Disposal Halted at Well After New Quake in Ohio

NYT--An official in Ohio said on Sunday that the underground disposal of wastewater from natural-gas drilling operations would remain halted in the Youngstown area until scientists could analyze data from the most recent of a string of earthquakes there.

The latest quake, the 11th since mid-March, occurred Saturday afternoon and with a magnitude of 4.0 was the strongest yet. Like the others, it was centered near a well that has been used for the disposal of millions of gallons of brine and other waste liquids produced at natural-gas wells, mostly in Pennsylvania.

Read the remainder of the article...

Planning Commission approves fracking water treatment plant

DAILY REVIEW---  "North Towanda Township--The Bradford County Planning Commission on Tuesday approved construction of Hydro Recovery-Bradford LP's proposed plant in Standing Stone Township, which would treat and recycle various kinds of residual waste from gas drilling sites, including flow-back water from fracking.

The approval is conditioned on Hydro Recovery addressing 12 issues raised by an engineering firm hired by the county. The commission gave Hydro Recovery 90 days to meet the conditions, which include providing a long-term maintenance plan for on-site storm water management control measures, providing a map showing the location of current and planned utility lines, and providing copies of approvals from other government agencies.

The plant would process up to 300,000 gallons per day of residual wastes from gas well sites, such as flowback water from hydraulic fracturing, said David Hedrick, a project manager with Hydro Recovery."

Read the remainder of the article...

The truck was "incorrectly labeled." Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Today the Wellsboro Gazette's Facebook page featured the following:

"Trucks like this one were spreading what looked like water on River Road, Ward Township, on July 15. The trucks, marked “residual waste,” were keeping the dust down between sites where Talisman Energy USA was drilling gas wells and withdrawing water. After investigating their operations, Talisman discovered the truck was incorrectly labeled. Talisman’s policy is to spread only fresh water for dust control, said Director of Communications Natalie Cox and the equipment on the truck would only be appropriate for fresh water, not brine water. Talisman said the truck was spreading fresh water and they will label their trucks, including those used by subcontractors, accurately in the future. The Department of Environmental Protection does allow brine to be spread on dirt roads, but not brine from the Marcellus Shale where Talisman is drilling."

Report by Jason Przybycien.  Go to www.facebook.com/wellsboro.gazette to see photo and read other Gazette news.

Top House Democrat outraged over admissions in today's NYTimes.

The front page story in today's New York Times caught the eye--and the ire--of Massachusetts Representative Ed Markey who promptly fired off a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson demanding immediate action.  As referenced in our previous post, the NYTimes investigative report discloses information from internal reports and studies by not only the EPA, but the drilling industry itself.  Read all about it--including portions of Markey's letter, by clicking HERE.  To read the previous post from this blog--which includes the link to the New York Times article--click HERE.

NYT uncovers confidential gas industry, EPA reports.

The New York Times published a lengthy story online yesterday (appearing on the front page of today's newspaper) detailing just how inadequate the existing regulations are when it comes to fracking for natural gas.  Of particular note: the revelation in a gas industry report that "treated" fracking water released back into our streams and rivers still contains amounts of radioactivity that cannot be diluted.  Seems like a no-brainer to me but it's the first time I've heard an industry insider admit it.  Of course the admission takes place in a confidential report that is only now seeing the light of day.  Furthermore, EPA scientists express concern in their own study--also never made public--that water treatment plants are incapable of removing certain contaminants and are in all likelihood violating the law.

Here's an excerpt:

"...While the existence of the toxic wastes has been reported, thousands of internal documents obtained by The New York Times from the Environmental Protection Agency, state regulators and drillers show that the dangers to the environment and health are greater than previously understood.

The documents reveal that the wastewater, which is sometimes hauled to sewage plants not designed to treat it and then discharged into rivers that supply drinking water, contains radioactivity at levels higher than previously known, and far higher than the level that federal regulators say is safe for these treatment plants to handle.

The Times also found never-reported studies by the E.P.A. and a confidential study by the drilling industry that all concluded that radioactivity in drilling waste cannot be fully diluted in rivers and other waterways...."

To read the entire article in full, click HERE.

"A catastrophe waiting to happen"

LinkTV, an independent media orgranization whose mission is to "engage, inform and inspire viewers to become involved in the world," recently posted an in-depth investigation into Marcellus drilling activity--based in large part in Bradford County, PA.  The report seems to have its basis in the fact that natural gas drilling is planned for large parts of Europe.  It's an excellent piece of investigative journalism--I urge you to take the time to watch!

