better, condition than when we started drilling.”
The U.S. Department of Interior recognized Devon Energy with a national award for its outstanding environmental and safety performance in the Gulf of Mexico.
And EnCana’s page notes: “We are looking at opportunities to recycle water and this option will become more viable as the play is further developed.”
While the proliferation of drilling in the Haynesville Shale is making environmental issues more visible and prominent, such concerns didn’t just arrive with the shale. Two cases from DEQ files:
In June, a Carthage, Texas, man pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of illegally discharging a pollutant into Louisiana waters after ordering a truck driver to discharge well treatment fluid into a Natchitoches Parish creek in April 2006. The man was sentenced to 24 months probation and agreed to pay a $5,000 criminal fine.
“Unfortunately, economic incentives drive environmental crime,” said Jeffrey T. Nolan, DEQ’s criminal investigations division manager.
In August 2006, DEQ responded to a landowner’s complaint that a well site where Winchester Energy was operating near Frierson had released at least four barrels of saltwater from a fracturing tank. According to DEQ files, the company had not contacted DEQ about the spill, which violates regulations. Also, the landowner said he asked Winchester to clean up the site but it refused. A few days later, DEQ noticed a cleanup in progress at the site, where vegetation had been killed in an area about 20 feet by 100 feet. DEQ in April this year deemed the site OK and did not take any action against Winchester.
For complete article, visit:
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20090809/NEWS01/908090333/1060
Tags: cattle, cows, DEQ, explosion, family, greenhouse gas, groundwater, hydraulic fracturing, Louisiana, methane, money
PA DEP Investigating Natural Gas Well Leak In Lycoming County
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa., July 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is investigating a natural gas well leak at an East Resources well in McNett Township, Lycoming County.
“East Resources is cooperating fully with our investigation, and has already implemented measures to stop the leak,” said DEP Northcentral Regional Director Robert Yowell. “DEP staff will continue to work closely with East Resources and local emergency responders to ensure the safety of nearby residents.”
DEP was alerted to the problem last week by a citizen who reported discoloration of water in a tributary to Lycoming Creek and in a nearby spring. DEP staff investigated on July 24 what was then a suspected sediment problem in the creek.
On Monday, DEP received a report of possible natural gas bubbling from the tributary. DEP staff collected water samples from the spring and the tributary. Those samples are being analyzed for methane and other parameters in the department’s laboratory in Harrisburg. DEP staff confirmed the bubbling in two Lycoming Creek tributaries earlier today.
East Resources personnel monitored 18 private water wells in the nearby area that same day, and are providing water to four homes. They also monitored methane levels in the homes.
East Resources has three wells in the area, which are in the Oriskaney [sic] geologic formation, and not in the Marcellus Shale area. Two of the wells are drilled and completed, but not yet in service due to the lack of gathering lines in the area. The third well was previously plugged and abandoned.
East Resources began flaring the Delciotto #2 well on Monday to reduce pressure from the natural gas, and is currently working to flare the other two wells. The company is investigating the possibility that a casing failure in part of the Delciotto #2 well caused the natural gas leak. The company is attempting to seal off the leak with drilling mud to stop the natural gas from escaping.
CONTACT: Daniel T. Spadoni (570) 327-3659
SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
Tags: contamination, DEP, gas drilling, groundwater, leak, Lycoming County, Marcellus, McNett Township, natural gas, PA, water wells
“DEP holds Schreiner responsible for compromising the water supplies of 7 households. But there are more – maybe more like 15.
“One neighbor lost water in October – had only about 7ft of water above pump until February when got new well. New well required filtration. Even with filtration system, the water is bad – currently looking for better filtration system.
“One neighbor has been out of his home for 10 weeks now because of high levels of methane in well – see the video of the vapors catching fire:
Click here>> Video: Flammable water
“DEP told him not to light a match in his bathroom or start a bonfire in his yard. Just got new well dug last week- waiting to see about water quality.
“Several homes now require methane detectors – we know at least one has gone off twice.
“One neighbor lost water a couple of weeks ago and was filling his own tote to supply water to his home. It sounded today like they have just begun drilling him another well- we’ll see about its quality.
“One neighbor has depleted quality and quantity of spring because a road was built through her spring. DEP’s response was that it was not much of a spring anyway. The spring has supplied this home with water for at least 50 years and is the only water supply that this neighbor has.
“One of my neighbors had disgusting black slime that DEP would never test- they would run the water until all of the black stuff was out before they tested it. The neighbor had an independent lab test it, and it turned out to be iron bacteria.
“Some neighbors have complained of rashes and excessively dry skin and hair.
“The majority of these wells have existed for over 40 years, and have never had these troubles. Our water was pristine- no filter required. Friends and family used to bottle our water to take home with them.
“So far it does not seem that the oil company wants to take much responsibility. They have provided us with bottled water for drinking temporarily, and drilled a few wells that are most likely still contaminated. They have about another 60 wells they want to drill.
“We are almost sure that the site of the propane tank and access road was wetland. It met almost all of the criteria that DEP has listed for wetlands (mottled soil, indicator species, presence of water…..). When we called DEP out, they said that there were areas that could be wetland, but a full study would have to be done to delineate it. We expected them to do the study – next thing we know, all of the trees are down and construction had begun.”
Tags: Bradford Township, DEP, McKean County, methane, natural gas, PA, Pennsylvania, Schreiner
http://www.wtrf.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=59425
Five Natural Gas Workers Hospitalized After Exposure to Acid
NEW MARTINSVILLE, WV – According to WTRF-TV, as of May 20, five men were under observation in Wetzel County Hospital after being exposed to what Chesapeake Energy called “battery acid.”
The station reported “Chesapeake Energy says there was no fire at the well site, just ‘an incident in which they were exposed to a material in the drilling process.’”
From the story:
“Wetzel County Hospital was set up with lights, sirens and a decontamination unit in the parking lot.
“At 10:15 a.m., the hospital was given a heads-up that they had five patients coming in, who had been exposed to commercial battery acid from a methane well drilling accident.
“‘They were pumping the material into the well site and apparently it splashed back onto the individuals and it also vaporized, creating the problem that we had here today,’ said Chief Larry Couch with the New Martinsville Fire Department.
“‘We were able to set up a decontamination unit, bring in additional medical staff, and actually we had five doctors on hand at the time when the patients arrived,’ said George Couch, Wetzel County Hospital CEO. “I think it was chemical exposure. I couldn’t assess any serious chemical burns. Appeared to be some respiratory distress.”
“New Martinsville Police Chief Tim Cecil had to hold back curious onlookers….
. . . . .
“According to Hospital CEO George Couch, all five employees are admitted for observation and are all in fair condition.
“Chesapeake Energy says the well site has been secured and is no danger to the public.
“Several agencies are reportedly investigating.”
Here’s what one commenter had to say about the story:
“I’ve been a professional chemist for twenty-eight years, with a degree from West Virginia University, and this would be the first instance I’ve encountered where “commercial battery acid” (AKA sulfuric acid) could produce the kinds of vapors cited in this story.
“I believe that Chesapeake Energy should have referred to the material by its proper name: hydrochloric acid, which is very commonly used in the well development process.
“Why did they choose to lie about this?”
Tags: accidents, gas drilling, hydraulic fracturing, injury, natural gas, workers
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