Fed Court Rules PA Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Anadarko Proceeds
In May 2012 a water truck driver delivering water to an Anadarko Marcellus Shale well pad in Clinton County, PA missed a turnoff for the road he was supposed to take, at 2:30 am in the morning. A couple of miles later he crashed and tragically died because the road he was on was not marked well and not conducive to the truck he was driving. There was a sign warning the driver not to go beyond a certain point. The driver had previously–that night–already delivered to the well pad and successfully turned onto the road he was supposed to take. Why did he miss it the second time? His widow maintains that even though he worked for a subcontractor, Anadarko was the company in charge and should have had a light illuminating the “No Anadarko Traffic Beyond This Point” sign. So she sued Anadarko, and the subcontractor, for wrongful death. Lower courts threw out the lawsuit but a federal appeals court has just reinstated a civil suit against Anadarko that will go to a jury…
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We’ll let you decide whether the recent action by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is in line with being a good regulatory watchdog, or with being a mafia Don, using the power of the government to shake down a drilling company. On Sept. 15, 2011 as Chesapeake Energy was drilling the Stinger 8H well in Aleppo Township (Greene County), PA, in an area known for its landslides–they experienced (yes) a landslide. The landslide created sediment that plugged about one-fourth of a mile of seven “streams” so tiny they don’t have names–essentially drainage ditches. The seven drainage ditches, when they have water in them, flow into a very small creek called Harts Run. In return Harts Run, which crosses the border into West Virginia, eventually empties into a slightly bigger creek called Pennsylvania Fork Fish Creek, which eventually empties into Fish Creek (slightly bigger again), which eventually empties into the Ohio River–on the other side of WV where it borders with Ohio. There is zero chance any of the sediment made it beyond Harts Run, let alone all the way to the Ohio. But still, it’s not a good thing if you’re not “careful” to prevent what the Guvment believes you should be able to prevent. Chesapeake, since that time (over four years ago), has essentially fixed the problem–spending millions to do so. Apparently there’s a little bit of work left to do. The PA DEP comes along and yesterday announced that Chesapeake has agreed to pay the DEP a whopping $1.4 million fine for this four year-old accident, as well as do a bit of tidying up of the drainage ditches. Here’s the kicker–Chessy doesn’t even own that well any more…
Not long after she took office, Pennsylvania’s Democrat Attorney General, Kathleen Kane, brought criminal charges against XTO Energy for an accidental spill in Lycoming County, PA that happened two years before she was in office (see 
In April 2013 MDN reported on the tragic death of 56-year-old Bruce Phipps from Marietta, OH who was working at a Eureka Hunter “pig” (Pipeline Inspection Gauge) receiving station near near Wick (Tyler County), WV (see 
On Monday MDN told you about an accident in Sweden Township (Potter County), PA where JKLM Energy released soap into a water aquifer while trying to fish out a broken drill bit from a Utica Shale bore hole (see 
A truck driver hauling coiled tubing (pipe) used for fracking had an unfortunate run-in with a railroad overpass in Columbiana County, OH. The railroad bridge running over State Route 558 in Fairfield Township is just 13 feet high. The coiled tubing on the back of the truck was higher, and the driver didn’t realize it. So when he went under the overpass, it literally pulled it off and dumped it across the highway. Oops…
It’s always a sad day when MDN has to report on the death of a worker related to the Marcellus/Utica Shale. On Tuesday, Ricky Dettman was operating a bulldozer on a steep grade in Tioga County, PA working on installing a pipeline for Energy Transfer Partners when the bulldozer rolled over, several times, killing Ricky. We’re not sure exactly which pipeline project it is Ricky was working on, but its a 36-inch pipeline (a big pipeline) that will flow Marcellus and Utica Shale gas, according to the PR agency working for ETP. Below are four news accounts of the accident. They all have slightly different accounts, including a discrepancy on Ricky’s age–he was either 54 or 55 years-old. Ricky hailed from Nebraska…
There was a rupture of a gas pipeline at a Jay-Bee Oil and Gas drill pad in the Big Run area of Tyler County, WV early Friday morning. There was no explosion, and no one was injured–but there was a fire and the fire could be seen for miles in the dark early morning. The fire from the ruptured pipe (cause still being investigated) burned for an hour before it was extinguished. The wells on the pad are currently shut-in while the WV Dept. of Environmental Protection investigates. This is not the first Jay-Bee accident in the Big Run area…