Should you have a right to know?

The American Gas Association, Gas Processors Association and Chesapeake Energy Corporation have all filed suit against the EPA that would undermine the public's right-to-know laws.  At issue: inventorying and disclosure requirements for all oil and gas discharges into the environment.  Click HERE to read the recent press release issued by the Environmental Defense Fund.

Gas drilling isn't as "clean" as previously thought

Really?  Anyone who lives in an area where they're drilling has known this since Day 1.  The industry has spun a marvelous tale of how natural gas is the second coming--describing it as "clean" and even "green."  If I see another commercial about it I just may throw my tv out the window!  Natural gas might burn cleanER than oil but now there is finally evidence showing that when taking into account the entire lifecycle from extraction through burning, the benefits of natural gas are negligible at best.  Click HERE to read the latest chapter in Abraham Lustgarten's provocative series on the natural gas industry for ProPublica: "Climate Benefits of Natural Gas May Be Overstated."

So instead of investing billions of dollars and destroying millions of acres, decimating property values (not to mention any tourism industry that might have existed pre-drilling), ruining wells, and risking the health and well-being of people, wildlife, and pets....WHY aren't those billions of dollars being invested in something that does none of the above: solar power, wind power or something yet to be discovered?  Last night's State of the Union address touched upon how the United States needs to out-educate, out-innovate, and out-build; we can't expect to lead the pack again if our focus is on the fossil fuels of last century.

  

Catching up; deep thoughts

Dear Friends,

I realize it's been several weeks since my last post.  First it was due to a tropical vacation, then the holidays hit, and before I knew it, it was mid-January.  My apologies for seeming to drop into a black hole.  Lately, however, I've struggled with what to post.

I started this blog a little more than a year ago, when gas drilling operations in my area began to overwhelm the landscape.  As I watched what was happening around my beloved hometown, I wrestled to find a way to deal with my feelings of helplessness.  To my dismay, many area residents seemed resigned to what was happening.  After a few months of gas drilling on my mind (and in my hearing, in my sights....), it occurred to me that I didn't have to feel helpless--there *was* something I could do.

I put to use my skills as a librarian and created this site to be a sort of "one stop shop" for people like me--people who were concerned about what was happening, wanted to educate themselves about natural gas drilling and network with similar-minded folks.  My goal was to reach the widest possible audience and to make the information easily accessible.  I spent a considerable amount of time researching and identifying authoritative local, state and national resources.  When I started this process, I didn't know beans about fracking, the current means by which natural gas is extracted.  Now, I know more than I wish I did.

I had also never built a blog or linked it to other social media sites, so I had to educate myself on that too.  I created links to other topical blogs and made it easy for visitors to find and contact their legislators or locate the latest information in their newspapers (you don't even have to do the search--click on the link and it's done for you!)

But over the course of the past year as the number of blog/Facebook fans grew, so did the number of drill  sites in my area.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm not against gas drilling.  Many people I know are finally out of debt or at the very least, aren't living paycheck to paycheck since they leased their mineral rights or allowed compressor stations to be built on their property.  I'm thankful for that.  But I'm increasingly frightened at the cost of this new-found wealth.

I'm for responsible gas extraction; unfortunately fracking is not a responsible means by which to extract gas.  It's quicker and cheaper.  It also negates the entire marketing campaign by which gas companies insist natural gas is a "cleaner, greener" fuel.  I can assure anyone who believes that piece of fiction that it's just that:  fiction.  Anyone who doubts it need only live next to a drill site...or two.  Or three.

The cost of this new-found wealth is steep and the repercussions far-reaching.  As drilling activity increased, more of our roads were destroyed by the constant stream of heavy equipment and trucks that come with it; state police stings netted hundreds and hundreds of gas truck violations.  More leaks, explosions and "accidents" occurred.  A resident was murdered by a gas company worker.  Jobs were promised; instead hotels were booked solid and new ones built to accomodate workers from out of state.  Hunters were warned they could be stopped and questioned if they inadvertently stepped on land under development by gas companies.  Even our state parks were not immune to the onslaught of the drills.  Then came the recent state elections.  Incredibly, PA residents elected a new governor and other legislators who were "gas friendly" and had received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations.  Either people voted against their own self interests...or apathy prevented them from voting at all.

Perhaps I was fooling myself into thinking that I could actually make a difference.  As I look at what's happening around me, it's hard not to feel that the gas companies have won.  And dear readers, I'm having a really hard time coming to terms with that.

Satellite imagery shows destruction caused by gas well drilling in Marcellus Shale

Recently, Jay Langham, a concerned resident of Washington County, PA authored a photo essay on the gas well activity in his area.  Combining his own images with those freely available from Google Earth, Langham does an excellent job illustrating exactly how Marcellus Shale extraction is forever altering the landscape of these communities.  Since many of the images are taken from Google's satellite photography, the breadth of environmental destruction will be shocking to those who may have only seen the sites from nearby roads or land.  In some cases, Langham notes that some nearby residents were seemingly unaware of the landscape's destruction as some sites are not easily visible.  To view the pdf document of Langham's photo essay, please click HERE.

Please note that you will need (free) Adobe Reader software to view this document.  Most pcs already have this installed but if yours does not, click HERE to get the download.

Exactly how is Marcellus drilling impacting PA residents?

If you missed this article by Hannah Abelbeck, please take the time to read it now.  Ms. Abelbeck does a fantastic and thorough job of investigating the myriad of ways drilling is impacting our land, water supply, health, and our local economies--many of which are heavily dependent on tourism dollars.


Marcellus drilling transforms the state
By Hannah Abelbeck
As the scale and pace of Marcellus gas well drilling picks up, people in rural Pennsylvania are learning how to fight traffic jams, research deed histories, encounter the FBI, self-monitor streams and light their tap water on fire.

Innovations in drilling technology have fueled the rush to extract natural gas from the Marcellus shale, a geological formation that underlies 70 percent of Pennsylvania and portions of Centre County.

The gas rush is on, and money is fueling all of it. Companies and lending institutions willing to invest the big money needed up front want a fast return, resulting in quicker and more intense drilling in rural areas desperate to save their sluggish economies. Residents are signing leases, desperate to supplement sagging incomes. Workers, hungry for jobs, hope to sign up for long, dangerous work days, if they can get them. And the industry promotes the benefits and downplays the costs of massive speculation, while opposing regulations that might shrink profit margins.

Meanwhile, the environment, health, and financial well-being of Pennsylvania residents is at risk like never before.

“I don’t think anybody realizes how big and ridiculous this whole situation is,” said Dave Bailey when describing what he and his neighbors have experienced in the last two years. All of his neighbors on Hedgehog Lane, a rural street in Bradford Township, McKean County had their private water wells contaminated when one company drilled and fractured 26 non-Marcellus wells near their homes two years ago.

“I’m not opposed to domestic drilling,” said neighbor Lorrie Trumbull. “What we don’t like is shoddy workmanship.” The layer of concrete that is supposed to seal the well bore from sources of underground drinking water was not properly installed on several wells, say the neighbors.

Marcellus wells are scattered over two-thirds of Pennsylvania. The 29 wells in Centre County are concentrated in a band north and west of State College.

Two neighbors had well water with so much methane they could light it on fire. One of them was Bailey. When the water in his pipes contained 89 percent free gas, he and his family had to move into a hotel for three months to avoid an explosion. Running his washing machine still sets off his gas detectors sometimes, he said. Although he was told it was safe to shower, the two or three times they tried, members of his family had rashes and burns.

Getting the problem fixed has been an ongoing headache. After the Pa. Department of Environmental Protection found the Schreiner Oil and Gas Co. responsible, the company vented Bailey’s well so that it wouldn’t explode. It didn’t solve the methane problem, so they drilled him a new well into the same water source. Then they had Culligan install a filtration system in his house, which did not remove the methane. In February DEP finally ordered the company to provide a permanent solution.

Bailey said the company plans to install a whole house osmosis system that uses lots of energy, takes up half his basement, and includes no maintenance plan. From the beginning, Bailey said, the residents have requested they be connected to the municipal water system.

Water isn’t the only problem. Schreiner’s drilling partner, Aiello Brothers Oil and Gas, built a gas processing plant, a so-called “stripper plant” right behind their houses. Trumbull said her house has filled with gas fumes several times. Bailey said he once went through two weeks of constant gas alarms.

What really bothers the neighbors is that Aiello’s New Century Pipeline Group built the plant dangerously close to their houses without a permit and in violation of zoning ordinances. The Bradford Township Zoning Hearing Board unanimously voted to deny the company’s last appeal and ordered it to remove the stripping plant altogether in February. The company is appealing the decision to the McKean County Court of Supreme Pleas and continues to operate.  Click HERE to read the remainder of the article & view accompanying photographs.

East Resources Inc Questions Basis for PA Department of Agriculture Cattle Quarantine

PRNewswire
East Resources, Inc. today released the following statement regarding the order issued by the Department of Agriculture to quarantine cattle on the Tioga County farm owned by Don and Carol Johnson in Shippen Township, Tioga County. East performed a hydraulic fracturing operation on a horizontal Marcellus shale gas well drilled on the farm that the Johnsons leased to East.

On May 2, the Department of Environmental Protection notified East Resources about a possible leak from a temporary water impoundment located at the Johnson 435-1H Well Site. The impoundment contained a mixture of fresh water and flowback water from a hydraulic fracturing operation on the well. Flowback water was first introduced into the impoundment on April 9.

East immediately initiated an investigation and remedial activities that were conducted in coordination with the Department. We immediately fenced off the pasture area impacted by the leak, and the impoundment was dewatered on May 3. By May 5, the wet soil in the impacted area had been removed from the site.

By May 7, the impoundment was closed in its entirety. Water from the former impoundment as well as water collected in the release area was removed, effectively eliminating the potential of future impacts. The liner, all wet soil below the liner, and the soils taken from below the impoundment were removed and staged in secondary containment prior to disposal at an authorized and permitted landfill.

In coordination with the Department, East collected and analyzed water and soil samples from the impoundment, the area in the nearby pasture affected by the leak, and numerous other areas in the vicinity of the impoundment. The water and soil samples were evaluated for background conditions and to assess possible impacts using methods with quantitation limits consistent with Act 2 Statewide Health Standards. None of the soil samples contained concentrations of compounds of concern in excess of established PADEP Act 2 residential Statewide Health Standards.

The site was reclaimed, and samples were subsequently collected and evaluated to confirm that the source of the leak was removed and the impacted area was remediated. East had successfully completed the remediation of the site by eliminating the leak, removing the source, and removing the areas of concern. No further remediation was necessary.

With regard to the imposition of a quarantine on the Johnson's cattle by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, everything that East has seen from the results of soil and water sampling conducted at the request of the Department indicates no reason for any concern of adverse impacts to the Johnson's cattle or to public health.

East received a letter from the Department of Agriculture explaining its justification for the quarantine on June 24, 2010. East questions the basis for the quarantine, and we have contracted with an independent toxicologist to evaluate the Department's rationale for imposing the quarantine. East is also concerned that the quarantine imposes an unnecessary burden on the Johnson's farm operations.

East expects to receive the toxicologist's report shortly.

East Resources, Inc. is an independent oil and gas producer in the Appalachian and Rocky Mountain regions of the United States. East is one of the most active oil and gas explorers in the Appalachian region and is making significant investments in the responsible development of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale. The company holds approximately 900,000 gross acres of Marcellus Shale rights in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New York, and it employs more than 355 office and field personnel with approximately 60 employees in Tioga County.

East Resources, Inc.

Dept of Agriculture quarantines cattle at Wellsboro farm due to containment leak

Cattle From Tioga County Farm Quarantined After Coming in Contact with Natural Gas Drilling Wastewater

HARRISBURG, Pa., July 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Department of Agriculture announced today that it has quarantined cattle from a Tioga County farm after a number of cows came into contact with drilling wastewater from a nearby natural gas operation.

Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said uncertainty over the quantity of wastewater the cattle may have consumed warranted the quarantine in order to protect the public from eating potentially contaminated beef.  "Cattle are drawn to the taste of salty water," said Redding. "Drilling wastewater has high salinity levels, but it also contains dangerous chemicals and metals.  We took this precaution in order to protect the public from consuming any of this potentially contaminated product should it be marketed for human consumption."

Redding said 28 head of cattle were included in the quarantine, including 16 cows, four heifers and eight calves. Those cattle were out to pasture in late April and early May when a drilling wastewater holding pond on the farm of Don and Carol Johnson leaked, sending the contaminated water into an adjacent field where it created a pool. The Johnsons had noticed some seepage from the pond for as long as two months prior to the leak.

The holding pond was collecting flowback water from the hydraulic fracturing process on a well being drilled by East Resources Inc.  Grass was killed in a roughly 30- x 40-foot area where the wastewater had pooled. Although no cows were seen drinking the wastewater, tracks were found throughout the pool. The wet area extended about 200-300 feet into the pasture.

The cattle had potential access to the pool for a minimum of three days until the gas company placed a snow fence around the pool to restrict access.  Subsequent tests of the wastewater found that it contained chloride, iron, sulfate, barium, magnesium, manganese, potassium, sodium, strontium and calcium.  Redding said the main element of concern is the heavy metal strontium, which can be toxic to humans, especially in growing children. The metal takes a long time to pass through an animal's system because it is preferentially deposited in bone and released in the body at varying rates, dependent on age, growth status and other factors. Live animal testing was not possible because tissue sampling is required.

The secretary also added that the quarantine will follow the recommended guidelines from the Food Animal Residue Avoidance and Depletion Program, as follows:

Adult animals: hold from food chain for 6 months.
Calves exposed in utero: hold from food chain for 8 months.
Growing calves: hold from food chain for 2 years.

In response to the leak, the Department of Environmental Protection issued a notice of violation to East Resources Inc. and required further sampling and site remediation. DEP is evaluating the final cleanup report and is continuing its investigation of operations at the drilling site, as well as the circumstances surrounding the leaking holding pond.

Issued: Thu Jul 1, 2:39 pm
Media contact: Justin Fleming, 717-787-5085
SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture

Right-to-know request reveals hundreds of spills at PA drilling sites by nearly 100 different companies

Hazards posed by natural gas drilling not always underground

By Laura Legere, Times Shamrock Writer

Published: June 21, 2010

Fear about environmental damage from Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling is often trained on what could happen deep underground, but some of the gravest hazards posed by the process are driven in trucks, stored in tanks, carried through hoses and left in pits on the surface of natural gas well sites.  Concentrated chemicals, as well as wastewater containing toxic levels of salts and metals, are stored, produced or transported in large quantities at each well site, creating the potential for tainting drinking water or seeping into local ponds and streams.  While recent incidents at Marcellus Shale wells involving explosions, blowouts and methane contaminated drinking water have drawn attention to the dangerous potential of the activity, information about the industry-wide frequency and impact of spills and leaks has not been reported publicly.

Department of Environmental Protection files made available to The Times-Tribune through a Right-to-Know Request reveal hundreds of examples of spills at natural gas drilling sites in the state during the last five years, recorded by at least 92 different drilling companies.  The documents show that many of the largest operators in the Marcellus Shale have been issued violations for spills that reached waterways, leaking pits that harmed drinking water, or failed pipes that drained into farmers' fields, killing shrubs and trees.  The frequency of violations have kept the state's gas inspectors on the run.

After a Marcellus Shale hearing last week, DEP produced a list for state legislators of 421 violations found by inspectors at Marcellus Shale wells this year through June 4.  At least 50 of the violations - recorded by 15 different Marcellus operators - involved a spill to soil or water. Generic descriptions used by the department to characterize the violations make it impossible to determine the exact number of spills.  "It goes from an accident to negligence," DEP Secretary John Hanger said at the hearing, and attributed the problems to "poor management" and "not proper oversight" by the companies.  "This industry's got to look in the mirror," he said.

Kathryn Klaber, the director of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, a Pennsylvania industry group, said shale drilling is an industrial activity, like many others.  "Any spill is a problem," she said. "For PR (public relations) reasons, for fines, for reputation, stock price - there's no good reason to have one."  But, she added, "I think if we were looking across multiple industries ... the question I'd like to pose is, is it worse or better than others?"

The following list highlights examples of spills, seeps and accidents as described in DEP documents that have been committed by an array of Marcellus Shale operators.  It illustrates that none of the companies currently pulling gas from the shale has been able to avoid potentially harmful accidents and errors.

Spills and leaks near a state forest

An accident at a Marcellus Shale well in early June caused a geyser of gas and wastewater to erupt for 16 hours on property owned by a private hunting club in the middle of a state forest frequented by campers and anglers.  The well is one of 44 permitted or pending Marcellus Shale wells operated by Houston-based EOG Resources on the hunting club land in Clearfield County, and the nearly catastrophic rupture was a dramatic demonstration of the hazards of natural gas drilling.  But months before that incident, a seemingly invisible plume of contamination affected water sources around the same EOG lease, prompting months of investigation by DEP.

Beginning in late August 2009, inspectors found evidence that Marcellus Shale waste fluids had impacted Alex Branch, a wild trout stream and high-quality fishery, and damaged the drinking water at a nearby hunting camp, where water tests found barium that was four times above the state and federal drinking water limits - an amount that can cause vomiting, diarrhea and muscle weakness after drinking it for even a short period of time.  DEP inspectors had not noticed any evidence of a spill from the nearest EOG well site and could see nothing wrong with the earthen pit where the company stored the well's waste, but it was determined that undetected seeps from one pit, and maybe several, most likely caused the wastewater to contaminate the stream.

An accident in early August may also have contributed to the damage when a small hole in a hose carrying wastewater from the well sprayed a fine mist for several days that landed on nearby plants and a small wetland. A heavy rain swamped the pad, likely washing the fluids downhill to the hunting camp and stream.

In response to the leaks, EOG excavated the suspected faulty pit and another nearby pit, backfilled other unused pits on the lease and transitioned to a system in which drilling fluids and waste drawn from a well are piped to closed tanks rather than pits, which helps to minimize the risk of seeps and overflows. In an e-mail to DEP, the EOG environmental safety administrator said the company would transition to the safer systems, which are not required by Pennsylvania law, because "we don't want to risk anything."

In a separate incident, on Oct. 12, 2009, a leak in a tank used to store a fluid mixture of water and hydraulic fracturing chemicals spilled about 7,980 gallons, most of which was absorbed into the ground.  It caused a nearby tributary to Alex Branch to turn cloudy and suds when agitated.  An EOG spokeswoman said the company "regrets these incidents occurred and took immediate steps to address the issues," including adopting new operating procedures and hiring outside contractors to perform water sampling after both events.

Acid leaks and unlabeled tanks

Twice in two months, hydrochloric acid spilled at two wells sites operated by Chesapeake Appalachia in Bradford County - including once when the company used a tank that was not meant to store the acid.

Alarmed notes from an inspector's telephone conversation with the tank's manufacturer at the time of the first spill, at the Chancellor well site in Asylum Twp. in February 2009, showed the tank was not designed or lined to hold 36 percent hydrochloric acid, and that even less concentrated acid should only have been held for a day and a half.  "Somebody messed up big time to put 14,000 gall. 36% HCL in a frac tank for 30 days!!" the note stated.

DEP records also show the same inspector pursuing concerns about the proper labeling of the tank, which was one among between 25 and 50 identical 500-barrel, corrugated wall storage tanks on site without placards to differentiate it.  "It's bad enough dealing with unlabeled 55 gallon drums in our line of work," he wrote in an internal e-mail, "but having to contend with unlabeled 21,000 gallon acid 'frac' tanks in the boondocks, on properties that have unrestricted access, is a bit much."

The second acid spill, at the Vannoy well site in Granville Twp., may have contributed to the contamination of a private pond and a 30-foot swath of dead or stressed vegetation, including several evergreen trees.  The 420-gallon acid spill was one of several accidents at the site DEP thought might have caused the damage, including a spill of several thousand gallons of water on March 3, 2009, that was never tested for metals and salts, the hallmark constituents of Marcellus Shale wastewater.

The acid spill, on March 20, also flowed into the pond. Chesapeake neutralized the acid and removed the contaminated soil, but a cleanup plan commissioned by the company in December said some of the acid likely percolated through the pad and may have remained perched on the shallow bedrock causing additional contamination.  In July, DEP inspectors found stained areas at the base of a waste pit where the company left rock cuttings and drilling fluids in direct contact with the ground, and said the stain was a sign that drilling fluid "either has or is seeping from the pit."

DEP fined Chesapeake $27,271.93 and its hydraulic fracturing contractor BJ Services $8,598.46 for the second hydrochloric acid spill in February 2010, a fine the agency never announced publicly.  Brian Grove, Chesapeake's director of corporate development, said the company "responded proactively to both situations" and "learned very valuable lessons from the incidents." It turned those lessons into new operating practices, including requiring secondary containment for all materials brought to a pad, he said.

Hydrochloric acid on public roads

A worker for Fortuna Energy (now called Talisman Energy USA) drove a tanker leaking hydrochloric acid about 2½ miles over public roads between two of the company's well sites in Troy Twp., Bradford County, on June 30, 2009.  At the second site, the driver, wearing an acid-resistant suit and a respirator, tried to put a catch pan under the leak, passed out from inhaling the fumes and was taken by helicopter to Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre. The tanker lost between 100 and 200 gallons of acid and contaminated soil was later removed from both sites.  Talisman did not report the spill to DEP until late the next day, a delay DEP officials called "unacceptable."

A February 2010 press release from DEP announced a $3,500 fine for some incidents at one of the pads involved with the acid spill, but it did not address that spill. It also did not address three drilling wastewater spills in July and August 2009 on the same two well pads.  Efforts to reach a Talisman spokesman were unsuccessful. In the company's written response to DEP after the acid spill, the operations manager said it "takes the issue very seriously" and he visited each well site to emphasize to workers "the importance of our zero spill approach."

Mud eruption in a wetland

Crews for Chief Gathering - the pipeline subsidiary of driller Chief Oil and Gas - were boring a path for a pipeline 13 feet under a stream, wetland and road in Penn Twp., Lycoming County, on December 12, 2009, when the muds used to drill the hole erupted to the surface, spilling between 3,000 and 6,000 gallons into the wetland.  Initial reports from the company estimated the spill to be only about 100 gallons and to have stopped at least 10 feet away from the stream, but the DEP inspector who was called two days later found sandbags and a silt sock right at the water's edge and the barrier did not prevent some of the mud from reaching the stream.

Efforts to clean up the spill were slowed, first because the muds clogged the suction hoses the company used to try to remove it from the wetland, and later because the fluids froze solid.  While he was on site, the inspector also saw evidence of muds in a roadside ditch and was told that there had been another, unreported spill on December 10 of about 110 gallons.  The inspector noted that chemical safety sheets provided by the company for the mud, "Hydraul-EZ," listed the ingredients bentonite, a kind of clay, and a "bentonite extender," but the manufacturer "claims that any further details about these substances is proprietary" making it "difficult" to determine the potential of the mud to cause pollution.

Kristi Gittins, a Chief spokeswoman, said that the spilled mud is "not hazardous. It's dirt."  "There were no chemicals, and the DEP knows that," she said.  The remedy for such a spill is to "let it settle," she said, which is what the company was told to do.

Overflowing waste pit 1

More than 30,000 gallons of diluted wastewater overflowed a waste pit, rushed over a barrier and soaked a pasture on June 3, 2009, when workers transferring the fluid to the site owned by East Resources in Tioga County accidentally dumped too much into the pit.

The spill was first noticed by DEP inspectors, who happened to stop by the well pad.  The fluid was diluted enough, and cleaned up quickly enough, not to kill or stress vegetation, and the fluid did not appear to reach a stream.

The pit was among four at East Resources well sites in Tioga and Potter counties that discharged the wastewater they were holding. The three other pits all leaked and at least one was concentrated enough to kill or stress nearby vegetation.  East is finalizing a consent order with DEP that covers those and about 30 other violations at its sites, according to a violation notice posted on a DEP database that indicates the company will pay a $29,000 fine.

Stephen Rhoads, East's director of external affairs, said the spill was an "unfortunate accident" with no long-term impact.  "Working with DEP, we took care of it immediately," he said.

Overflowing waste pit 2

A 750,000-gallon pit holding a mixture of fresh water and wastewater overflowed off a well pad run by Atlas Resources in Washington County, through a drain and into a small tributary in a high quality watershed on December 5 and 6, 2009.

The spill was reported to DEP by the property owner, who noticed the spill before Atlas saw or reported it. It apparently was caused by a pump that turned on automatically but had no mechanism for turning off automatically when the pit was full.

The spill, for which the company has not been fined, is one of several violations the company has recorded in southwestern Pennsylvania. In January, DEP fined Atlas $85,000 for violations at 13 well sites between December 2008 and July 2009, including improper erosion controls and site remediation, and spills of diesel fuel and wastewater.

In late March, on the same Hopewell Twp. farm as the pit overflow, liquid hydrocarbons called condensate on the surface of a 400,000-gallon wastewater pit caught fire, engulfing the pit and burning its plastic liner, causing a plume of black smoke that was visible for miles.  Atlas, a Pennsylvania company, also drills non-Marcellus Shale natural gas wells, including one near Kushequa, McKean County which DEP found to have caused explosive levels of methane and ethane to seep into residential water supplies and triggered a small explosion in the village's public well in late 2007.

Efforts to reach an Atlas spokesman were unsuccessful.

Hydraulic oil leak

An oil leak from a hydraulic line in March 2008 spilled onto a field and into natural springs surrounding a Range Resources - Appalachia well in Washington County. The oil mixed with water and flowed 100 yards downhill, contaminating soil and killing vegetation.

Range excavated the contaminated soil and paid a $21,200 fine in June 2009 for the spills at that site and for 16 other violations, an enforcement action that was never publicized by DEP.  DEP also investigated whether a Marcellus Shale well drilled by Range on the same property affected an old abandoned well, causing gas to contaminate private water supplies and bubble up through the soil.

Matt Pitzarella, a Range spokesman, said the gas migration was a preexisting issue that was only discovered once Range's activities started on the site. The company capped and remediated the old well, he said.  The oil leak he called a mechanical error, and said the other violations included many that were administrative.

"Fortunately it was an incident that had minimal if any environmental impact, but you have to take care of every little detail," he said.  "Since that time we've increased efforts to keep spills on location."

Two months, two diesel spills

Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. had two 800-gallon diesel spills in five weeks in 2008 at some of its earliest Marcellus Shale sites in Dimock Twp.

On June 3, off-road diesel spilled from a break in a fuel line to a drilling rig, ran down a hill and into a roadside swale and pooled in a flooded wetland near Meshoppen Creek.

On July 11, a dump truck driver working to build an access road to a well backed into a 1,000-gallon tank of off-road diesel, panicked and dragged the tank about 30 feet before it tipped over and spilled onto the ground. Crews dug pits and vacuumed up about 170 gallons of the visible diesel, then removed contaminated soil and stone from the site. When two of nine soil tests showed continued contamination, contractors dug a foot deeper and excavated more soil. A total of 272 tons of contaminated soil was taken from the site.

The company was fined $4,915.30 for the first spill after the site was cleaned up.  According to DEP records, Cabot was never fined for the second spill.  Cabot spokesman George Stark said the company "works hard to ensure that we have a plan in place to control and maintain any accidental release."

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Contact the writer: llegere@timesshamrock.com

In only 3 days...PA State Police's Operation FracNET nets nearly 2000 traffic citations and warnings.

State Enforcement Blitz Focuses on Trucks Hauling Drilling Waste Water

250 Vehicles Put Out of Service Due to Violations

HARRISBURG -- The Pennsylvania State Police placed 250 commercial vehicles out of service during a three-day enforcement effort last week that focused on trucks hauling waste water from Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling operations across the state, Commissioner Frank E. Pawlowski announced today.

Pawlowski said state troopers worked in partnership with personnel from the Department of Environmental Protection, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission and the federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration as part of Operation FracNET. In total, 1,137 trucks were inspected from June 14-16.

“Pennsylvania has experienced significant increases in heavy truck traffic in areas where Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling operations are taking place, particularly in Bradford, Clearfield, Susquehanna, Tioga and Washington counties,” Pawlowski said. “The process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, requires significant amounts of water to be delivered to the sites and later trucked away.”

He said the enforcement effort centered on identifying commercial vehicle safety deficiencies that could lead to crashes.

Pawlowski said 131 of the 250 vehicles placed out of service were trucks hauling waste water. He said 669 traffic citations and 818 written warnings were issued as the result of waste water truck inspections. In addition, 23 of the 45 drivers placed out of service during the operation were waste water vehicle operators.

“As activities at natural gas sites continue to increase, it is important that everyone involved, including the waste transportation industry, understands Pennsylvania’s environmental and traffic safety laws and complies with them,” said DEP Secretary John Hanger.

The enforcement effort was conducted in areas covered by Pennsylvania State Police troops B, C, F, P and R.

Editor’s Note: The following is a breakdown, by state police troop area, of the number of inspections conducted, number of vehicles placed out of service, and number of citations issued during Operation FracNET:

• Troop B (Allegheny, Fayette, Greene and Washington counties), 227 inspections; 57 vehicles placed out of service; 241 citations issued;
• Troop C (Clarion, Clearfield, Forest, Elk, Jefferson and McKean counties), 260 inspections; 29 vehicles placed out of service; 111 citations issued;
• Troop F (Cameron, Clinton, Lycoming, Montour, Northumberland, Potter, Snyder, Union and Tioga counties), 239 vehicles inspected; 33 vehicles placed out of service; 205 citations issued;
• Troop P (Bradford, Sullivan, Wyoming and part of Luzerne counties), 166 inspections; 66 vehicles placed out of service; 358 citations issued;
• Troop R (Lackawanna, Pike, Susquehanna and Wayne counties), 142 inspections; 25 vehicles placed out of service; 141 citations.

For more information, visit www.psp.state.pa.us or call 717-783-5556.

Media contact:  Lt. Myra A. Taylor, 717-783-5556
Link to release: DEP.

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
Dept. of Environmental Protection
Commonwealth News Bureau
Room 308, Main Capitol Building
Harrisburg PA., 17120

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
06/23/2010